Section 2 The Present Status of Yunnan’s Ethnic Mi...
Before 1949, Yunnan’s ethnic minorities were at different levels of social development.Remained closed and semi-closed for a long time resultedin difficult absorption of heterogeneous cultures, stagnation in social population, endogamous, hierarchical and religious marriageslikely leading to inbreeding. These innate traditional concepts, customs and habits are obviously not conducive to improving the quality ofthe ethnic population.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government has implemented a new ethnic policy to promote the development of disadvantageous ethnic groups. The government at all levels have made persistenteffort to help improve education so that all ethnic minorities would form a concept that their offspring with low intelligence and weak body would hinder their development, and only with developed intelligence and strong body can they stand rock-firm in the family of the nation. With this concept could equality, unity and prosperity of all ethnic minorities be achieved. Andthe prosperity of the whole nation could be expected. Only on the basis ofthis consensus will it be possible to carry out comprehensive governance with the improvement ofpopulation quality as the leading obligation. In practice,mass education and health care in ethnic areas have been vigorously initiated.Besides, taking into account the actual situation of each ethnic area, population policies in ethnic areas have been successfully tried out, and the quality ofthe younger generation has been improved.
At the same time, the state keeps introducing preferential policies to attract talents from various industries, such as science and technology, management, medicine and education, coming from economically developed coastal areas to ethnic areas for shortterm service or long-term work. This action has realized the flow of talents from advanced areas to backward areas, cultivated a large number of ethnic talents whichhas effectively made up for the shortage of talents, poor quality of the workforce, backward education and underdeveloped medical and health care in ethnic areas. The main purpose ofthe twoway flow ofpopulation from ethnic areas to developed areas is technical training, by which we can achieve the effect of training talents and improving the quality of workforce with lower cost, larger quantity and faster speed. In this way, the ethnic regions gradually receive advanced culture and concepts, and get naturally involved in the rapid development of economy,culture and other social aspects.
More than 70-year -effortwitnessed the long-term and arduous social and economic system project aiming at improving the quality ofYunnan’s minority population has begun to bear fruit. Evidences are as follows:
Firstly, the quality of the minority population has been improved. In recent years,the illiteracy rate has decreased significantly and years of schooling among the minority population has been extended.The average years of schooling for the population aged 6 and above are an important indicator to measure the cultural and educational level of the population. It is estimated,the average schooling of the minority population aged 6 and above in Yunnan in 2010 was 7.01 years, which was 1.31 years more than that of the fifth national census. In 2010, the number of illiterate people in eight autonomous prefectures of ethnic minorities - Chuxiong, Honghe, Wenshan, Xishuangbanna, Dali, Dehong, Nujiang and Diqing were 94,000, 315,000, 191,000, 121,000, 133,000, 90,000, 86,000 and 43,000 respectively. The illiteracy rate dropped by 4.29, 8.38, 6.30, 1.19, 3.29, 3.51, 6.77 and 11.25 percentrespectively compared with that ofthe fifth census.[1] However, at the same time, we should also see that, except for Chuxiong, Wenshan and Dali prefectures, the illiteracy rate ofother five autonomous prefectures ofethnic minorities is higher than the average level of Yunnan Province. The task of illiteracy eradication is still arduous, and there is still a long way to go to improve the literacy quality ofthe population. The proportion ofthe population with high quality education has also gradually been increased. The number of people with bachelor’s degree among 10,000 people is significantly higher than that ofthe fifth census.The number of people with high school and junior high school education among 100,000 people has increased, and the one with elementary school education has decreased. The education level of the population in minority areas has been promoted faster after Yunnan Province attached great importance to the work ofthe sixth census, which has prepared the culture and knowledge reserve for improving the education quality of minority population and enhancing the regional economic development.
Secondly, the economic situation of ethnic minorities has been further improved. The Belt and Road Initiative ensured the border serves as a channel for economic and cultural exchanges between China and the countries along the route, and a physical guarantee of national interests. Yunnan has regional advantages and becomes the southwest core of the Belt and Road Initiative. At present, the economic development ofYunnan’s ethnic minority regions is bettering off. In the current strategic context, the government has helped to solve the practical problems of economic development. Economic development strategies,infrastructure development, regional cooperation projects, and ecological protection are gradually being put in place in Yunnan’s ethnic minority regions. Yunnan’s ethnic minorities enjoy more benefits ofthe country’s rapid economic development, and their living standards are improving and their happiness index is rising.
Thirdly, cultures ofYunnan’s ethnic minorities are being protected and developed, but there are certain problems. Yunnan Province has always given prominence to the protection and inheritance of outstanding traditional culture of ethnic minorities, supported and encouraged the inheritance, innovation and development of outstanding ethnic traditional cultures. The provincial Party Committee and the provincial government closely care about the actual situation, creatively implemented the various deployments of the Party and the State on accelerating the development and prosperity of minority ethnic cultures, and successively formulated and introduced a series of policies and regulations to provide political guidance and financial support for the protection and inheritance ofthe outstanding traditional culture of ethnic minorities. Although some achievements have been made some major problems need to be solved due to the influence and constraints of various factors: First, traditional cultural resources of ethnic minorities is vanishing, such as ancient books of ethnic minorities; second,there is a fault line in the inheritance ofoutstanding traditional culture ofethnic minorities; third,the ecological environment and humane environment of ethnic minorities’ traditional culture has been damaged to different degrees; fourth, the contradiction between the preservation and development of outstanding traditional culture of ethnic minorities is increasingly apparent;fifth, the funding for the protection and promotion of ethnic minorities’ traditional culture is insufficient. The colorful traditional culture ofYunnan’s ethnic minorities is one of the major features ofYunnan province. Therefore, under the current situation, the cultural protection and development ofYunnan’s ethnic minorities is particularly ofgreat significance.
The population of Yunnan’s ethnic minorities is growing steadily, with continuous optimization ofits structure and major improvement in its quality. These tendencies have made it possible to lay a solid human resources and intellectual foundation for Yunnan to build a model zone ofethnic unity and progress, prosperity and stability on the frontier, to promote interaction and integration among various ethnic groups, and to write a new chapter ofcommon prosperity under the development trend ofthe new era. The improved living standards and the significant economic development ofYunnan’s ethnic minorities have made it possible for most of the regions to keep pace with the development of the times and the development of the country,while the ethnic minorities can get out of poverty and enjoy a happy life. Yunnan’s ethnic minority cultures need to be vigorouslypreserved and developed in order to keep alive.
【注释】
[1]All the demographical data is from the sixth census ofYunnan Province http://www.gov.cn/guoqing/index.htm .