The propaganda department of China’s State Council, its central government, last
week released a white paper on “Governance of Xizang in the New Era.” Though the
term “Tibetan” is used to refer to the region’s people and geographical features
like the Tibetan Plateau, Xizang is used exclusively when referring to the
southwestern region’s official name. “The Chinese government was desperate
enough to propagate Xizang to create a Tibet of Chinese characteristics which is
unknown to the world,” Tenzin Lekshay, a spokesperson for the Central Tibetan
Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile, said of Beijing’s report.
Lekshay said the Sino-Tibet conflict was long-running and that changing the name
would complicate rather than improve the situation.
the name Western colonialists gave a territory because Western brains would get hurt
This is one of those cases where we really need to know the wishes of the people in question before we make assumptions.
Case in point: Myanmar. “Burma” is the British colonial name, however it is preferred by some of the freedom fighters fighting the Tatmadaw because “Myanmar” is associated with the Junta’s regime. And the real/pre-colonial name varies because the old name Myanma Pran is associated with a specific ethnic group, the Burmese.
This is one of those cases where we really need to know the wishes of the people in question before we make assumptions.
Case in point: Myanmar. “Burma” is the British colonial name, however it is preferred by some of the freedom fighters fighting the Tatmadaw because “Myanmar” is associated with the Junta’s regime. And the real/pre-colonial name varies because the old name Myanma Pran is associated with a specific ethnic group, the Burmese.
Freedom fighters funded by the US, with an office in Washington? Odd how it’s always Western-funded parties that want to maintain colonial names…