Book Launch: Amdo Lullaby

Learn more about Tibetan children in China’s borderlands at the exciting launch of Amdo Lullaby: An Ethnography of Childhood and Language Shift on the Tibetan Plateau, a captivating new read by Associate Professor of Anthropology Shannon M. Ward.

The book is based on fifteen months of ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork in Amdo, a region of Tibet politically incorporated into mainland China. Approaching the ethnographic context of Tibet as an example of settler colonization, Amdo Lullaby interrogates the relationship between the loss of Tibetan languages and the depopulation of Tibetan homelands through urbanization, the resettlement of nomads, and the creation of consolidated boarding schools in urban centres.

By following the contrasting language learning trajectories of children growing up in their rural homeland, as well as those who have moved to the capital city, this book demonstrates that children are not passively abandoning their mother tongues for Mandarin. Instead, children are reformatting the traditional cultural associations among language, place, and kinship as they encounter new language varieties.

Dr. Ward will give a short reading followed by a Q and A session. Some copies of the book will be available for purchase. Everyone is welcome and snacks will be provided.

The event is co-hosted by the Anthropology Program of the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies and the Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library.