This volume is the first to comprehensively examine Chinese's affirmative action policies in the critical area of minority education, the most important conduit to employment and economic success in the People's Republic of China after the economic reforms begun in the late 1970s. This book contains four parts. Part I, "Debating China's Positive Policies: Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Practice", contains: (1) Mandarins, Marxists, and Minorities (Walker Connor); (2) Tracking the Historical Development of China's Positive Policies or Preferential Policies for Minority Education: Continuities and Discontinuities (Minglang Zhou); (3) Minority Policies and Equality in College Admission Examinations in China (Tiezhi Wang); (4) Preferential Policies for Ethnic Minorities and Equality in Higher Education in China (Xing Teng and Xiaoyi Ma); and (5) Yunnan's Preferential Policies in Minority Education Since the 1980s: Retrospect and Prospects (Yanchun Dai and Changjiang Xu). Part II, "Between State Education and Local Cultures", contains: (6) Compulsory Education in the Eastern Tibetan Areas: A Field Survey in Kangding and Machu Counties (Gelek); (7) Tibetan Students Perspectives on Neidi Schools (Gerard Postiglione, Ben Jiao, and Ngawang Tsering); and (8) School Consolidation in Rural Sichuan: Quality Vs. Equality (Christina Y. Chan and Stevan Harrell). Part III, "Between Market Competitiveness and Cultural/Linguistic Identities", contains: (9) The Trade Culture of a Hui Community and Local Education: An Anthropological Case Study (Ma Xiaoyi); (10) Issues of Minority Education in Xinjiang China (Rong Ma); and (11) Using Yugur in Local Schools: Reflections on China's Policy for Minority Language and Education (Zhanlong Ba). Part IV, "Globalizing the Discourse on Inequality and Education", contains: (12) Natives and Nation: Assimilation and Indigenous Peoples in China and the U.S. (Ann Maxwell Hill); (13) Affirmative Action, Civil Rights and Racial Preferences in the United States: Some General Observations (Evelyn Hu-DeHart); and (14) Learning about Equality: Affirmative Action, College Admissions, and the Law of the United States (Doug Edlin). An introduction by Ann Maxwell Hill and Minglang Zhou is also included.