Chinese minority students spent time last summer...

Chinese minority students spent time last summer...:

A look inside China’s minority schools

by Sarah Butrymowicz

Chinese minority students spent time last summer at this school in Southern China’s Yunnan province learning their native language. (Photo by Sarah Butrymowicz)

At a middle school in a rural area in China’s Yunnan Province devoted to educating the area’s ethnic minorities, many of the students have a fairly simple career goal in mind: they want to get a job performing traditional minority dances, which would almost certainly place them smack dab in tourist venues. In addition to the traditional middle-school curriculum, the school also passes on minority traditions, like dances and shoemaking.
The school is a shining example of the Chinese government’s policies that have made minority education a priority. But their efforts haven’t been universally embraced.
Although China is about 95 percent Han, or what we think of when we think of “Chinese,” there are 56 officially recognized minorities, many of whom live in pockets around the country, often in rural villages. Yunnan province