China has made several major achievements involving ethnic minorities, including the publication of the Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields. Given its length and comprehensiveness, the five series of reference materials are unequalled. The huge task of compiling, writing, editing and publishing the materials took more than 30 years. Now, 14 years after it was published, the Chinese Government is preparing to revise the collection. The revisions will be published periodically until 2008. The project will be one of China's contributions to the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Science (ICAES), which will be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, in 2008. 
    What is the Collection About?
    The Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields is a massive publication that encompasses several volumes containing information about China's various ethnic groups.
    The materials were compiled, edited and published by the China State Ethnic Affairs Commission. The works involve a variety of subjects, which specially introduce and detail ethnic regional autonomy, ethnology, ethnic history and ethnic groups' languages in China. The Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields include:
    China's Ethnic Minorities (1 volume): This volume introduces each minority group in China. It explains the early roots, development and current situations of each minority group in China, and it presents an overview of the nation's policies regarding ethnic groups.
    Publications of the Brief History of China's Ethnic Minorities (55 volumes): The works introduce, individually,  the history of each minority group in China. Each volume records the source, title, history, formation of society and economy, culture, traditional customs, significant events and persons, historical relationships with other countries' ethnic groups, and contributions to China's founding and development,  by each minority group. The works pushed the research of ethnic groups' history to a new stage. They have provided some ethnic groups, which do not have written languages, with their own history books. They also filled in gaps in several ethnic groups' history.
    Brief Annals of China's Ethnic Groups' Languages (57 volumes): The works introduce, separately, the language of each ethnic group in China. They discuss the phonetics, vocabularies and styles of grammar used by the groups, and they record the distribution of dialects and the creation and reform of the system of ethnic languages. The volumes also define some languages, which were unknown in the past, and explain the basic situation of China's ethnic languages. In addition, they fill in gaps in the history of ethnic groups' languages in China.
    The General Situation of Ethnic Regional Autonomy in China (140 volumes): The works introduce, individually, the essential circumstances of the ethnic groups - including details about their administrative areas, natural geography, ethnic composition, population distribution, evolution of place names, structure of each group's society and economy, languages and characters, customs and habits, each group's religious beliefs, scenic spots and historical sites, characteristics of the areas inhabited by each group, and each group's achievements and changes since China implemented the policy of regional autonomy for ethnic groups.
    The Investigation into the Social History of China's Ethnic Groups (148 volumes): The volumes document, completely, the most precious firsthand reference materials of ethnic society and history in China, based on the large-scale investigations by numerous scholars commissioned by the Chinese Government.
    Volumes Trace Backgrounds of China's Ethnic Groups
    The history of the Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields can be traced back to the founding of the People's Republic of China. The government of New China recognized minority groups in the country, and affirmed the groups' contributions to Chinese history and culture. The government sent scholars, on several occasions, to conduct research in the minority groups' areas. However, due to conditions at that time, nobody was able to identify how many ethnic groups lived in China. At first, China began a large-scale identification program, which was aimed at identifying the minority groups one by one. The investigation examined the groups' situations throughout history, from their languages to their economic structures. In 1956, then-Chairman Mao Zedong and then-Premier Zhou Enlai approved a large-scale, nationwide investigation aimed at saving the minority groups' culture and social and historical materials. Numerous researchers were sent to the minority groups' communities to study the groups' identities, societies and histories, and specific conditions. The researchers compiled rich firsthand materials, which essentially formed the beginning of the Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields.
    Each minority group in China has a long history and fine traditions, however, in the old days, many minority groups did not record their histories. In fact, even ancient books contained few records about the minorities. The Chinese Government drafted and implemented the policy that entrenched the equality of the minority groups to help the ethnic groups document their histories.
   In 1958, China's State Ethnic Affairs Commission organized scholars - in several fields, including ethnology, history, archaeology and sociology - from various universities and institutes across China to conduct research and compile information about the groups. Specifically, the scholars were tasked with writing a brief history of each minority group and its language;  write about the general situation of ethnic regional autonomy; and publish numerous materials about each group's society and history. Unfortunately, during the "cultural revolution (1966-76)," the project was stopped, and it did not resume until 1978. Around that time, China's State Ethnic Affairs Commission held a meeting to plan the creation of the Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields. The meeting was held in Beijing, and a group was established to compile the volumes. In March 1979, the Five Series of China's Ethnic Studies in Different Fields was listed in the major program of State philosophy and sociology science studies, which was part of the State's sixth five-year plan.