The Protection of Linguistic Minorities in Universities: the case of Yunnan, China

People's Republic of China is far from becoming a human rights regime that effectively protects linguistic minorities. This study analyzes the question of protection of linguistic minorities in universities from two angles: legal approach and sociolinguistic approach. Three questions were raised throughout this study: to what extent are linguistic rights protected by law? In addition, who has the obligation to protect linguistic minorities and to what extent are social attitudes important in protection of those minorities? Lastly, what are the possible recommendations to further improve the situation of linguistic minorities in university sphere of education in non-autonomous regions in the PRC? This study is based on qualitative and quantitative approach and it consists of surveys distributed to students in Yunnan with multiple choice questions and open-ended questions. It also takes into account semi-structured interviews with experts on linguistic rights in China, as well as literature sources. Findings show that the attitudes of students are positive towards the importance of language. They also show that there is a clear lack of implementation of laws by the PRC and this may be caused by ethnic groups not pressuring the government to take care of linguistic minorities. Four stages of compliance with linguistic rights have been identified: government concessions (legislations created by the CCP), self-awareness of minority groups to the importance of language, pressure by the academia on the government, and pressure by the associations and domestic human rights actors. This study shows that the society is aware of the importance of language but due to the PRC censorship laws there is a lack of pressure on the government from the society. The results aim to show that the obligation to protect linguistic minorities lies within the government and the ethnic group in question together. While there are interesting studies on autonomous linguistic laws of the PRC, there is still a lack of focus on linguistic rights of minorities living outside of autonomous regions. This study calls on Human Rights scholars and educators to consider this forgotten issue and to shift focus from dealing strictly with autonomous regions to dealing with individuals belonging to an ethnic group but not living under autonomy laws. This needs to be done in order to shift from the territoriality approach of linguistic rights in China to more individualistic approach