Ning Ao

Prior to joining the Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies at Lund University, I studied English literature at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and St Andrews University. I obtained my BA in English from XJTLU and MSc in Asian Studies from Lund University, where I am working on a doctoral project provisionally titled “The Making of Inner Mongols: Performativity, Ethnicity, and Nationalism in China”.

My PhD project applies a multimethod qualitative method and seeks to examine how the Chinese state’s ethnopolitics shapes Inner Mongolia and how Inner Mongols perceive their national identity and (re)-engineers Mongolness in a nationalizing Chinese nation. Specifically, it will explore three related questions: 1) (how) have Inner Mongols been able to sustain a vibrant ethnic minority community? 2) how do Inner Mongols balance ethnic survival and personal achievement under the dual pressure of the state’s assimilationist policy and the growing irrelevance of the lived ethnic experience in a market-driven society? 3) how do different generations of Inner Mongols vary in their ethnic performativity and ethnic and national self-identification?