All 56 Chinese nationalities have writers who have created outstanding literature featuring their modern life and traditional cultures.

The writers have also published a series of works about the historical development of their national literature, according to cultural officials at the ongoing sixth national congress of the Chinese Writers Association (CWA).

After the founding of new China, especially since the country started to carry out the opening up and reform policies in the late 1970s, the literature of different nationalities has undergone a flourishing period.

During the period, some minority nationalities, for the first time, have had their own writers and produced lots of outstanding literary works.

Statistics show that writers from ethnic groups make up 11 percent of the total 8,000 CWA members, and literary works by the ethnic writers have won a variety of national literature prizes in recent years.

(China Daily December 21, 2001)