The great Mongol Conqueror Genghis Khan carved the biggest land empire in history. He is been dead for the 8 centuries now but for the Chinese leadership, the name Genghis Khan still evokes a lot of fear. Watch report.

Part of campaign against ethnic Mongols: Chinese meddling halts Genghis Khan

A French museum won backing from scholars on Tuesday for its decision to halt an exhibition about Mongol leader&nbsp;Genghis&nbsp;Khan because of a censorship attempt by the Chinese government.

The history museum in the western French city of Nantes announced Monday that it was delaying the opening of the exhibition about the legendary founder of the 13th-Century Mongol Empire by more than three years.

Preparations for the show, planned in collaboration with the Inner Mongolia Museum in Hohhot, China, ran into trouble after the Chinese Bureau of Cultural Heritage pushed for changes to the original project plan, "including notably elements of biased rewriting of Mongol culture in favour of a new national narrative", the Nantes museum said.

The Chinese authorities demanded that certain words, including "Genghis&nbsp;Khan," "Empire" and "Mongol" be removed from the exhibition, and later asked for control over exhibition texts, maps, brochures and communication, the museum said.

The dispute coincides with a tougher Chinese line against ethnic Mongols, who account for about 6.5 million of China's 1.4 billion inhabitants and mostly live in the northern province of Inner Mongolia.

The province has seen weeks of protests and school boycotts over a policy requiring schools to teach politics, history, and literature in Mandarin rather than the local language.

"The Chinese regime bans historical narratives that don't match its official narratives. And tries to do the same abroad," tweeted Valerie Niquet, an Asia specialist at France's Foundation for Strategic Research.

Antoine Bondaz, a research fellow at the foundation, also backed the museum's decision on Twitter, calling the reported Chinese demands "crazy".

"The Nantes museum and Hohhot museum had good working relations until Beijing changed its policies and tried to impose its narrative abroad," he added.

The "hardening this summer of the Chinese government's position towards the Mongol minority" prompted the halt of the exhibition, the museum said.

"We decided to stop this production in the name of the human, scientific and ethical values that we defend," museum director Bertrand Guillet said in a statement.

The show, which was to open next week, had already been pushed back to the first half of 2021 because of the coronavirus crisis.

But the museum said it was now "forced to delay this exhibition until October 2024".

This would give it time to build a new exhibition, featuring works from European and American collections.

A French museum won backing from scholars on Tuesday for its decision to halt an exhibition about Mongol leader Genghis Khan because of a censorship attempt by the Chinese government.

A French museum won backing from scholars on Tuesday for its decision to halt an exhibition about Mongol leader Genghis Khan because of a censorship attempt by the Chinese government. The history museum in the western French city of Nantes announced Monday that it was delaying the opening of the exhibition about the legendary founder of the 13th-Century Mongol Empire by more than three years. Preparations for the show, planned in collaboration with the Inner Mongolia Museum in Hohhot, China, ran into trouble after the Chinese Bureau of Cultural Heritage pushed for changes to the original project plan, "including notably elements of biased rewriting of Mongol culture in favour of a new national narrative", the Nantes museum said. The Chinese authorities demanded that certain words, including "Genghis Khan," "Empire" and "Mongol" be removed from the exhibition, and later asked for control over exhibition texts, maps, brochures and communication, the museum said. The dispute coincides with a tougher Chinese line against ethnic Mongols, who account for about 6.5 million of China's 1.4 billion inhabitants and mostly live in the northern province of Inner Mongolia. The province has seen weeks of protests and school boycotts over a policy requiring schools to teach politics, history, and literature in Mandarin rather than the local language. "The Chinese regime bans historical narratives that don't match its official narratives. And tries to do the same abroad," tweeted Valerie Niquet, an Asia specialist at France's Foundation for Strategic Research. Antoine Bondaz, a research fellow at the foundation, also backed the museum's decision on Twitter, calling the reported Chinese demands "crazy". "The Nantes museum and Hohhot museum had good working relations until Beijing changed its policies and tried to impose its narrative abroad," he added. The "hardening this summer of the Chinese government's position towards the Mongol minority" prompted the halt of the exhibition, the museum said. "We decided to stop this production in the name of the human, scientific and ethical values that we defend," museum director Bertrand Guillet said in a statement. The show, which was to open next week, had already been pushed back to the first half of 2021 because of the coronavirus crisis. But the museum said it was now "forced to delay this exhibition until October 2024". This would give it time to build a new exhibition, featuring works from European and American collections.

French museum postpones Genghis Khan exhibit after Chinese interference

The depiction of Mongols as invaders in a new PlayStation 4 game has stirred furore in China, and has sparked debates around nationalism in the country.

The game titled "Ghost of Tsushima"&nbsp;has received backlash online. Based in 13th century, the game depicts Mongol invasion of Japan, and shows the former as vicious foreign invaders.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/elon-musks-upcoming-neuralink-will-let-you-beam-music-directly-into-the-brain-314879" hreflang="en">Elon Musk's upcoming 'Neuralink' will let you beam music directly into the brain</a>

The Japanese, on the other hand, are shown as heroes defending their own country. The game is set on the island of “Tsushima”.

Game creates ripples in China

The titular character, Jin Sakai, travels through Japan preying on Mongols, and engages in physical altercations with them.

Even though the game is set far off from China, people in the country have expressed disapproval of the game’s depiction.

This is what the game looks like:

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Ghost Of Tsushima's PHOTO MODE is pretty cool, especially with how AMAZING the open world looks like. 
 
Here are my favorite scenic shots that I took. 
 
It also helps me practice my Compositions for IRL, hahaha! 📸<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GhostsofTsushima?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GhostsofTsushima</a> <a href="https://t.co/5cr4XyFVOq">pic.twitter.com/5cr4XyFVOq</a>
— GLOCO🎣🎮 (@GLOCOgaming) <a href="https://twitter.com/GLOCOgaming/status/1285508810409312258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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However, Mongols have played a considerable role in the history of China. They became the first ethnic group besides the Han Chinese to take control over the country and maintaining it for over a century.

The Chinese critics believe that Mongols who occupied China should be now considered&nbsp; Chinese.

Japan is largely perceived as enemy territory for it had invaded China before World War 2.

Users get in!

As reported by the South China Morning Post, a user extended his support to the Mongols on Chinese iteration of YouTube called Bilibili. The user also referred to the Japanese with a slur.

“I stand with the Mongols, [slur for Japanese] can crawl”, it roughly translated into.

Another user on a Chinese content portal called Zhihu observed how this remains a plot where the Japanese are murdering Chinese.

“This is a game where the Japanese are killing Chinese. Mongols are one of the nomadic groups of north China. Very much like the Han Chinese, they are”, this one said.

Many users rang in a nationalist rhetoric and urged Chinese people to not play the game, and leave it to the foreigners. “Chinese shouldn’t join in on the fun”, a user said.

Many don't agree

Some gamers were also quick to mocking such observations, saying they saw nothing problematic with the plot construction of the game.

Read what one user on Twitter had to say

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It seems that some people are really trying to find reasons to hate on Ghost of Tsushima. Probably because you can’t release anything these days without someone trying to create controversy where there isn’t any. It’s a samurai action game. It’s not that deep.
— Oliver Jia (オリバー・ジア) (@OliverJia1014) <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverJia1014/status/1283800730764103681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The furore has also been mocked on Japanese portals. For instance:

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Ghost of Tsushima "controversy" gets openly mocked by the people of Japan on multiple Japanese websites hahah<a href="https://t.co/jMJx4sWHcV">https://t.co/jMJx4sWHcV</a> <a href="https://t.co/5KoOc7rJ53">pic.twitter.com/5KoOc7rJ53</a>
— HeroHei (@_Hero_Hei_) <a href="https://twitter.com/_Hero_Hei_/status/1284219831470845952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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A user on Zhihu wrote, “the war [during that time] was the general form of aggression”, while saying all kinds of invasion is wrong. The right thing to do is to resist, the user further suggested, while referring to them as basic moral concepts.

One attempted to straighten out the scenario by saying that both sides’ invasion of each other was wrong, while adding “we should hate all such war acts” instead of targetting just the Japanese people.

The depiction of Mongols as invaders in a new PlayStation 4 game has stirred furore in China, and has sparked debates around nationalism in the country. The game titled "Ghost of Tsushima" has received backlash online.

The depiction of Mongols as invaders in a new PlayStation 4 game has stirred furore in China, and has sparked debates around nationalism in the country. The game titled "Ghost of Tsushima" has received backlash online. Based in 13th century, the game depicts Mongol invasion of Japan, and shows the former as vicious foreign invaders. Also read: Elon Musk's upcoming 'Neuralink' will let you beam music directly into the brain The Japanese, on the other hand, are shown as heroes defending their own country. The game is set on the island of “Tsushima”. Game creates ripples in China The titular character, Jin Sakai, travels through Japan preying on Mongols, and engages in physical altercations with them. Even though the game is set far off from China, people in the country have expressed disapproval of the game’s depiction. This is what the game looks like: Ghost Of Tsushima's PHOTO MODE is pretty cool, especially with how AMAZING the open world looks like. Here are my favorite scenic shots that I took. It also helps me practice my Compositions for IRL, hahaha! 📸#GhostsofTsushima pic.twitter.com/5cr4XyFVOq — GLOCO🎣🎮 (@GLOCOgaming) July 21, 2020 × However, Mongols have played a considerable role in the history of China. They became the first ethnic group besides the Han Chinese to take control over the country and maintaining it for over a century. The Chinese critics believe that Mongols who occupied China should be now considered Chinese. Japan is largely perceived as enemy territory for it had invaded China before World War 2. Users get in! As reported by the South China Morning Post, a user extended his support to the Mongols on Chinese iteration of YouTube called Bilibili. The user also referred to the Japanese with a slur. “I stand with the Mongols, [slur for Japanese] can crawl”, it roughly translated into. Another user on a Chinese content portal called Zhihu observed how this remains a plot where the Japanese are murdering Chinese. “This is a game where the Japanese are killing Chinese. Mongols are one of the nomadic groups of north China. Very much like the Han Chinese, they are”, this one said. Many users rang in a nationalist rhetoric and urged Chinese people to not play the game, and leave it to the foreigners. “Chinese shouldn’t join in on the fun”, a user said. Many don't agree Some gamers were also quick to mocking such observations, saying they saw nothing problematic with the plot construction of the game. Read what one user on Twitter had to say It seems that some people are really trying to find reasons to hate on Ghost of Tsushima. Probably because you can’t release anything these days without someone trying to create controversy where there isn’t any. It’s a samurai action game. It’s not that deep. — Oliver Jia (オリバー・ジア) (@OliverJia1014) July 16, 2020 × The furore has also been mocked on Japanese portals. For instance: Ghost of Tsushima "controversy" gets openly mocked by the people of Japan on multiple Japanese websites hahahhttps://t.co/jMJx4sWHcV pic.twitter.com/5KoOc7rJ53 — HeroHei (@_Hero_Hei_) July 17, 2020 × A user on Zhihu wrote, “the war [during that time] was the general form of aggression”, while saying all kinds of invasion is wrong. The right thing to do is to resist, the user further suggested, while referring to them as basic moral concepts. One attempted to straighten out the scenario by saying that both sides’ invasion of each other was wrong, while adding “we should hate all such war acts” instead of targetting just the Japanese people.

PS4 game depicting Mongols as invaders stirs furore on Chinese portals

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