minority presses

(minzu chubanshe)

Minzu chubanshe are presses in China that mainly publish books in minority languages and books about minority groups. There is a state-level minzu chubanshe in Beijing and many provincial level minzu chubanshe in the autonomous regions and frontier provinces. There are even some prefectural-level minzu chubanshe, such as Mudanjiang Chaoxian minzu chubanshe in Heilongjiang province and Dehong minzu chubanshe in Yunnan province. All of these are official presses under the control of different levels of government.

The minority presses in Beijing were established in 1953 and put under the control of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission. One of the original official missions of the press was to publish Marxist classics, works of the Chinese Communist leaders, and important documents of the Chinese Communist Party and government in minority languages. The minzu chubanshe in Beijing publishes books mainly in six languages: Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Uighur, Khazak and Korean. Since its founding, the press has published over 20,000 different books. It also publishes several periodicals in these six languages, including Minority Nationality Pictorial (Minzu huabao), Minority Nationality Solidarity (Minzu tuanjie) and Minority Nationality Literature (Minzu wenxue). Provincial and prefectural-level minority presses also publish books about local minority groups in Chinese and in the languages of these groups. As a result of the increasing influence of the market economy, however, some minority presses have begun to publish books that do not have much to do with minority groups, and the original political mission of the minority presses may gradually fade away.

See also: Sino-Tibetan language speakers; Turkic language speakers

HAN XIAORONG