The bilingual education for Chinese Minority Ethnic Groups

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China is a multi-ethnic country. The Han nationality accounts for about 91.59 percent of the country’s population, while there are also 55 minority ethnic groups comprising the large and diverse country (GU, 2014). It is worth noting that these minority ethnic groups are very different in their respective populations. In order to protect their diversity and show respect for these minority ethnic groups, the Chinese government insists on protecting minority ethnic group’s rights to use their own languages and writing systems. For example ,the Common program of the 1st Chinese People’s Political Consultative conference states that “every minority has the freedom to develop their language and keep or change their customs and habits and religious beliefs” (GU, 2014, p. 606). This rule has been constantly reiterated in Chinese Constitution. Also, China has fully implemented the policy of regional autonomy. However, although minority ethnic groups are officially guaranteed the use of their native languages in ethnic autonomous regions, there are still great discrepancies between policy and practice. In China, a multi-ethnic country, how to properly deal with the relationship between the national official language of “Mandarin” and the languages spoken by minority ethnic groups is a complex and controversial issue. Therefore, I want to investigate the current situation of Chinese bilingual education in minority ethnic groups and uncover the problems or difficulties that occur during the implementation of bilingual educational policy. I will also provide some suggestions for the bilingual education in Chinese Minority Ethnic Groups by reviewing the literature of some other countries’ language policies in different contexts.

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Developing bilingual education is of great value for the development of minority ethic groups’ education but also for the improvement of the scientific and cultural level of the whole nation. We need to help minority ethnic groups protect their culture, but in the meantime we should also help them merge into the mainstream culture.