China is viewed by the outside world, for the most part, as consisting wholly of Han Chinese. The truth, however, is that ten percent of China’s 1.2 billion people are of other ethnic and linguistic groups, inhabiting approximately 60 percent of the total landmass. These groups are tremendously diverse, ranging from the Muslim groups of Uighurs in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, to the Buddhist Tibetans of Tibet and surrounding provinces, to the matrilineal societies of the Chiang in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces. The 55 ethnic groups officially recognized by the state include a variety of cultures, customs and religions that are all threatened with assimilation into the Han Chinese majority . . .