An Evaluation on the Effect of China’s Policies for Ethnic Minorities’ Rights & Interests to Culture and Education
(The ResearchCenterfor Ethnic Issues inChina)
June 2009
1
Table of Contents
Foreword and Background
I. Evaluation on Policy Effect
(I) Policy Framework
(II) Policy Effect
II. Cause Analysis
(I) Problems in Practice
1. Cultural Continuity of Minor Minorities in Face of Challenges
2. Preferential Educational Policy in Face of Wide Doubts
(II) Cause Analysis
1. Assumption by Economists
2. How to handle the relationship between individual development and cultural continuity of ethnic groups
III. Suggestions on Innovation Activities: From social development history to cultural Ecology
1. In aspect of idea: Drive the shift of Majority’s Idea in Society from preference to mutual benefits
2. In aspect of system: To build the fair competition mechanism and complete the autonomous region law so as to ensure objectively and subjectively the fair continuity of the ethnic cultures and traditional knowledge.
3. In aspect of community: Grant powers to the grassroots communities at the ethnic areas to encourage those communities to initiatively participate in the project aids and decision making
Conclusion & Expectation
1
Foreword Background
China, as a multi-ethnic-united country taking shape during the thousands years of history, has been in demand since the ancient time to protect the ethnic minorities’ rights and interests to culture and education. However, the ethnic rights and interests at the ancient time and in nowadays represent in quite different means. This Paper is confined to the duration of the period since 1950s.
In 1949, the People’s Republic of China was founded at China’s mainland and the central government, since it was established, has done a lot of work in improving the status of the ethnic minorities and the rights and interest thereto. The work includes ethnic identification, investigation on the society and history of the ethnic minorities and the study on social formation. And the process is accompanied by the establishment of the autonomy system and the high institutes of education at the ethnic minority areas and the script formulation for those minorities. The period from 1949 to 1959 is the ten years during which the People’s Government of China had established the best relationships with the ethnic minorities at different areas. And such fact is admitted by all ethnic minorities. The policies made for ethnic minorities during the period laid a solid foundation for the development of ethnic relations in China in the later.
During 1957-1978, China had made a lot of radical policies including the socialist transformation in urban areas, the great leap forward (Da Yue Jin) in rural areas as well as the class struggle and the Cultural Revolution in the later time. Those events had resulted in serious impairment to China’s ethnic minorities and the majority. However, the autonomy system and the affirmative actions to assist the minorities to develop economy and education that were established for the ethnic areas in 1950s had not been changed in nature, instead, those system and policies were accompanied by the idea of class struggle, an idea deformed many situations in the entire country, and such deformation was required to adjust through the reform and the opening to the outside world.
China adopted the policy of Reform and Opening up in 1978, and the economic system shifted to the market one at the inland area and the policy emphasis was shifted to the economic construction from the class struggle, which also brought changes to the minorities and the ethnic areas correspondingly. The early stage of 1980s is an important period during which China’s policies for rights and interests to ethnic minorities had been reconfirmed and strengthened. For instance, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Autonomy at Ethnic Areas was formulated and promulgated in this period. With China’s successful reform of market economy and the increase in the economic strength, the Government has increased the fiscal investment in the ethnic minorities’ areas, and such fiscal investment and transfer payment accelerated the local infrastructure construction as well as the industrial and economic developments, and therefore, both the economic growth and the living standard at those areas were greatly improved.
The demands of the ethnic minorities for rights and interests are not limited to the economic aspect, the deterioration in cultural development of many ethnic minorities due to the modern economic impact is one of the concerns drawn China’s attention.
The Chinese ancestors believed that “poverty needs reform, and reform leads to an unimpeded way which, in turn, leads to the sustainable development[i].” Since the main difference between the ethnic minorities and the majority does not lie in the economic but in the social culture, it is out of time to assess the indicator of ethnic development simply with the economic growth. It is objectively required to continuously increase the weigh of cultural indicator in its policies for the development at the ethnic minorities’ areas. As the core of cultural indicator is the eco-balance of the multiple cultures, some Chinese scholars began to advocate the ideological shift from the social development history to the cultural ecology so as to advocate the cultural diversification and get rid of the linear development idea. One of the ways to shift the idea is education, especially that deepens the cultural ecological idea,
To cooperate with the United Nation Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in examining the contracting states’ execution, the ResearchCenterfor Ethnic IssuesinChina hereby submits the Evaluation Report on China’s Policy for Ethnic Minorities’ Rights and Interests to Education and Culture for reference.
I. Evaluation on Policy Effect
(I) Policy Framework
China’s policies for the cultural development at the ethnic minorities’ areas include the general and the specific connotations, the latter refers to the use of languages and scripts, the compilation and protection for cultural legacies, the establishment of cultural continuity and study institutes, etc., while the former also includes the state supports for establishing the press and the publishing, the radios and TVs as well as the activities of arts and sports, etc.
With regard to languages and scripts: It is stipulated in China’s constitution that “all ethnics shall have the right to freely use and develop their own languages and scripts.” Meanwhile, the minorities also have the right to handle the public affairs in the language that is generally used at the autonomous regions and the communities where the ethnic minorities gather. Furthermore, each ethnic shall have the right to use its own language in literary and artistic creation, audio and video broadcasting and publishing, etc.
With regard to compilation and protection for cultural legacies: The Chinese government has listed in its National Outline of Cultural Development and Planning during the Eleventh “Five-Year Plan,” and actively supports the projects of the ethnic minorities to apply for the non-material cultural heritage, the literary and artistic performances as well as traditional sport events, etc.
With regard to the establishment of cultural continuity and study institutes: The Chinese government has issued the supplementary policies and adopted measures to cultivate the cultural talents and establish the cultural continuity and study institutes at the ethnic minorities’ areas. At the same time, the government also assists the ethnic minorities’ areas to launch the cultural causes including establishing the press and the publishing, the radios and TVs as well as the activities in arts and sports, etc.
With regard to education: The ethnic minorities in China enjoy the right to receive education for the common citizens, and the Chinese government, besides issuing the policies under which the students at the ethnic areas (including those at the rural areas) can exempt from the tuition and the costs of books and supplies and receive subsidies if they are boarders, has also compiled the textbooks with the scripts of the ethnic minorities to protect their languages and scripts, established a lot of high institutes of education (HIEs) and the vocational-technological schools at the ethnic areas to support the educational development and cultivate talents at those areas. In addition, China has also adopted diversified educational means at Xinjiang and Xizang (Tibet) autonomous regions, those means include establishing the ethnic class, launching preliminary education and bilingual education in the common HIEs, etc. In recent years, China also adopts the measures to encourage the eastern areas to provide partner assistance to education at the ethnic areas in western China so as to promote the development of the ethnic education.
(II) Policy Effect
1. Cultural policies. 53 of the 55 ethnic minorities in China have its own languages (of which, Hui and Manchu ethnics share the language with the Han Chinese), and there are 28 kinds of scripts are used by 22 ethnic minorities. In accordance with the statistics by the office of the steering team for investigating the use of languages and scripts in China in 2000, among the 104 million people of ethnic minorities, over 60 million are still use their own languages in communication, those people account for 5.46% of the total population in China, and there are almost 30 million people use their own scripts; the people of ethnic minorities have created diversified literatures and arts in their own languages or with their own scripts.
With regard to the broadcasting and the publishing with the languages and scripts of ethnic minorities: There are 73 Broadcasting stations in the 155 autonomous areas all over China, those stations can broadcast 441 programs including 105 programs in the languages of ethnic minorities. There are 90 TV stations at the above areas that can telecast 489 programs, of which, 100 are in the minorities’ languages; there are 254,850 systems that can receive and transfer the satellite broadcasting and TV programs; there are 99 kinds of newspaper in the entire China that are published with the scripts of ethnic minorities, and 131，300，000 copies of those newspaper are printed in each year, there are also 223 kinds of periodicals with the annual circulation of 7，810，000 copies; At present, there are 32 presses that can publish the books with ethnic minorities’ scripts, those presses, accounting 5.4% of the total presses in China, distribute in 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the direction of the State Council. Those presses publish over 50 million copies of books in more than 4,000 kinds with over 20 scripts of the Mongolian, the Tibetan the Uyghur, the Kazakh，theKorean, the Yi, the Zhuang, the Xibo (Sib), he Kirkz，the Dai, the Jingbo, the Lisu, theWa, theLahu, the Hani, the Miao and theNaxi ethnics, etc[ii].
With regard to cultural activities, heritage protection and continuity: By 2006, there have been 9,658 culture institutes, 513 art performance teams (69 of which are ensembles of nationalities) and 188 art performance sites at the autonomous areas of ethnic minorities; There have been 163 museums, 81 folk art galleries, 642 houses of culture and 6,894 culture stationsiii. Since China signed the Convention of UNESCO Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritages in 1985, the Potala Palace (in Lhasa, Tibet) and the Old Town of Lijiang (Yunnan Province) and the Dongba Ancient Documents were listed in the schedule of “Memory of the World”[iii]; in 2004, China had signed the International Convention on the Protection for Intangible Cultural Heritages and in the next year, the 12-Mukam of Uyghur and the Mongolian long-tune folk songs are listed by the UNESCO as the typical works of the third lot of “Oral and Non-Material Cultural Heritages of Human.”
2. Educational Policies. In 2006, there have been 116 HIEs at the autonomous regions of ethnic minorities in China and 1.0655 students studying and living in those HIEs, accounting for 6.19% of the total boarders of the whole country. For the time being, over 100 HIEs in 17 provinces or autonomous regions (those HIEs are under the jurisdiction of 6 departments and committees of the State Council) have established the preliminary study class or special class for ethnic minorities and over 20,000 students are admitted in those classes in each year. The students of ethnic minorities at the frontier and remote areas may enjoy the right to preferential admission in the same condition or admission at lower scores against other students. In addition, there are 300 primary and junior middle schools have been established in Tibet under the aiding by 18 provinces or cities, 23 HIEs and other enterprises or institutes, and the 50 model senior high schools at 28 cities in 12 provinces have set up the special class for students from Xinjiang autonomous region. The Xinjiang students are 13,600 in number and almost all of them can study at the inland HIEs when they graduate from the above classes.
Higher Education: In 2006, there were 51,400 postgraduates of ethnic minorities in the HIEs, accounting for 4.65% of the total postgraduates in China.
Bilingual Education. In consideration of the particular situation, China’s education system accommodates the bilingual education of multi-kinds. China has compiled the bilingual textbooks that are suitable to the students of different ethnic minorities by organizing the minorities’ teachers at different places. There have been over 18,000 minorities’ teachers who are capable to teach bilingually in Xinjiang autonomous region, and there are 150,000 students of minorities in 5,000 bilingual teaching classes in total[iv].
Conclusion: The above policies are arranged to help the ethnic minorities approach actual equality from the legal definition. Although great effect has been obtained, there are more and more challenges concerning the ethnic minorities in practice. Those challenges include the problems concerning the diversified interior demands of the ethnic minorities and the link with the demands in the employment market after those students obtained the education opportunities according to the affirmative actions.
II. Cause Analysis
It is assumed in this Paper that China’s policies for safeguarding the rights and interest of the ethnic minorities to culture and education are in correct direction and the measures adopted by the government are forceful, too. However, due to the complex state situation, the social vicissitude and the highly complex demands of the ethnic minorities, it is necessary for China to meet problems in implementing those policies. Therefore, there is still large space for China to innovating and improving those policies. Since China has attached great importance to the policies of assisting the ethnic minorities to develop economy, and the cultural policies can be made by referring to the advanced experiences in the world and the international practices, this Paper only covers the educational policies and their implementation.
(I) Problems in Practice
1. Cultural Continuity of Ethnic with Small Population in Face of Challenges
In China, he government plays a significant role in the tight control over the ethnic minorities’ areas. However, the policies are implemented subject to the overall strength of the local ethnic minorities. In such circumstances, the policies, as far as the national education is concerned, can benefit the individuals only while overlook cultural demand of the groups, which, as a result, challenges the cultural continuity. Furthermore, the development of the cultures of ethnic minorities in some area is incented strongly by the benefits, therefore, the relevant policies and measures adopted by the governments are designed to accelerate the development of the local tourism economy, and the development and protection policies and measures are only for the selected cultures of the ethnic minorities, which leads to the failure to protect the cultures that are not selected, and the individuals and non-governmental organizations are unable to do what they want to do in the activities of cultural protection; at the same time, the cultural development that is incented by benefits increase the risks of the abnormal local vicissitudes of culture and mankind; therefore, the cultures of the ethnic minorities, instead of being duly carried forward, are confined by hidden means to a narrow space.
2. Preferential Educational Policy[v] in Face of Wide Doubts
First, the preferential educational policies are difficult in maneuvering: the policies of adding extra scores for students of ethnic minorities in the admission examinations are in controversy for there is no a uniform standard of score adding, therefore, the policies in different ethnic minorities’ areas are of remarkable difference. For instance, whether the same score shall be given to the candidates both in urban and rural areas; or the candidates of the same ethnic minorities, when living in different areas, shall be given the extra scores subject to the local standards or the ethnic categories? Is it right to add the same extra scores for students in different areas, and how to measure the stride or standards so that the policies for extra scores doesn’t deviate its original objective to pursuit of legal confirmation, etc.