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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 20. 29th August 1973

Use of own language

Use of own language

In the minority areas, the newspapers are printed in the local language, central Government decrees are printed in all languages and officials from each minority group work among their own people as much as possible.

Planned parenthood is encouraged among the Han majority, but the minority groups are left to decide their own population. One of the reasons for this policy is that the minority areas are often underpopulated, and there is a need for more people to develop the land.

If a legal dispute arises which affects any member of the minority races, then he or she has the right to demand that the proceedings are carried out in the minority language.

The Government gives special encouragement to the minority groups, particularly in the educational and economic fields.

There are four universities for minorities and more than ten institutes for training cadres (officials) from the minority groups.

At the Central Institute for National Minorities in Peking, there are 1300 students, attending courses on the main Chinese language (so they can act as interpreters for their own people); political science and the study of Marxist classics; and the arts of their own cultures, including dancing, painting and music.

The great attention that is shown to these institutes is indicated by the frequent occasions on which Chairman Mao Tsetung or Premier Chou En-Lai visit them.

In the library of the Peking Institute, there are half a million books, 80,000 of them printed in minority languages. In addition, the library regularly receives minority language newspapers from every region.