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Kinship imaginaries of similarity and difference: gifts from Inner Mongols to Mongolia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Elizabeth Turk

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

In much of the world the intensification of nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic manifested itself as a desire for more strictly controlled borders. In this paper, however, we identify a ‘cross-border’ form of solidarity that emerged in Inner Mongolia, China. Here, ethnic Mongols share cultural and linguistic ties with people across the border in independent Mongolia. Through an analysis of Inner Mongolian media, we show how COVID-19 prompted a reimagining of these cross-border ties, in the context of Inner Mongolia's fraught ethnic politics, and concerns over assimilation which were heightened by education reforms in 2020. Even as Inner Mongols’ donations of money, foodstuffs, clothing and medical equipment were couched in a language of similarity and affinity, they were predicated upon and (re)created notions of difference. Ultimately, the donations also reproduced the developmentalist discourse of the Chinese state, whereby China was positioned as more developed than a ‘backward’, impoverished Mongolia.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Turk E, Ujeed U, White T

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Central Asian Survey

Year: 2025

Volume: 44

Issue: 4

Pages: 603-618

Online publication date: 28/10/2025

Acceptance date: 20/06/2025

Date deposited: 11/02/2026

ISSN (print): 0263-4937

ISSN (electronic): 1465-3354

Publisher: Routledge

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2025.2526463

DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2025.2526463

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