China’s Policy towards Minority Languages in a Globalising Age

Abstract

Globalisation tends to favour the spread of English as a global language, posing threats to the future of many other minority languages around the world. Language loss is an important issue to consider for multicultural societies in the 21stcentury. This paper presents an overview on Chinese government’s policies in preserving minority languages in China. From the discussion in this paper, it would appear that language policies are significant in preserving people’s linguistic diversity. However, lack of evidence makes it difficult to evaluate the overall effectiveness of these policies in promoting linguistic diversity. Research is therefore, needed to determine the issues in implementation and the effectiveness of language polices in promoting linguistic diversity.