Three museums featuring the culture of ethnic minorities are scheduled to be set up in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in an effort to preserve their unique folk customs.

The museums, featuring cultural artifacts from the Jing, Maonan and Mulam, the three ethnic minority groups inhabiting Guangxi, will be built in Dongxing City, Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, and Luocheng Mulam Autonomous County in the coming five years, said Wu Weifeng, deputy curator of Guangxi Regional Ethnic Museum.

The Jing, Maonan and Mulam, whose populations together number 260,000, are known for their fishing culture, hand-knitted bamboo wares and tombstone engraving skills, and gregariousness, respectively.

The project constiitues part of the region's bold program of establishing an "eco-museums", which will display existing social specimens to contribute to the protection of unique ethnic cultures and folklore as well as the growth of local economy, said Dong Mingkang, deputy director of the State Cultural Relics Bureau.

Three eco-museums, featuring the culture of the Yao, Dong and Zhuang ethnic groups have already been set up in Guangxi.

Upon completion of the construction of another four eco-museums in the coming decade, Guangxi will have the biggest eco-museum group in China.

Establishing of eco-museums will be of great importance to the protection and development of the numerous unique ethnic culture and folk customs that are on the verge of extinction in China, Wu said.

Arising in France in 1971, the concept of eco-museums has become a new trend for preserving ethnic cultures in Europe and the Americas. There are already some 300 eco-museums around the world.

Su Donghai, an expert who first introduced eco-museum philosophy into China, holds that eco-museums are aimed at protecting the natural environment, the living environment, and original habitats of ethnic people.

Su and his colleagues have tried to disseminate the idea of "people living in harmony with environment" in China. With his Norwegian counterpart John Jestrum, Su presented a feasibility research report on the establishment of China's first eco-museum in Suoga County of Guizhou Province in 1995, which won strong support from the Chinese and Norwegian governments.

China's first eco-museum, featuring Miao ethnic culture, was set up in 1998 in Suoga village, and was followed by four other eco-museums featuring the cultures of the Buyi, Dong, and Han ethnic people, making Guizhou the province with the most eco-museums and the longest history of such museums in the country.

Located on a mountain village in a deep valley, the Suoga Miao eco-museum is 208 kms away from the capital city of Guiyang. Suoga village, with its 4,000 residents, has retained its original tribal culture. 

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2005)