The China Nationality Museum announced plans to create an
archive system of ethnic cultural relics in order to better protect
the country's ethnic minority culture.
"The museum will collect and rescue cultural relics of the
country's 55 minority ethnic groups during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010)," said
a source with the museum.
While ethnic minorities account for less than 10 percent of the
country's total population, their contributions to Chinese culture
and history are essential to preserve. An increasing number of
traditions belonging to these groups are disappearing due to rapid
social and economic development, and many ethnic cultural relics
lack proper protection.
China collected over a million ancient ethnic books and
published more than 5,000 between 2001 and 2005, but the museum
aims to broaden the scope of these protection efforts.
Twenty-one ethnic groups in China have their own written
languages. Although there are currently more than 100,000 ethnic
language translators, most of them have not received professional
training, statistics show.
China Ethnic Language Translation Center is working to train
these translators in order to standardize the study of ethnic
languages.
(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2007)