Gadameilin

Gadameilin ( _zh. 嘎达梅林, 1892-1931) was a Mongolian leader who led a struggle for the protection of the Kharchin grasslands (in the present-day Tongliao City)of Inner Mongolia from desertification in the 1929.

Military leader

Gada held the official post of "meilin" under Zasaak, the prince of Darhan. In the spring of 1929, the prince, following the instructions form his Han overlords (Zhang Zuolin, et al.), adopted policies which resulted in the loss of herdsmen's land, and sold a part of the grassland to the Han Chinese. He also dismissed Gada from the post of "meilin".

Revolt

When Gada led a delegation of appeal, he was imprisoned in Shenyang by Zhang Zuolin's army. His wife "Peony" was able to effect Gada's escape through prison break in the night of 13 November 1929. He then organized the squabbling clans of the region and led an armed uprising against the feudal lord Zhang Zuolin, but many of his followers deserted him, and finally he was defeated and killed.

In popular culture

On the basis of oral song traditions, the story of Gada "meilin" developed into a long narrative poem of about 600 lines that was published in 1950. In 1980, a version with over 2000 lines was published.

The Mongolian folk song, "Gadameilin," has been translated into Chinese, and is fairly popular in China. It is still prohibited from broadcast on radio or TV, but is now available on CDs and at karaoke bars. Its Chinese version starts:

"Nanfang feilai di xiao hongya ya, bu luo Changjiang, bu ya, bu qifei,"
The little wild geese flew from the south, but cannot restart flying without resting by the Changjiang River
"Yao shuo qiyi di Gadameilin, wei liao Menggu ren di tudi."
(It was Gadameilin who revolted, so to protect the Mongolians' earth.)

Gadameilin is considered to be the national hero of Inner Mongolia. In 2002, Xiaoning Feng directed a movie based on the life of Gadameilin, but depicted his revolt as against the Japanese invaders who took the Mongolian's earth. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367765/]

References

* [http://www.jstor.org/view/01567365/di980639/98p0193r/0?frame=noframe&userID=[e-mail]/01c0a84874005059875&dpi=3&config=jstor Collin Mackerras, Traditional Mongolian Performing Arts in Inner Mongolia, Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs]