Gada Meiren

Gada Meiren (Mongolian: ᠭᠠᠳᠠ ᠮᠡᠢᠷᠡᠨ ɣada meyiren, Гаадаа мэйрэн, simplified Chinese: 嘎达梅林; traditional Chinese: 嘎達梅林; pinyin: Gādá Méilín, 1892 - April 5, 1931) was the Mongol leader of a struggle and, eventually, an uprising against the sale of the Khorchin grasslands (in what is now Tongliao City of Inner Mongolia) to Han settlers in 1929.

As Jirim League was close to China proper, it was subjected to an enormous population pressure from the Chinese heartland.

Although not from aristocracy, his ancestors successfully became land owners when overpopulation forced the Mongols to shift from animal husbandry to farming.

The authorities of Liao-ning Province, then controlled by Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin, were about to launch cultivation projects, dividing the banner's last land into two areas, Hsi-chia-huang and Liao-pei-huang.

[2] The Chinese army was led by Li Shouxin (Buyandelger), an ethnic Mongol who later worked for the Japanese puppet state Mengjiang.

Soon after Gada Meiren's revolt was crushed, Liao-ning Province resumed their work to set up Liao-pei Country.

The end of cultivation of Hsi-chia-huang and Liao-pei-huang saved Khorchin Left Wing Middle Banner from abolition.

[3] On the basis of oral song traditions, the story of Gada Meiren developed into a long narrative poem of about 600 lines that was published in 1950.

The Mongolian folk song, "Gada Meiren" has been translated into Chinese, and is fairly popular in China.

In 2002, Feng Xiaoning directed a movie based on the life of Gada Meiren, but depicted his revolt as against the "Japanese invaders" who took the Mongolian's earth.