In China there are 56 official so-called "nationalities". One of them is the Han nationality, the vast majority of Chinese people with a population well over a billion, or between 92 and 93% of all Chinese. The rest of the 55 "nationalities " are ethnic minorities (Shaoshu Minzuren, sometimes also referred to as tribes), which include Zhuang, Manchu (Man), Hui, Miao, Uygur (Weiwuer), Yi, Tujia, Mongolian (Menggu), and Tibetan (Zangzu). Almost every minority has its own language/s, quite distinct from Putonghua (Mandarin), traditional clothing style/s, music and dance, festivals, delicacies, and more. There are five Autonomous Regions in China and many Autonomous Prefectures, Counties, and Towns, which are supposedly governed primarily by the local ethnic minorities that inhabit the areas.

There are also over one million people living in China that have been termed as "unclassified or unspecified nationalities". Most of these people belong to dying minority groups that are being assimilated into Han Chinese culture. Even today they continue to fight for their freedom.

This article will focus on the largest Chinese Ethnic Minority, the Zhuang, because my wife is Zhuang and I have had a wonderful personal experience with her people.

The population of the Zhuang minority in China reaches over 15 million, mostly concentrated in 广西壮族自治区 (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region - with a population of around 12 million), but with other size-able populations in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangdong. Every region has its own dialect and differences in culture, but most of them can communicate with each other. The Zhuang language is closely related to Vietnamese and Thai. My wife has said that these languages sound like Zhuang that she can't understand, but she can sometimes understand what they are talking about. I have done some research on this and it seems reasonable to say that a lot of Vietnam's ethnic heritage is probably derived from that of the Zhuang.

Han Chinese in China are admittedly rather boring compared with the ethnic minorities. A lot of their culture has been lost in recent years, but some groups of minorities are thriving under the protection of China's reformed minority "nationalities" policy. Indeed, some are even re-constructing their language and culture. Han Chinese are allowed only one child per couple (Without bribes), but a couple where both belong to a minority group can have as many as three, depending on which minority they are and whether or not they are both of the same minority group. The rarest minorities take priority.

And just try to find them. You will have to travel through endless expanses of mountains to catch a glimpse of their traditional lifestyles. When I traveled to my wife's hometown in 忻城 (Xincheng) for the first time, to meet her family, I referred to it as The-Middle-Nowhere^3 - until we visited her grandmother's hometown! To reach there one must literally travel back in time hundreds of years. In an terribly over-industrialised country like China, there are still unspoiled paradises to be found.

I am probably the first foreigner to have been in my wife's hometown since, at least, ancient times. Even the Japanese didn't come through the area during the numerous Sino-Japanese wars that ravaged the country. The people certainly thought so. When I arrived there the whole town literally stopped. All activity screamed to a halt, eyes widened, mouths gaped, and then there was a wild commotion. Was that a foreigner they were looking at? Yes, someone with authority said, they had seen one on television.

The next week the event was widely publicised in the Guangxi newspaper. Apparently a Dutchman named 马腾 (Mateng - Me?) and his interpreter 黄雪琳 (Huang Xue Lin - My wife?) had visited the town of 遂意 (Suiyi) in Xincheng County of Laibin Prefecture. No mistake about it... Sounds a bit reminiscent of moi, no?

The Zhuang are renowned for their agriculture, building grand irrigation projects. Longsheng in Guilin Prefecture perfectly showcases their agricultural achievements. The terraces at Longji were built over a span of 18 generations. They also grow many medicinal herbs and specialty crops in the fertile region. Local delicacies such as five-coloured rice and HUGE Zongzi are uniquely delicious. Perhaps the most famous thing about them, however, is their song and dance. The tragic tale of Liu San Jie (Sister Liu), in which a young woman used clever lyrics in her songs to rally slaves to rise up against an oppressive feudal lord, who also desired to have her as his bride, is known by virtually all Chinese and is the focus of many a festival in the Zhuang region and films and television programmes country-wide.

For me, the most interesting things about the Zhuang are the scenery in which they carry out their everyday business, their language, and their often strange customs (For example, when getting married the groom must carry his new bride all the way from her house to their new bedroom in their new house, without letting her feet touch the ground).

My wife's family speaks very little Chinese, so I have been learning Zhuang. My mother language is Nederlands (Dutch), which according to foreigners is difficult to pronounce, but Zhuang is a mouthful. There are some sounds that I'm just like: "How in the bloody Hell do you spell that?" It seems like every other noun is one impossible-to-pronounce syllable. It is also confusing when the only difference between fish and vegetables is saying that syllable at a normal speed or somewhat fast. At any rate, I am still learning and I can make small talk. It's always humourous that I came to China and studied Chinese only to marry a minority whose family I cannot communicate with. Luckily they are also making an effort to study Chinese.

In fact, most minorities in China cannot speak good Chinese. Often it is not necessary to carry out their lives, but being able to speak the official language of China has its advantages. I advocate studying both their mother language and Chinese, because without their own language and culture their identity, in a country where the overwhelming majority of the people belong to one homogeneous group, will be lost. Many minorities are looked down upon for their lack of Chinese proficiency (and the poverty they usually come from). I believe that they should be looked up to by Han Chinese because, at least, they can still embrace their traditions and customs, whilst Han Chinese can only salvage what is left of their five thousand year existence.

In closing, travelers coming to China should certainly not overlook the ethnic minority regions, as they are far more interesting, unspoilt, and more true to the China of days past than those urban mega-centres that most tourists flock to in droves. As soon as I get a digital camera I will post some more photos of my off-the-beaten-track experiences.

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