Tibetani o Cinesi? Le elites culturali del nuovo millennio

What does it means to be a Tibetan in contemporary China? Today this question receives little attention from Western media, which still focuses more on the struggles of the exile communities for keeping alive some traditional conceptions of Tibetan identity. After the Tibetan uprising in 2008, a new debate around both the Tibetan question and the Tibetans’ identity, aspirations and discontents has risen up in China, with the participation of some independent intellectuals among the Han majority and – especially – several representatives of the well-educated urban class Tibetans. These people are actively engaged in discussions and negotiations of a spontaneous Tibetan ethnic identity within the parameters set by the central government and by the local executive powers. The article introduces the College of Tibetan Studies in one of the leading Chinese university for national and ethnic studies. Through the strains of a small group of Tibetan educators, the College today attracts a large amount of students from Tibetan regions in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. These young people are expected to have a leading role in Tibetan societies, since their educational degree is considerably high in regions with one of the highest national rates of illiteracy. By presenting a few findings from the direct contact with the students, the article is aimed to attract the attention for the questions of collective Tibetan identity in contemporary China, as well as of the way how a young Tibetan negotiate its own place in a modern and globalized social culture.