Ethnic minorities' bilingual life in modern China

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Jiang Meiying, a woman from the Drung ethnic group in her 40's living in a far-flung village in southwest China's Yunnan Province, can speak languages of the Drung and Lisu ethnic groups, as well as Mandarin.

Born at Dulongjiang village in Yunan province, she speaks the language of the Drung ethnic group, one of the smallest ethnic groups of China, with around 8,000 people.

In her own words, she is lucky compared with her peers, as she had the opportunity to attend junior middle school where she learned Mandarin.

After marrying her husband, who is from the Lisu ethnic group, she moved to Puladi village along the Nujiang River, also in Yunnan Province. Since then, she has learned to speak the language of the Lisu ethnic group.

As her village became more open to the outside world since the "West Development" campaign started 10 years ago, an increasing number of tourists have visited her village and Jiang talked to them in Mandarin to solicit business for her mini-van.

"Though my Mandarin is not very standard, speaking it is a much easier way to communicate with the outside world," Jiang said.

"My two children, who study in cities, can speak more fluent Mandarin than I, but at home, we still speak Lisu language," she added.

Jiang believes that speaking Mandarin is a necessity for her and her children to adapt to the more commercialized and modern society, while the Lisu language carries on her family tradition.

Feng Yonghua, a 21-year-old girl of the Lisu ethnic group living in the same village as Jiang, shared Jiang's view.

Feng speaks very fluent Mandarin. She once worked in Guangzhou City, south China's Guangdong Province, where she ran a small shop. "Without speaking Mandarin, it's very hard to find a job in other provinces," Feng said.

Yunnan Province alone has 25 ethnic minorities, each with a population of more than 5,000. About 15 million people in the province are ethnic minorities. The complex geographic situation has added difficulties in promoting Mandarin in the province.

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