Ethnic Minority Education in China: Finding a Path between Tradition and Development

Ethnic Minority Education in China: Finding a Path between Tradition and Development

Introduction

Educating a nation is no simple task. Even in the United States—which boasts a substantial tradition of public education, political stability, economic prosperity and a strong middle class—issues such gender and racial equality, diversity, and budget reality still cause continuous debate. For a nation like China, the task of educating its people is even more daunting. China has a population of 1.3 billion, an economy that is still developing, and thus even more stringent budget constraints. And although abandoning command economics for the free market in 1977 allowed double-digit economic growth through the 90’s, the now-uneven distribution of wealth (an inevitable result of capitalistic reforms) makes equality of access to education even more pressing of an issue. Not only is it now more difficult to achieve consistency in educational opportunity across the country, but in today’s information-driven economy, the effects of inferior education can also create a vicious cycle of poverty within a particular region.

Complicating the issue further is the incredible variance in the styles of living and languages spoken by people in China. Although a common misconception is that China is an ethnically homogeneous country, this could not be further from the truth. Besides the majority Han (defined as the descendents of the Han empire ) there are 55 nationally recognized minority ethnicities who speak an estimated 80 to 100 different languages and follow numerous different religions. Some have become intergrated into the Han population, such the Manchus, who adopted Mandarin and Confucianism when they ruled China in the Qin...

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