ABSTRACT
In 2009, a video on YouTube went ‘viral’ in Mongolia. It showed a young woman’s hair being shorn, a culpable-looking man sitting by her side, his head in his hands. The centrality of women’s sexuality in matters of national security is not specific to Mongolia. The position of women in Mongolia also differs in significant ways from other post-socialist settings. Mongols are keen to emphasise that Mongolian women, unlike other Asian women, are ‘free’. The disappearance of Russia as protector led to the emergence of a pervasive climate of insecurity and to the proliferation of rumours concerning China. The relentless inculcation of a sense of impending doom, barely avoided extinction and precarious survival undoubtedly goes a long way to explain the current climate of mistrust and anxiety concerning China. In the Mongolian social body rumours consistently paint Mongols as victims, requiring constant resistance against threatening others.
