Zhuang ethnic writer suggests more protection for ethnic languages

China shall devote more efforts to the protection and research of ethnic languages and characters, said Fan Yiping, a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress and vice chairman of the Guangxi Writers Association.

Fan is of Zhuang ethnicity and was born in Hechi's Du'an Yao autonomous county. He has received numerous awards as a writer, and several of his novels, including the "Barber" and the "Missing Gun", have been adapted for film and television.

Fan pointed out that Guangxi is located in the southwest corner of China and has lots of ethnic groups such as the Zhuang, Yao, Miao and Dong yet many of the young people nowadays seldom use ethnic languages and some of them even can't understand the languages. 

Fan suggested that conditional kindergartens and primary and middle schools in Guangxi shall be supported to carry out bilingual education featuring mandarin and ethnic languages. Higher education institutions shall open more professional courses on the literature, education, arts, translation and broadcasting of ethnic languages.

Guangxi has started to use modern technologies to create language databases by recording people's readings of works, phrases, and dialogues, and Guangxi Radio and Television has broadcast news programs in Zhuang ethnic language.