Language Policy and Illiteracy in Ethnic Minority Communities in China

Analysing language education policy for China's minority groups in its entirety

“…These three represent minority groups with respects to such factors as geographical location (see Figure 3) and degree of integration with the Han, the majority nationality. Each of the three represents one type of 'minority communities' as defined by Zhou (2000; according to the history of utilisation of writing systems for native languages and their access to bilingual education: with Uyghur categorised as a Type 1 community; Yi as a Type 2 community; and Zhuang as a Type 3 community. For more background information for the three cases, see Feng & Sunuodula (in press).…”

Multilingual Education in China: Taking the Situation of Guizhou Minority Areas as an Example

“…Dong minority group belong to Type 3 community according to Zhou (2000), which only has spoken language and no pre-existing written scripts before 1949. They are mainly distributed to the mountainous west of China, and more than half of them reside in Guizhou, one of the poorest of all the Chinese provinces.…”

Minority Language Policy and Practice in China: The Need for Multicultural Education

“…In the 1950s, the Chinese government established autonomous governments in minority regions and helped eliminate illiteracy in the minority regions. Both the Han officials and local minority officials were trained in minority languages (Zhou, 2000). In addition, policies for creating writing systems for minority groups who had no written language systems were developed.…”

“…languages during the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution (1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976), and tolerance of minority language starting from the late 1970s (Zhou, 2000(Zhou, , 2004. In the 1950s, the Chinese government established autonomous governments in minority regions and helped eliminate illiteracy in the minority regions.…”