China’s minority written languages in crisis

By Tony Lambert, Director for Research, Chinese Ministries, OMF International

China has over 100 million “minority” peoples such as the Tibetans, Uyghurs, Yi etc. Virtually all these peoples have their own particular language (the Hui being the main exception). All are encouraged to learn Mandarin from primary school age, so most children and young people are increasingly bilingual. Many minority languages have written scripts—some like Tibetan and Mongol, ancient and well-established. Others, particularly in the southwest, have romanized scripts devised by missionaries during the early part of the 20th century, or more recently by Chinese government researchers.

The fate of these written languages must be of concern not only to the minority peoples themselves but to all those who are concerned to bring them the good news of Christ. How far are these minority scripts holding their own in the face of the overwhelming dominance of the Chinese language? Any young Tibetan or Zhuang wanting secondary education, let alone university training, knows they have to be proficient in Chinese. Increasingly, Mandarin is becoming a lingua franca in the markets of Lhasa and Kashgar, rivalling Tibetan and Uyghur. The long-term survival of some of these languages—especially smaller and scattered tribal languages in the southwest—does seem to be in doubt.

Reliable information about the status of minority written languages appeared in the April 2004 edition of China Ethnic News (Zhongguo Minzu Bao). The front-page article was ominously entitled “The Development of Educational Materials in Minority Scripts is at a Low Ebb.” The article reports that at a recent seminar to discuss the development and reform of minority education and educational materials, it was the “unanimous opinion” that “compared to the great support given by the government in the fifties to minority educational material and in the eighties to bilingual education, now the development of minority educational materials has slowed down and we are facing a crisis” (lit. “deep valley”).

The article continues:

RESOURCES FOR MINORITY LANGUAGE SCHOOLS HAVE DECREASED LEADING TO A DROP IN THE PRODUCTION OF MINORITY LANGUAGE TEACHING MATERIALS

The general level of quality of education in Korean-language schools [in northeast China] is not high. The great demands from society on those who undergo higher education to study Chinese has led many Korean students to switch over to Chinese-language schools. This was said by the head of the Institute for Korean Educational Materials. It is estimated that in Yanji City in Jilin Province there are more than 2,000 Korean primary school students studying in Chinese-language schools. Fewer resources have led to a decline in orders for educational materials in Korean. In 1997 the Yanbian Educational Publishing House, which is responsible for the translation and production of educational materials in Korean for all three northeastern provinces, printed 32,000 primary school textbooks for Yanbian in Korean. But in 2004 there was a sharp decline to only around 7,000 copies.

In the Liangshan region of Sichuan, the production of educational materials in Yi is also in steep decline in recent years. Families generally believe that their children need only Chinese to get on in life; if they study only Yi they can live and work only in Liangshan. For example, in 2000 the Yi-language schools in Sichuan were able to recruit only two-thirds of the students they had planned for. But in 2001 they were able to recruit only one-third. In 2002 the total number of copies of the Yi Reader ordered for use in the six grades of Yi primary schools was only 1,186.

In the cities of Inner Mongolia two-thirds of the Mongol students are in Chinese-medium schools. In the cities of Xinjiang nearly 90 percent of all Kazakh students have opted for Chinese-language schooling. Kirgiz primary schools are suffering the fate of merging with Chinese-language schools.

THE CONTENT OF MINORITY TEXTBOOKS IS DULL AND UNWELCOME TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ALIKE

Chemistry textbooks in Chinese have seen many new editions, but the chemistry book in Tibetan is still the old edition first translated in 1990. A Tibetan chemistry teacher in Qinghai complained that unlike the Chinese updated versions it still included outdated concepts. This phenomenon is quite common in minority language textbooks. The content is dull and outdated and remote from the actual experience of the particular minority and their region. Thus many teachers and students are very unhappy with their textbooks.
A primary school teacher in Sufu County in Xinjiang was giving a lesson about diving to his students and had to first draw a picture of a boat, because children in the desert had never seen a boat and had no concept of how a sailor could dive into the water. The general opinion of the minority teachers is that the general textbooks published by the People’s Educational Press are suitable for the Han Chinese areas. If students who live in areas where there are concentrations of minorities just use textbooks which have been uncritically translated [from Mandarin], then they will have serious difficulties in understanding. This is not aiding the transmission of their minority culture and history down to them.

A teacher at a minority middle-school in Tongren County, Qinghai, said: “The students are very interested in any content in the textbooks which deals with Tibetans, but there is very little.” Students in the second year of lower middle-school doing the Tibetan language and literature course have to study only four Tibetan literary works.

The most important reason for this situation is lack of funding. A translator in the section for translating textbooks into Yi in Liangshan, Sichuan, said: “Because we have no money, it is very difficult for us to investigate the cultural remains of our people. It’s also very hard to get feedback from Yi teachers and students. This has led to the virtual closing down of our translation work. So naturally the content of Yi textbooks is old-fashioned.”

LACK OF FUNDING—A HEADACHE FOR MINORITY LANGUAGE PUBLISHING

The development of teaching materials in minority languages suffers from lack of funding. After the establishment of New China [in 1949], the State subsidized textbooks in minority languages to a considerable extent. But now that State financial support has dropped off. But on the other hand there has been an increase in the different kinds of textbooks needed in minority languages which has made the shortage of funds even more noticeable.

Take the Xinjiang Educational Press as an example: the different kinds of textbooks published by this Press account for 70 percent of all the different kinds of book published in Xinjiang. But because there are many different titles but with low print-runs and selling at cheap prices this has created a loss. Before 1979 any financial losses were subsidised by the Xinjiang government. But since 1997 the Xinjiang Educational Press has been responsible for its own financial viability. Xinjiang is vast and road transport is expensive so they cannot send books beyond 500 kms and still make a profit. So the deficit in publishing minority text books is annually at least 18,000,000 RMB (US$2,500,000). So they rely on the sale of Chinese textbooks to make up the deficit. So “Using Chinese language to bolster the minority language publishing” has become a necessity.

Publishing of Tibetan textbooks in Qinghai also makes a loss although there is an annual governmental subsidy of 1 million RMB. This is because there are so many kinds of textbooks. To deal with the deficit, the publishing house has decided to print only books with a print-run of more than 300 sets. So at present there are at least 18 different textbooks which have been translated but have not been printed by the Press because the total numbers required are too few. Professor Deng at the Beijing Normal University says bitterly: “In fact, even if there are only ten minority children who feel textbooks in their minority language would be useful, we should provide them with them. Otherwise some minorities who live on both sides of the Chinese border will start using teaching material produced overseas. This would be very unhelpful for their education and development.” [China Ethnic News, 9 April 2004]

This article provides a fascinating insight into the state of education in minority languages in China. It suggests use of these languages—even major ones such as Uyghur and Tibetan—are in steep decline as the medium for education of the younger generation. Assimilation by the promotion of Mandarin obviously works in the interests of the central government to promote unity among the many different ethnic groups that make up the Chinese state. In the case of the larger groups (Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongol), strong religious and cultural differences will ensure the survival of these peoples as distinct entities even if future generations all speak Mandarin. The survival of smaller groups, especially those without a written language, or where the script is effectively moribund, is more problematic. The case of the Manchus is telling: their language effectively died out even before the Communist victory in 1949 and they were well on the way to being assimilated, although conserving some of their customs. Conversely, the provision of written scripts by Christian missionaries to such groups as the Miao and Lisu as well, as of basic education, did much to give a sense of identity to these downtrodden people and may have delayed assimilation. The gospel always comes as a liberating and ennobling force. (Ralph Covell’s book The Liberating Gospel in China gives detailed evidence of this.)

As production of books in minority languages in China falters because it is no longer a viable financial proposition, it may be that provision of Christian books and materials in these languages will be even more welcomed by many minority people. Although increasingly evangelism may be done using the medium of Mandarin, for many the gospel will only be effectively heard when it comes in their heart language. Books, tracts, radio programs, DVDs, films etc. are all needed in minority languages.

The relentless march of economic progress and of materialism, as well as the tidal wave of migrant labor from village to city, will do much to break down ethnic identities. China has become one vast melting-pot. Telecommunications and modern transportation have opened up the country providing unprecedented opportunities for the gospel to be taken to people “of every tribe and of every tongue.”

Copyright by OMF International 2004