The Complex Structure of Ethnic Conflict in the Frontier: Through the Debates around the ‘Jindandao Incident’ in 1891

Toward the end of the Qing dynasty, Inner Mongolia became the main destination for bankrupt Chinese peasants from interior China. With the increase in numbers of Chinese immigrants, conflicts between Mongols and Chinese intensified as Chinese struggled for more benefits and Mongols tried to maintain their traditional social order. In 1891 a Chinese secret society called Jindandao massacred tens of thousands of Mongols in the mixed Mongol–Chinese regions of eastern Inner Mongolia. The survivors fled to the pastoral areas south of the Hingan mountains, propelling the agriculturalisation of these regions and the refiguration of the local societies.