By launching this publication,
we want to tell you stories about China¡¯s 55 ethnic minority groups, their
brilliant past and their seething life of today. Mutual understanding and respect that
stem from exchange and communication are what we expect this publication to
usher in, which we believe will give birth to a new value.
Here we are, presenting you with the China¡¯s Ethnic
Groups, the very first English language publication ever published in China
on the country¡¯s 55 ethnic minorities, their brilliant past and their seething
life of today, anything and everything about them.
A keen understanding of the increasingly great need
for exchange and communication in keeping with progress of our times has prompted
us to launch this publication. Coexitence of multicultures and mutual respect
between different peoples are now recognized as a common aspiration of the
human race. Exchange and communication enhance mutual understanding and respect,
which, in turn, will bring about a new value. If a culture isolates itself
from the outside world, it is bound to run dry even if that culture, in itself,
is a wealth of values. It is in this sense that we say China¡¯s ethnic minority
cultures belong not only to the Chinese nation, but also to the world.
China is opening increasingly wider to the
outside world. It is sparing no effort to embrace the essence of cultures
worldwide while showing the world the brilliant Chinese civilization created
bythe Chinese people of all ethnic groups by dint of ajointendeavor over the
past eight milleniums. By doing so, the country has been able to grow in strength.
At the same time, the world has benefited from the cultural nourishment provided
by China. Such experiences have convinced us of the need to construct a high-quality
platform where by our exchange with the rest of the world can sustain and
constantly develop in depth. That conviction has prompted us to launch this
publication.
By launching this publication, we hope, above all,
to provide the world a picture of our ethnic minorities¡¯ life in a cultural
context. We hope to provide a cultural outlet with stories about what is happening
to people of the various ethnic minorities in China, their life and mental
outlook.
These stories, we believe, will help readers outside
China acquire a genuine picture of the ethnic policies pursued by the Chinese
government. This will enable them to gain a true-to-the-fact understanding
of the results produced by these policies. After all, tangible results are
the by which to test the success or failure of such policies pursued by any
government.
We¡¯ll display, on this platform, achievements made
by chinese ethnologists and anthropologists in theoretical research and field
work. The achievements in frontier fields of ethnology and anthropology, we
believe, will keep you informed of the latest developments in these studies.
During those milleniums, China¡¯s ethnic minorities
and the ethnic Han majority have shared weal and woe and worked with
one heart and one mind in their joint effort to build up a brilliant history
for the Chinese nation, which has been recognized as an indispensable part
of human civilization. In their on-going joint effort to rejuvenate China,
the various ethnic groups in the country are bound to make fresh contributions
to human civilization.
This new Journal, however, can be likened to a budding
plant. With your attention and help, we believe, this ¡®budding plant¡¯ will
eventually grow into a towering tree. This ¡®tree¡¯, so to speak, will be good
enough to show the world the vitality and vigor enjoyed by the various ethnic
groups in China. At the same time, it will make our world still more beautiful
and generate a new hope for it.
