ABSTRACT
China’s fifty-five ethnic minorities count for 91.2 million people or 8 percent of the population. Their population is increasing faster than that of the ethnic majority, the Han people, as a result of the relaxed birth policy.1 This small portion of the population has occupied a crucial place on the government agenda for three reasons-rich resources, large areas, and national defense (Dreyer, 1993; He and Liu, 1995).
