Genghis Can’t: Exhibition closed over Chinese demands to not use words ‘Genghis Khan’

Director says ‘we made this decision to stop this production in the name of the human, scientific and ethical values that we defend’

The Genghis Khan equestrian statue, the world’s largest equestrian statue, in Tsonjin Boldog, near Ulan Baator (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

A museum in France said it decided to postpone an exhibit about the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan citing interference by the Chinese government, which has accused it of trying to rewrite history.

The Chateau des ducs de Bretagne history museum in the western city of Nantes said it was putting the show about the 13th century leader on hold for over three years.

In a statement on Monday, the museum's director, Bertrand Guillet, said "we made the decision to stop this production in the name of the human, scientific and ethical values that we defend."

It alleged the Chinese authorities demanded certain words, including "Genghis Khan", "Empire" and "Mongol" be taken out of the show. It also said that they asked for power over exhibition brochures, legends and maps.

It comes as China takes a tougher stance against ethnic Mongols, many of whom live in the northern province of Inner Mongolia.

The exhibit was planned in collaboration with the Inner Mongolia Museum in Hohhot, China.

Tensions arose, the Nantes museum said, when the Chinese Bureau of Cultural Heritage pressured the museum for changes to the original plan, “including notably elements of biased rewriting of Mongol culture in favour of a new national narrative.”

The museum branded the changes “censorship” and said it underlined a “hardening … of the position of the Chinese government against the Mongolian minority”.

Additional reporting by Associated Press