Oirats in China

What are the cultural situations of the returnee Oirats/Torghuts in China today? Separated not only by time but also by distance, and coming under two modern superpowers, the Kalmyks and Oirats/Torghuts look out to each other for both kindred spirits and inspiration. Of smaller scale, this sub-project is designed to complement the main project in Kalmykia by providing comparative Oirat cultural material from China. Since there are many dispersed Oirat communities in China, the result of a deliberate Qing policy to destroy their political unity, we will sample several communities: Chengde in Hebei, Ejene and Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, and Bayangol, Bortala, Hovogsair in Xinjiang. This will facilitate comparison of the degree of their cultural endangerment measured by the distances they are located from Beijing, the Chinese political centre.