The China Nationality Museum is going to create an archive system of ethnic cultural relics to better protect the country's ethnic minority culture.

"The museum will collect and rescue cultural relics of the country's 55 minority ethnic groups during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010)," said a source with the museum.

Some traditions of the ethnic minorities are disappearing with rapid social and economic development, and many ethnic cultural relics lack good protection.

China has collected more than a million ancient ethnic books and published more than 5,000 of them between 2001 and 2005.

Although there are more than 100,000 ethnic language translators, most of whom have not received professional training, statistics show.

China Ethnic Language Translation Center is working to train translators and standardize ethnic languages.

Twenty-one ethnic groups in China have their own written languages.

Han people account for more than 90 percent of the country's total population.
 
(CRIEnglish.com February 25, 2007)