Theorizing Over 40 Years Personal Experiences with the Creation and Development of Minority Writing Systems of China

Abstract

The 55 officially recognized minority groups use over 120 different languages in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In the semi-feudal and semi-colonial situation of dynastic China, the minority groups did not have political recognition. They suffered discrimination, and were undeveloped both economically and educationally. They lived in extremely impoverished conditions. Only a few minority peoples had writing systems, many of which were mainly used in religion, with very few being used in education. The majority of ethnic minorities either did not have scripts or had incomplete writing systems. With a literacy rate of less than 5%, many groups could only record events by carving wood, knotting string, or counting beans. The founding of the PRC marked the end of ethnic oppression and discrimination, ushering in a new era of unity, harmony, and equality among ethnic groups as well as equality for all languages. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and PRC government formulated a series of guiding policies to protect the equal rights of minority peoples. These included the establishment of policies for minority languages and writing systems, in order to protect their use and to aid the cultural and educational development of minority peoples. After the founding of the PRC, the Central Government was determined to acquire a thorough understanding of the political, economic, and cultural needs of the minority peoples. They sent out delegations on many occasions into all the minority regions of China, expressing their concern for the needs of the peoples. They conducted research into the local situations, and solicited opinions from the minorities themselves. One of the pressing requests from the minorities was a desire for the Central Government to create writing systems for groups without writing systems for their languages, in order to help in their cultural and educational development. Some ethnic minorities presented these central delegations with banners which had no writing on them, as powerful symbols of their urgent desire to have their own scripts.