Language Policy and Illiteracy in Ethnic Minority Communities in China

Abstract

This study examines statistics on minority illiteracy from the 1990 Chinese national census across age groups in relation to China's changing language policy among three types of minority communities: (1) those with writing systems of historically broad usage; (2) those with writing systems of historically limited usage, and (3) those without functional writing systems. China's language policy as a whole has had the strongest negative impacts on illiteracy reduction in type 2 communities, which may have stronger group identity and social resistance to the use of Chinese, but no regular bilingual education. The change towards a Chinese-monopolistic policy harmed illiteracy reduction, especially in type 1 communities with a smaller Chinese-speaking minority population. The recent change towards pluralism has thus far shown mixed results in all three types of communities.