China, Multicultural Education in

Ethnic Minorities in China

China is a united multiethnic nation with different spoken and written languages. Excluding the Han, [Page 343]there are 55 different ethnic minority groups with a total combined population of about 123 million people, which accounts for 9.44% of the total population. Ethnic autonomous areas take up 64% of the total land, including five autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures, 120 autonomous counties (or “banners”), and 1,356 ethnic townships.

Children listen to the teacher in the Zhang minority village of Huangluo in China's southwest Gangxi province, September 14, 2003. Some 36.8% of southwest China is made up of minorities, and the region contains almost 50% or 45 million of China's entire “minority nationality” population. They are made up from Chinese Tibetan, Thai, and Burmese peoples and are distinct by their colorful dress and multitude of festivals held throughout the year which are used mainly as a way of courtship between men and women.

Source: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images.

Of the 55 ethnic minority groups, except for the Hui and Manchu who use the Chinese language, 29 have their own languages, but it is estimated that there are more than 100 languages being used by China's 56 ethnic groups (including the Han people). Only 15 ethnic groups had their own written script in 1949. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government created 16 written languages for 12 ethnic minority groups.

The dominant theory concerning ethnicity in China is “ethnic pluralism within the organic unity of the Chinese nation,” proposed by anthropologist Xiaotong Fei. He believed that the Chinese nation should remain politically consolidated and culturally diversified.

Ethnic Minority Education in China

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the ruling class of each dynasty and government formulated and implemented policies concerning ethnic minority education to meet their own political needs. For example, emperors in the Ming and Qing Dynasties regarded developing education in border areas, usually occupied by non-Han Chinese, as a basic policy for stabilizing the nation. They established various kinds of educational institutions to transmit aspects of China's classic learning. During the Republican period (1911–1949)—and inspired by Dr. Sun Yat-sen's idea of “the Republic of the Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, and Tibetan”—the government established an education department for the Mongolian and Tibetan nationalities. However, the disadvantageous natural and social conditions in minority areas inevitably led to low productivity and low levels of educational achievement. Some minority areas practiced education only in monasteries and mosques, and very few had modern primary and middle schools. If areas did have modern schools, they were mainly opened for students from wealthy families. According to statistics shown in China's Ethnic Statistical Yearbook, there were no formal institutions of higher education in minority areas before 1949. The enrollment rate for school-aged children remained extremely low. In 1949, the enrollment rate in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was only 10%, and in Tibet it was 2%. During the 1930s and 1940s, the illiteracy rate of 22 minority groups was more than 95%. Even the Korean, Mongolian, and Ozbek populations had an illiteracy rate that ranged from 40% to 60%.

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