How does China treat her minorities? Firstly, how do we define that term? People who are not in the majority? Or is it more than that? Are they people who should have more rights because they are minorities? People who should have more advantages when fighting for themselves, because they may not be as powerful or influential as the majorities? No, not these. I admit that the number of people matters when facing the problem of balancing policies. In China, there are special policy treatments for the minorities, not just ethnic minorities, also residents of special administrative regions like Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, military families, etc. For example, if you are a member of one of those groups in China, you can enjoy welfare on education (like getting a direct score plus in national exam such as Gaokao, which is very competitive and even 0.5 score more matters like hell), more-than-one-child policy etc. However, here, I am not going to talk on a policy level about how China treats the minorities. I want to emphasize two sides, ethnic and religious. It is commonly known that the Han(汉) Nationality(族) is almost 92% of the whole population in China. Then, there are 55 other ethnic nationalities, which are generally called minorities(少数民族). Until today, except in some very remote areas or specific government protection programs, a lot of the fantastic culture, which belongs to those ethnic groups, is dying as more and more people move to cities to pursue a better life, leaving the old generation stay at home and begin slowly disappearing. How are these new generations of people going to teach their kids about their unique ethnic cultures? These people should realize that they are not just enjoying special policy treatments. When they involve themselves in lives with less of an impact from their own ethnic background, they are also losing their cultural identity, the question of who they are. China is a country with a diverse cultural heritage, but the influence of that cultural heritage is becoming less and less. This will weaken people's understanding of our differences. What will the influence be on the majority? When people grow up in an environment where they see everything as the same, how will they react when they encounter something totally different? Their ability and tolerance to accept alien things are generally less than those people who grow up in a diverse community. This will create hidden conflicts between different ethnic groups. Biases and prejudice all come from this. The understanding of religion in China is very similar. The majority of Chinese people don't have a religion background, or let's say, religion is not soaked into the mainstream culture. People may still discuss it on social media, or talk about special policies which give religious people full respect, but the majority of people in the country don't understand what life will be to live with a certain kind of belief, with full devout respect to religion. As time goes on, if this gap is not filled in properly, then people won't fully develop a systematic understanding for how to treat groups with religion belief. In the end, the problem is not just about policy making. It’s about getting more and more people to understand why there exists all different kinds of groups of people. Some of them may be called minorities, as the number may not be very big. But that doesn't mean they don't deserve full understanding and respect for their minority characteristics. China’s exploding economy makes its market full of differences from not just all parts of the country, but all over the world. How people live with a life full of differences, which they may have never realize or experience before, could be an important challenge in the future.This article was written by Sunyi Wang. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Zhang Zhan