Dr. Arienne Dwyer—Linguistic Anthropologist, University of Kansas
In a country of 1.3 billion people, how does the Chinese government relate 28 different written languages to Mandarin, the language of the state, spoken by 70 percent of the population? The Uyghur people in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang are one of the 56 official nationalities recognized by the Chinese government. The Chinese constitution grants them autonomy and linguistic and cultural freedom, yet many Uyghur groups claim the Chinese government has repressed their culture.