Dadam Tuerdi does not pass a day without reading some lines from Kutadoiu Bilik -- Blessings and Wisdom -- a classic Uygur literary masterpiece on the philosophy of life and how to administer a country written by the famous poet Yusuf Hass Hajib in 1070.

"To us Uygurs, Kutadoiu Bilik is what the Bible is to Christians. So you can imagine how I enjoy reading the original lines instead of listening to their oral version from my parents," says Dadam, a 29-year-old shop assistant in Urumqi, the capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The original 13,000-line poem in the ancient Uygur language is beyond the comprehension of most young and middle-aged Uygur people today. So they used to depend on their elders to pass on to them what the poem says orally. "That compromises the pleasure of enjoying the essence of the great work on your own," says Dadam.

Thanks to the publication of the poem in the modern Uygur language by the Beijing-based Ethnic Publishing House in 1991, many young Uygurs like Dadam are now able to appreciate the wisdom of their Uygur forefathers on their own.

"The publishing house has even produced pocket copies of Kutadoiu Bilik, meaning that I can carry it and read it wherever I go," Dadam adds.

Kutadoiu Bilik is only one of the 15,000 titles totalling 250 million copies in Mongolian, Tibetan, Urgur, Kazak, Korean and other languages that the Ethnic Publishing House has produced in the 50 years since its foundation in 1953.

Serving ethnic minorities

Celebrating its jubilee anniversary this week, the publishing house is proud of the role it has played in promoting government policies on ethnic minorities among the public and displaying their brilliant culture to readers both at home and abroad, says Alim Sabit, the publishing house's deputy editor-in-chief.

In fact, says Huang Zhongcai, the publisher, the Ethnic Publishing House "is the first national agency specialized in serving ethnic minority readers, setting a precedent both in Chinese and world history."

In retrospect, Alim, a Uygur from Xinjiang who joined the publishing house in 1983, says the books published by the house in the early days "were dominantly political works and government documents translated into ethnic minorities' languages." Many of them "were hardly readable," and didn't sell, he says. As the cost was all covered by State funds, "the more books we turned out, the greater the financial losses."

But now the achievements are no longer counted merely by how many copies of books are produced, says Alim. "We care more about the books' market performance and impact on readers."

He says surveys were conducted in the 1990s among ethnic minority readers on what kinds of books they wanted to read, and corresponding measures were taken to cater to their interests. "Thus the books we have published in recent years have become more diverse."

The house now publishes 800 titles every year, of which more than 450 are on ethnic culture, history and customs. It has also published a series of dictionaries to systematize and standardize some ethnic languages, including the Tibetan-Han dictionary with a total of over 35,000 copies printed.

A book series of 11 titles on Tibetan Buddhism translated from Tibetan to the Han Chinese language was published in 2000. The 7,000 copies of the first edition soon sold out, and were followed by three editions with similarly favourable feedback. A Taiwan publishing house has acquired the copyright to publish the series in Taiwan Province, says Gao Jianzhong, the deputy editor-in-chief.

Another important mission of the Ethnic Publishing House is to collect, collate and publish oral heritage such as Chinese ethnic minority folk tales.

Prominent among such publications are the first four volumes of a collection of the best possible version of the Tibetan epic of King Gesar, passed down orally by roaming folk artists for some 2,000 years. Another is 300 Folk Songs of the Dong People. Dong is an ethnic minority in Southwestern China that has no written language but is known for its colourful multi-part vocal music.

"Chinese civilization has been created and developed jointly by the Han people and various ethnic minorities. Despite their differences in customs, languages and behaviour, they belong to the same multi-ethnic Chinese culture, which has been enriched by the very existence of our minority cultures," says Gao.

By publishing books in minority languages and introducing their traditions to other ethnic groups, says Gao, the publishing house has helped preserve the culture of minority people while honouring their right to their own language, which is the carrier of culture.

"Some minorities' languages have been saved from dying since the publications in these languages can keep them alive by allowing people to use, study and disseminate their own languages."

So the publishing house encourages ethnic minority writers to write books on their culture, history and society in their own languages, Gao says. Many of their works have been translated into Mandarin Chinese, some even into foreign languages.

"In doing so, our editors regard themselves as a link and bridge between cultures of different ethnic groups rather than mere translators," says Alim.

More outlets

There are also a lot of other outlets for minority authors' works. Around the country, there are some 30 ethnic publishing houses in addition to the first one founded in Beijing 50 years ago.

"In the 1980s, there was only one literature magazine in China for writers of the Korean ethnic group to publish their works," says Li Zhongwan from the Korean language editorial department of the Ethnic Publishing House.

"But now, at least three more ethnic publishing houses beside ours can accommodate their works if they are good enough. These books can be passed on to remind our future generations of their unique culture."

Gao points out that the strategy of developing China's western regions is directed not only at the economic side, but at the cultural side as well.

"Our mission now is not just to keep the culture of a certain ethnic minority group alive, but also to enhance mutual understanding between different ethnic groups, especially the Han Chinese people's understanding of their minority brothers and sisters."

A disparity between the book market in Han areas and that in minority areas is the scarcity of books on advanced science and technology, education and entertainment in the latter, says Gao Jianzhong.

"We are still in want of minority authors to fill in the gap, and the capacity of translation in the fields is also limited."

But the publishing house has enjoyed the favourable government policies in book pricing, royalties and distribution, says Wang Tiezhi, editor-in-chief and also a researcher with the State Ethnic Affairs Commission. That gives further impetus to the house's further development, he says.

By Han people reading books on minority groups and by minorities reading books translated from the Han language, Wang says, people of different ethnic groups "can become more and more familiar with each other's culture and care for and befriend each other. From such mutual understanding will grow mutual respect, which is the basis of ethnic unity."

(China Daily September 19, 2003)