ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 discussed how Mongolia’s nomad is constructed and perpetuated as the exotic Other (cf. Edward Said’s Orientalism). It examined various media used to sustain this image of the romantically exotic but ultimately inferior Other. Chapter 4 focuses on the ways this essentializing trope is created in tandem with a national Mongolian master narrative that similarly regards Mongolia as a land of nomads. This chapter examines closely how Mongolian nomadic identity is produced performatively in response to outsiders’ appetite for something exotic and different. The theoretical framework is informed by Judith Butler’s discussion on performativity and the ways in which cultural identity is socially constructed and performed for a social audience.
