More than 2,800 artists from China's 55 ethnic minority groups will gather in Beijing in September this year, to participate in the Second National Ethnic Minority Art Performance.

The art carnival, with the theme of "Solidarity, Progress, Development and Prosperity," is co-sponsored by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the municipal government of Beijing.

Delegations will come from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in the Chinese mainland. Artists from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions will also form their own delegations.

The organizer has invited minority artists from Taiwan Province to send their own teams.

The First National Ethnic Minority Art Performance was held in 1980, and since then, China has made enormous achievements in all fields, including improving the living standards and cultural lives of the minority people.

The Fifth National Census, which was conducted last November, shows that China's 55 ethnic minority groups have a population of 106.43 million, accounting for 8.41 percent of the country's total of 1.295 billion.

(Xinhua 04/20/2001)