[EDLING:1271] China ’s Positive Policies in Minority Education: Plural Perspectives

[Francis M. Hult]

International Symposium on China’s Positive Policies in Minority Education: 
Plural Perspectives
April 14-15, 2006
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, USA
Program 
Friday, April 14
8:30 am, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Opening Address (Neil Weissman, Provost, Dickinson College)

9:00-11:30am, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel I: China’s Positive Policies: Tradition, Continuity, and Theory (Chair: 
Ann Hill, Dickinson College; Discussants: Colin Mackerras, Griffith 
University, Australia, and Gerard Postiglione, University of Hong Kong)
Presentations:
1) Mandarins, Marxists, and Minorities (Walker Conner, Middlebury College)
	
2) Defining the PRC’s Positive Policies for Ethnic Minorities (Minglang Zhou, 
Dickinson College)
3) Culture, History, and Power: Preferential Policies in China (Naran Bilik, 
Carleton College)
4) Educational Policies in China’s Uygur Communities before the PRC (Yasin 
Ashuri, Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social 
Sciences)

1:00-3:00pm, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel II: Debate on China’s Positive Policies (Chair: Naran Bilik, Carleton 
College, Discussants: Rong Ma, Beijing University/Duke University, and Gerard 
Postiglione, University of Hong Kong)

Presentations:
1) Minority Policies and Ethnic Equality in College Entrance Examinations and 
Enrollment (Tiezhi Wang, PRC State Commission on Ethnic Affairs)
2) Diversity and Equality for Ethnic Minorities in Higher Education in China 
(Xing Teng & Xiaoyi Ma, Central University for Nationalities, PRC)
3) Pros and Cons, Successes and Failures of China’s Positive Policies in 
Higher Education for Minorities (Qumu Tiexi, Central University for 
Nationalities, PRC)

3:15-4:15, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel III:  American Students’ Views of China’s Minority Education (Chair: 
Minglang Zhou, Dickinson College; Discussant: Ruji Niu, Xinjiang University, 
PRC) 
Three Presentations by Dickinson Students 

4:30-6:00pm, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel IV:  Case Studies on Affirmative Action in the U. S. (Chair: Ann M. 
Hill, Dickinson College; Discussant: Tiezhi Wang, PRC State Commission on 
Ethnic Affairs) 
Four Presentations by Dickinson Students 

6:30 pm: Opening Reception and Dinner at Prof. Ann M. Hill’s

Saturday, April 15
9:00-11:30, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel V. Economic Development, (Re)Distribution of Resources, and Minority 
Education (Chair: Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Brown University; Discussants: Ann M Hill, 
Dickinson College, and Colin Mackerras, Griffith University, Australia)


Presentations:
1) Minority Education in Xinjiang: Challenges and Opportunities (Ruji Niu, 
Xinjiang University, China)
2) Preferential Policies:  Making Chinese Tibetans in Boarding Schools (Gerard 
Postiglione, University of Hong Kong)
3) Compulsory Education in the Eastern Tibetan Areas: Field Survey in 
Kangding, Weixi and Maching Counties (Gelek, the National Center For Tibetan 
Studies, PRC)
4) Community Trade Culture of the Hui Nationality and School Education: An 
Anthropological Case Study (Xiaoyi Ma, Central University for Nationalities, 
PRC)

1:00-3:30pm, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel VI: International Perspectives on Affirmative-Action Policies (Chair: 
David Strand, Dickinson College; Discussants: Walker Conner, Middlebury 
College, and Xing Teng, Central University for Nationalities, PRC)
Presentations:
1) To Treat People Equally, We Must Treat Them Differently:  Affirmative 
Action in the United States in Theory and Practice (Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Brown 
University)
2) Natives and Nation: Acculturation and State Policy in the U. S. and China 
(Ann M. Hill, Dickinson College)
3) Learning about Equality:  Affirmative Action, College Admissions and the 
Law of the United States (Douglas Edlin, Dickinson College)
4) Affirmative Action and Ethnicity as Descent (Jiao Pan, Central University 
for Nationalities/ University of Washington)

3:45-6:15pm, Stern Hall (Great Room)
Panel VII: What Education and in What Language? To Choose between Market 
Competitiveness and Cultural/Linguistic Identities (Chair: Gelek, the National 
Center for Tibetan Studies, PRC; Discussants: Gerard Postiglione, University 
of Hong Kong, and Minglang Zhou, Dickinson College)
Presentations:
1) Bilingual Education in Ethnic Minority Regions (Xinjiang) in China (Rong 
Ma, Beijing University/Duke University)
2) Reform Pedagogy and Enhance the Quality of Minority Higher Education 
(Abdurexiti Kadir, Xinjiang University, PRC)
3) Positive Policies and Bilingual Education in China’s Korean Communities 
(Zhenai Zhang, Yanbian University, PRC)
4) Socio-cultural Contexts of Two Unsuccessful Trials on Education in Yuygur: 
Review of Ethnic Policies on Language and Education (Zhanlong Ba, the Central 
University for Nationalities, PRC)

6:30 pm, Stern Hall (Room 103)
Closing Dinner

For more information: Contact symposium organizers Dr. Ann M. Hill 
(hillan at dickinson.edu) and Dr. Minglang Zhou (zhoum at dickinson.edu) or visit 
our department website <http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/easia/>.