Spiritual Forests—A Nature Conservation Model of Ethnic Minority Communities in Central Viet Nam

This paper aims to analyze and evaluate a model of forest conservation and management of ethnic minority (or indigenous) people in central Vietnam, often referred to as the spiritual forest. These forests, called sacred forest or ghost forests by the ethnic minority people in Thua Thien Hue province, have existed for a long time among forest residents. However, they have recently declined, both in quality and quantity, due to various factors, including changes in society, economy, environment, and perception, among other reasons. Based on research conducted in A Luoi district, Thua Thien Hue province with household interviews, group discussions, and field surveys, we find that spiritual forest retains religious and human significance. They are also often among the last remaining natural forests left due to deforestation by human activities. The research results indicate challenges that conservation of spiritual forest may face, while giving recommendations derived from communities for sustainable forest development and conservation in the region.

Application of Chinese Ethnic Minority Themes in Contemporary Figurative Sculpture Creation

In the field of contemporary sculpture creation,the rich culture and historical depth of Chinese ethnic minorities have attracted the widespread attention of artists.These creations not only emphasize external features such as ethnic costumes,totems,or life scenes but also touch deep spiritual contents including historical stories,religious beliefs,and living habits of ethnic minorities.This paper discusses the integration process of Chinese ethnic minority themes in figurative sculpture creation and the inheritance of the profound spirit of ethnic groups in this process.At the same time,this paper also places the diversified expression and innovative practice of these themes in sculpture art in the context of the new era for investigation and explores the far-reaching influence of its development on promoting cultural inheritance and artistic innovation.

Higher Education Admission Policy and Social Class of Ethnic Minority:The Case of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,China

Gaokao has been considered as the gatekeeper of intergenerational class reproduction in today’s slowing social mobility in China.In order to bolster the fairness of Gaokao,the Policy of Bonus Scores for Ethnic Minority Candidates(PBSEMC)has been issued,whose,however,effectiveness in promoting upward social class has not been adequately empirically explored.The difference-in-differences(DID)analysis based on cross-sectional data,which is distinct from the traditional DID analysis paradigm,was implemented to assess the Reform of PBSEMC in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 1988.The results showed that PBSEMC had a significant and positive impact on the social classes of ethnic minorities,and gender,residence type and occupation type were also relevant to social class,aligning with the previous literature.The PBSEMC is effective in improving the social classes of ethnic minorities.However,the PBSEMC policy should be made more precise,in order to benefit the candidates who are in genuine need of assistance.

Protection and Utilization of Cultural Landscape in a Forest Park in Ethnic Minority Region ——With a Case of Zhangjiajie

Presently, more and more attention is paid to cultural landscapes by peo-ple at travel ing, especial y for folk culture in ethnic minority regions where rich hu-man landscapes could be ful y made use of to improve landscape quality. In the research, cultural landscapes in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park were surveyed and evaluated to analyze characters of cultural utilization, as wel as problems existing in the Park. In addition, highlights were given to protection on cultural landscapes in a forest park construction, presentation of ethnic minority culture, and ful development of tourism products.

Cardiovascular diseases in European ethnic minorities: Beyond the traditional cardiovascular risk factors

This editorial is intended to be a reflection on cardiovascular disease(CVD)burden in European ethnic minorities.In some European countries,ethnic minority realities,due to their recent appearance,are still to be studied in depth.The experience of several European countries,where the migration processes started earlier,even more than a century ago,can help by being an example.Many studies have shown that major differences in CVD burden exist not only between countries,but also within the same country when considering different social strata and ethnic groups.The CV risk factors underlying heart disease have been well established.Important epidemiological studies have helped us understand that the underlying causes of heart disease as well as the behaviors that can help prevent them are the same.We are now well aware that CVD should be treated by considering a holistic approach.This is why the social determinants(SDs)of health that may worsen the disease burden or that,vice versa,may improve the treatment,and even more significantly,the prognosis of a patient’s illness should be taken into consideration.For ethnic minority patients,this holistic,hermeneutic approach is of importance.Several SDs of health that influence CVDs have been identified but their relevance for the health of ethnic minorities has not yet been clearly defined.In some European countries,most ethnic minorities are largely also religious minorities.Only a few studies have evaluated the role of religion,which is an important SD that affects the probability of having CV risk factors and diseases.Adolescents,particularly those belonging to the second generation,seem to be the weak link.If we believe that these young people are really citizens of their country of birth,then a way of recognizing their belonging to the community starts from a will to better understand their condition,in order to assist them while they grow physically and mentally.Thinking about safeguarding the health of this population should be more than a health task,rather a goal of social justice.

The trend of low fertility and aging in ethnic minority areas and the policy responses in China:An analysis based on data from the latest three censuses

Low fertility and population aging are important factors affecting economic and social development.From 2000 to 2020,the development of low fertility in ethnic minority areas shows three trends of accelerated declining,slow declining and first falling and then rising,which are the results of the balance between the inhibiting effect of controlling birth policy and the rapidly rising birth cost,and the promoting effect of encouraging birth policy on the fertility desire of social members.The development of aging in ethnic minority areas shows two trends of acceleration and deceleration,which are the results of the balance between the promoting effect of controlling birth policy,the outflow of young and middle-aged labor force and the rise of life expectancy,and the inhibiting effect of the encouraging birth policy,the restraint of talent return and talent introduction.Combined with the development degree of low fertility and aging,we can accurately classify and implement policies for different ethnic minority areas.The areas with serious low fertility and population aging problems need economic policies to change the population age structure as soon as possible.The areas with slight low fertility and population aging problems should carry out ideological policies in priority to maintain the benign structure of population age.

A Study on the Chess Culture of Ethnic Minority Groups in Gansu Province

As a region inhabited by large populations of ethnic minority groups, Gansu province boasts rich ethnic cultural resources which reflect traditional culture and intangible cultural heritage that had taken shape thousands of years ago. Among these are various ethnic folk chess games. They are time-honored with many types such as the “Fang” chess of the Hui ethnic group, the “Jiu” chess of the Tibetans, the “King and Ministers” chess, the Mongolian chess, the Mongolian military chess, etc. These games embody distinctive ethnic and regional characteristics, as well as the cultural elements of a particular ethnic minority group. It is of great significance, therefore, to study the ethnic chess by collecting, documenting and comparing different types of related chess. The paper explores ways to standardize, protect and promote them scientifically in joint efforts, and draws a conclusion that examining their significance in the present era and the ethnic characteristics is the key to understanding the profound culture behind the chess.

The Impacts of Climate Change on the TraditionalAgriculture of Ethnic Minority in China

Climate change is affecting the IPLCs (Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities) around the world, including ethnic minorities in China, especially from agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and gathering, which are their main source of livelihoods. At the same time, IPLCs have rich traditional knowledge related to climate and its disasters, especially in their livelihoods. This review work examines the research about traditional knowledge associated to livelihood in monitoring and adapting to changing climatic conditions in ethnic minorities in China. Authors reviewed the research papers and monographs on the traditional agricultural livelihood of ethnic minorities in China, and divided different agricultural types on the basis of literature review. At the same time, authors focused on reviewing the traditional knowledge formed by ethnic minorities in the agriculture, especially the traditional knowledge related to weather and climate information. In authors’ findings authors realized that ethnic minorities are the practitioners of traditional agricultural practices. Their observation and perception come from real life and may not be “scientific”, but they directly reflect the impact of climate change on local livelihoods and contain wisdom to adapt to climate change. Ethnic minorities not only observe and perceive climate change, but also actively adapt to the impact of climate change on traditional livelihoods. In the process of adaptation, traditional knowledge plays a key role. This paper highlights how traditional knowledge can improve understanding of the influence of climate change on livelihood, and provide ideas to develop an equitable and effective plan to adapt the climate change. For the IPLCs, compared with the externally driven adaption options, they are more willing to take the community-based plan, because such plans will enable them to apply their traditional knowledge according to the geographical location and environment of their areas, so that their actions to adapt to climate change will be more effective.

Study on Qiang Ethnic Minority＇s Leather Drum Dance under the Background of Intangible Cultural Heritage

There is a very ancient and magical ritual dance （leather drum dance） in the folk society of Qiang ethnic minority, which is located in Wenchuan, Maoxian County, and Beichuan County of the Northwest Plateau. It is a dance used by Qiang people to lead the way for honoring their gods, expelling the evil spirit, seeking happiness, and sending the soul of the dead to the heavy. In this paper, the origin, development, morphological characteristics, formation control, and social functions are studied.

English Listening Teaching： A Perspective from the Ethnic Minority in China

Listening and speaking is of great importance in language communication, which is being paid close attention to in TEFL in China. However, as most of ethnic minorities are living far away from developed districts, they lack necessary sources in English listening teaching, which makes the local learners＇ listening ability not so satisfactory. This paper, based on the questionnaire, analyzes the problems existing in current English listening teaching in ethnic minority districts, and puts forward some suggestive solutions.

Space Pattern of Rural Leisure Tourism Development in Southwest Minority Area——A Case Study of Ethnic Minority Area in Southeast Chongqing

On the basis of analysis of current research documents on rural leisure tourism, taking ethnic minority area of Southeast Chongqing for example, the paper expounded ecology, culture, authenticity and uniqueness of rural leisure tourist resources in ethnic minority area, and city-dependent, scenic area-dependent, traffic route-dependent and remote characteristic village type of space pattern.

Translation Principles of Chinese Ethnic Minority Classics:A Case Study on the English Translation of Yimakan Mandu Mergen

Different translation principles may result in different translation products Chinese and foreign scholars put forward a lot of insightful and perceptive views on translation principles based on their plentiful translation practice.Taken the Hezhe Peo ple’s oral tradition Yimakan Mandu Mergen as an example,the paper probes into the English translation principles and strategies of Chinese ethnic minority classics.

Farming Ritual and Festival Folk Custom of Dong Ethnic Minority Group

In order to pray for harvest and express gratitude, Dong ethnic arranged sacrifices of farming in accordance with periodicity of rice production and its requirements to festivals and calendar. Meanwhile, New Year, Pray in Spring and Return in Autumn not only play significant roles in agricultural production, but also evolve to farming holidays which are enriched with more social connotations. Centered on husbandry and production, some folklore that is rich in local color has been formed in Dong society. The writer introduced some farming ritual of Dong ethnic group, such as, sowing, Kai Yang Men, Rain-praying, Chang Xin, reaping and Lunar New Year, summarized their belief in the land worship, festival ritual, ancestor ritual and ceres ritual. It is concluded that sacrifice is a production-related folklore, which is formed by repeated operation and constant practice. Some taboos were also prohibited in agricultural sacrifice because people were not able to change the unfavorable reality of farming with their insufficient experience and knowledge; however, they resorted to witchcraft for the purpose of harvest. It is believed that the activity of sacrifice will also be kept in the life of Dong ethnic group due to their dependency on agriculture and the land.

A Research into English Learning Strategies of Preparatory Ethnic Minority Education

On the basis of survey, students of Preparatory Ethnic Minority are not interested in English learning, and they lack language learning strategies, listening and oral abilities when they are studying English. According to theories of Second Language Acquisition, connected with teaching practice, new English Learning Model is discussed and constructed. It includes"1+2+3" curriculum model, which advocates"Student centered"teaching method and setting up optional courses so that students will at tain the set goal smoothly.

Analysis of the Ecological Migration Pattern in Ethnic Minority Areas——A Case Study of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

By taking Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region as an example,this paper analyzes the ecological migration pattern in ethnic minority areas.The basic patterns of development for poverty relief in Ningxia are in-situ migration and new area development pattern.The new area development pattern includes three types,namely small town development pattern around urban radiation districts,urban labor migration pattern,and large-scale ecological migration pattern.Finally,successful experience of ecological migration in Ningxia is summarized.First,scientific industrial planning shall be made on the basis of proper selection of ecological migration location in immigrant settlement regions.Second,scientific and comprehensive ecological migration policies should be formulated.

Genetic polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA HVS-I and HVS-II of Chinese Tu ethnic minority group

We analyzed the two hypervariable segments HVS-I and HVS-II of 108 Chinese Tu ethnic minority group samples for forensic and population genetics purposes, Comparing with Anderson sequence, 79 polymorphic loci in HVS-I and 40 in HVS-II were found in Chinese Tu ethnic minority group mtDNA sequences, and 90 and 64 haplotypes were then defined. Haplotype diversity and the mean pairwise differences were 0.9903±0.0013 and 5.7785 in HVS-I, and 0.9777±0.0013 and 3.5819 in HVS-II, respectively. By analyzing the hypervariable domain from nucleotide 1,6180 to 1,6193 in HVS-I, we defined some new types of sequence variations. We also compared the relationship between Tu population and other populations using mtDNA HVS-I sequences. According to Rst genetic distances, the phylogenetic tree showed that the Tu population, the Xi＇an Han population, the Chinese Korean, and the Mongol ethnic group were in a clade. This indicated a close genetic relationship between them. There were far relations between the Tu population and other Chinese southern Han populations, Siberian, European, African, and other foreign populations. The results suggest that Tu population has a multi-origin and has also merged with other local populations.

Are“Internet+”tactics the key to poverty alleviation in China’s rural ethnic minority areas? Empirical evidence from Sichuan Province

China has made great efforts to alleviate poverty in rural ethnic minority areas and targeted achieving the poverty-alleviation task by the end of 2020.Aba,Ganzi,and Liangshan,three of the poorest ethnic prefectures in Sichuan Province,Southwest China,have all implemented“Internet+”tactics since 2013,which have had the positive effect of increasing family revenues by improving communication infrastructure and encouraging the large-scale use of e-commerce.This paper aims to comprehensively investigate whether“Internet+”tactics play a key role in poverty alleviation in Sichuan’s rural ethnic minority areas and to propose further measures to enhance the efficiency of e-commerce practice.To this end,we conduct an analysis using the framework of classic growth theory and use panel data from 2000 to 2018 to examine the relationship between Communication Infrastructure Investment(CII)and a set of poverty-alleviation indicators,including local GDP growth rate(LGGR),local government revenue(LGR),and per-capita income of residents(PCIR).The results indicate that strengthening CII improves the PCIR and local economic growth,playing a key role in poverty alleviation.However,the stimulation of CII on LGGR and LGR wanes as time passes.More financial and technical actions will be needed to improve the efficiency and quality of current strategies for sustainable development in those areas.

Early Bilingual Vocabulary Development Among Low-SES Ethnic Minority Learners in China:The Case of Uyghur and Kazak Children

Vocabulary knowledge is one of the most important aspects of language development. For bilingual students, early vocabulary development often predicts their future bilingual success. This paper examines early bilingual receptive vocabulary knowledge of ethnic minority children(N=135) from two large ethnic language communities(Uyghur and Kazak) in three national-level povertystricken counties in Xinjiang, China. The children’s bilingual vocabulary knowledge was assessed using translated versions of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IV(PPTV-IV) in Putonghua(PTH) and their mother tongue(MT) Uyghur or Kazak. Data were analyzed through four General Linear Models(GLM). The analyses showed that both groups scored higher in MT vocabulary knowledge than that in their PTH, although the Kazak students’ MT vocabulary scores were lower than those of the Uyghurs. While gender, age, L1, or residence location were not significant factors in differences across the two groups in PTH, among the Kazak children, the main effect of age was significant in MT;and among Uyghur children, residence location had a significant effect. The two groups also differed in patterns of acquisition in different parts of speech(nouns, verbs, and attributes) with Uyghur children performing strongest in MT and PTH verbs. The findings have important implications for ensuring the quality of early bilingual education among impoverished Chinese minority communities.

Diabetes in migrants and ethnic minorities in a changingWorld

On a worldwide scale, the total number of migrants exceeds 200 million and is not expected to reduce, fuelled by the economic crisis, terrorism and wars, generating increasing clinical and administrative problems to National Health Systems. Chronic non-communicable diseases(NCD), and specifically diabetes, are on the front-line, due to the high number of cases at risk, duration and cost of diseases, and availability of effective measures of prevention and treatment. We reviewed the documents of International Agencies on migration and performed a Pub Med search of existing literature, focusing on the differences in the prevalence of diabetes between migrants and native people, the prevalence of NCD in migrants vs rates in the countries of origin, diabetes convergence, risk of diabetes progression and standard of care in migrants. Even in universalistic healthcare systems, differences in socioeconomic status and barriers generated by the present culture of biomedicine make high-risk ethnic minorities under-treated and not protected against inequalities. Underutilization of drugs and primary care services in specific ethnic groups are far from being money-saving, and might produce higher hospitalization rates due to disease progression and complications. Efforts should be made to favor screening and treatment programs, to adapt education programs to specific cultures, and to develop community partnerships.