An article from Xinhua discusses writing in Zhuang. The Zhuang, China’s largest “national minority” group, live mainly in Guangxi. Their language is written with the Roman alphabet.

The first paragraph discusses a prize for literature in Zhuang. One of the winners was a folk song, the other a novella. While I have nothing against folk songs, I find the novella potentially far more interesting as it wouldn’t necessarily fit within the framework of what multiculturalism has come to be in today’s China: “We love minorities as long as they wear colorful costumes, have some songs and dances, bring in tourists, and don’t spout other than the Party line.” (It wasn’t always so. In the period just after the 1949 revolution, the Communist authorities initially worked to give real support to minority groups — to the extent of registering many people as Zhuang who insisted that, no, they were Han!)

The novella, though, has a rather folksy title, Shorty A-he, so it may be just more in the colorful, old-fashioned-countryside-folk mode. Although there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, I hope there’s more to Zhuang literature than this. Otherwise, it’s going to end up a museum piece.

我国首届壮文文学奖日前揭晓，李从式的山歌《深情重如山》和陆登的中篇小说《短脚阿和》等５篇以壮文创作的作品获奖。众多语言学专家认为，文学艺术给壮文普及插上一对翅膀，对传承壮族文化起着重要作用。”民族语言文字在传播、培育民族文化中发挥着重要作用，以艺术形式推广不仅有利于普及壮文，还能更加鲜明地体现出壮族文化的内涵。”广西少数民族语言文字研究处主任杜宰经说。

壮族是我国人口最多的少数民族，１１月２９日是壮文诞辰４８年纪念日。壮族文化源远流长，壮文早在隋唐时期就有了雏形，但过去一直没有形成统一使用的民族语言文字，直到１９５７年国务院才经过语言文字专家仔细研究，通过了以拉丁字母为基础的拼音壮文方案。据统计，我国壮语人口已经超过１７００万人。作为中国学者和壮文研究者集体智慧的结晶，壮文已经在广西、云南文山等一些地方得到普及和应用。现行的标准壮语是以广西武鸣音为标准音、以壮族北部方言为基础方言的壮民族共同语。

广西贝贝特文化传播有限公司副总经理李庭华说：”过去壮文普及仅仅依托教育模式，通过设立壮汉双语教学学校，培养了数以十万计的壮文教育人才，但是文学艺术才是一个民族文化特色的本质所在，通过艺术表现力才能更好地展现一个民族的魅力。”

“今年广西在第五届壮族文学奖里增设了壮文文学奖，以文学艺术竞赛模式促进了壮文文学创作队伍的扩大，有益于建立独特的壮文文学读者群，从而推动壮语普及和壮族文化发展。”李庭华说。

为了普及壮文，广西之前还举办过农民学壮文学科技等一系列颇具特色的壮文培训班，将壮文扫盲与脱贫致富相结合。”过去学壮文学科技致富脱贫，现在学壮文学艺术陶冶情操。”李庭华笑着说。

source: Shǒujiè Zhuàngwén wénxué jiǎng jiēxiǎo　Zhuàngyǔ pǔjí dāchéng yìshù kuàichē, (首届壮文文学奖揭晓　壮语普及搭乘艺术快车), Xinhua, November 4, 2005.