China's Rising Research Universities: A New Era of Global Ambition

4 China’s Ethnic Diversity and the Critical Role of Minzu University

Chapter four China’s Ethnic Diversity and the Critical Role of Minzu University A striking feature of campus life at Minzu University of China (MUC), also known as Central University for nationalities (Zhongyang Minzu Daxue in Chinese ), is the obvious commitment of the university to ethnic affairs. in addition to the vast diversity of the student body, where roughly 60 percent of the students come from ethnic minority backgrounds (approximately 70 percent of the undergraduates are ethnic minorities), cultural signposts around the campus point to the university’s commitment. For example, MUC is host to one of the nation’s largest ethnic minority museums. Also, the main entrance to the university is marked by one of its most treasured buildings—a concert hall known for high-quality musical productions reflecting the cultural diversity of the nation’s many ethnic groups.the university also offers separate dining facilities to accommodate the culinary needs and preferences of both Muslim and non-Muslim students, staff, and faculty. At MUC’s Chinese Corner, foreigners can mingle with native speakers and practice their Mandarin Chinese (Hanyu Putonghua), and some may be surprised to meet MUC students also working to improve their Mandarin. such students may come from the autonomous regions of tibet or Xinjiang, where their schooling quite likely was conducted in the dominant language of the region—such as tibetan or Uyghur. the university’s embracing of ethnic diversity is also evident in its academic Minzu University 125 programs and curricular offerings. For example, the following academic programs at MUC are all highly regarded, with some being classified as “national level,” meaning they are considered to be among the very best in the nation (a few are also well known within certain international circles): the school of ethnology and sociology, the Kazakh Language and Literature department, the Korean Language and Literature department, the Mongolian Language and Literature department, the tibetology Research College, and the Uyghur Language and Literature department. Additionally, MUC’s programs in the performing arts, in the areas of ethnic minority music and dance, are renowned for their expert faculty and high-quality student productions. Although it is difficult to compare the overall academic quality and research capacity of MUC to that of nearby top research universities such as beijing, beijing normal, Renmin , and tsinghua, when it comes to ethnic affairs and related academic activities , including teaching and research, MUC is perhaps the most advanced and comprehensive university in China. Minzu University, along with fourteen other minority-serving universities (six at the national level and nine at the provincial or municipal level) scattered throughout China and known as minzu universities (the term minzu typically is translated as national ethnic group), plays a key role in Chinese society. indeed, one of the most pressing challenges confronting the present-day Chinese nation-state is that of advancing a common sense of national identity in the face of widespread ethnic and linguistic differences (Clothey 2005; gladney 2004; hansen 1999; he 2008; Ma 2004, 2007a, 2007b, 2010; Mackerras 1994, 2004; oakes 2000; Postiglione 2009). given that the breakup of the soviet Union was in large part attributed to its inability to reconcile ethnic tension (Rupesinghe, King, and Vorkunova 1992), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is ever mindful of the potential calamity of unresolved ethnic problems. And although China’s fifty-five ethnic minority groups, known as shaoshu minzu (national minority ethnic groups), officially account for only about 8.5 percent of the overall population, in a nation of close to 1.3 billion people this amounts to over 110 million. differences between the han majority and the nation’s ethnic minority populations contribute to regional tensions, most notably in the autonomous regions of inner Mongolia, tibet, and Xinjiang, where ethnic-based protests are not uncommon (Mackerras 2004). Much of the tension is tied to economic inequalities, but irredentist movements in some of the borderlands also contribute to regional instability (Zhu and blachford 2006). Consequently, national policies have sought to address the social, economic and demographic issues of ethnic minorities, with a primary goal “to maintain unity and internal cohesion ” (Zhu and blachford 2006, 330). A particular area of policy development has been to look to higher education as a source of economic opportunity and 126 China’s Rising Research Universities social mobility for economically disenfranchised minorities (Clothey 2005). in this regard, a vital component of the nation’s higher education system has been the...