According to numerous reference sources, China officially has 55 ethnic minorities. At the university where I teach in Beijing, the three most prominent ethnic minorities (in my classrooms, at least) are Mongolians (from Inner Mongolia--the Chinese province, not to be confused with the country of Mongolia), Tibetans , and Uighurs (a Turkic people who are predominately Muslim and live in the far western province of Xinjiang). For me, the Mongolian and Tibetan students are mainly distinguishable due to their names, which are somewhat different from those of the Han (Chinese) students, and the occasional conversations I hear in their native languages. The Uighurs (who tend to be fairly few in number) can be readily recognized by ther physical appearance--they look much more Caucasian than Asian--and by their accent when speaking English--to me they sometimes sound like Russians speaking English!
My understanding is that due to their relatively disadvantaged status, ethnic minority students in China are given somewhat of an advantage in passing the national college entrance exam. The poorer regions in China from which these minority students usually come tend to have fewer resources for their schools. Consequently, these students are sometimes less prepared academically, thus necessitating (in the view of the authorities at least) the need for "a leg up" in passing the college entrance examination. The problem though, from my experience, is that due to their weaker academic background, some of these students tend to struggle; specfically, their English skills are much weaker than those of their Han (Chinese) classmates. For example, several years ago I had a male Mongolian student in my Oral English class for freshmen. His oral English was so poor that he had to speak to me in Chinese most of the time (I am glad to report, though, that when I had him as a student again two years later, his English had much improved--not due to me, I'm sure!). In the Advanced Writing course that I teach for juniors, the papers that exhibit the largest number of language errors are often those written by the minority students. This is not to say that all of my minority studetns struggle with English; in fact, many of them do quite well and have even been among my better students. Nonetheless, relatively weak language skills are often evident among m
What has perhaps surprised me the most is that minority students in China, thanks to "affirmative action" policies, are apparently held to a lower standard of achievement than the majority Han students. A number of years ago, a student I had had in my writing class the previous academic year came to see me. He mentioned that in the previous semester I had given him a grade of 44. He asked whether I would be willing to raise it to a 45. He then explained that since he was an ethnic minority, he only needed a 45 to pass the course. Seeing little difference between a 44 and 45, I agreed to his request. Nevertheless, it rather astounded me that one could pass a course with only a 45. For the Han (Chinese) students, the passing grade is 60, which already seems rather low to me. I can't help wondering how many are aware of this lower standard, including potential employers, and whether this leads to a tendency to discount the value of a college degree earned by a minority student.
In short, as is the case in the U.S., "affirmative action" policies in Chinese higher education seem, to some extent at least, problematic. Do such policies ultimately help or hurt minority students? I don't feel I am qualified to give an unequivocal answer, but I can't help but wonder....