Teaching national unity

Finally, awareness of national unity has been incorporated into school curricula thanks to the work of the Ministry of Education and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

Their joint decision to make national unity compulsory for classroom instructions and college entrance exams answers a pressing need. It is a sensible response to the problems evident in the Urumqi rioting.

But the problems are not just there and are not rooted in just that night. From the violent conflict in Shaoguan to the atrocities in Urumqi, we saw rumors, biases and misperceptions intermingling to augment negative feelings between people of different ethnic identities and cultural backgrounds.