네이멍구자치구[內蒙古自治區]의 민족문화공정(民族文化工程), 연혁과 전망

This article focuses on the Ethnic Culture-based Development Projects in Inner Mongolia from past two decades. These projects, sponsored by the Communist Party of China and the Inner Mongolian government, have been managed by the Department of Propaganda of the Inner Mongolian government and the Social Science Institute of Inner Mongolia. Although the Chinese government has made remarkable achievements in poverty reduction of residential areas of the minorities after the economic reform, since the late 1990s the Chinese government had to establish a new strategy for economic development in these regions. Culture-based development for ethnic minorities in China was adopted as a new initiative. In Inner Mongolia, this program, first implemented in 2002, has been underway for about 20 years. The culture-based development projects have been firmly related to tourism and security of Chinese borderlands, including steppes in Inner Mongolian. New Ethnic Culture-based Development Projects in Inner Mongolia, such as The Project for the Great Ethnic Cultural Area Construction (民族文化大區建設工程), The Inner Mongolian Steppe Culture Project (草原文化硏究工程), The Historical Research for the Northern Borderland Project (北部邊疆歷史與現狀硏究項目) and The Academic Research for the Cultural Area Construction of Inner Mongolia (民族文化建設硏究工程) contribute to our understanding of the background and purpose of China’s new strategy.