This major reference work is authored by Haiwang Yuan, a prominent Chinese-American scholar renowned for his expertise in China’s ethnic cultures. The physical structure of the book is divided into 56 chapters, allow each to focus on a single ethnic group of China while provides an in-depth analysis of its origin, geographic distribution, social structure, customs, and historic achievements. This work offers a well-founded and practical introduction to the 56 ethnic groups in China, it is also a masterpiece shows China’s multicultural diversity. This book can serve as a comprehensive reference to scholars, postgraduate students and professional readers in the specific field of China’s ethnic cultures

The editor, Haiwang Yuan, is a Professor Emeritus from WKU Libraries in the US, adviser to the Center for the Study of Translating Chinese Poetry for Foreign Readership at Nankai University, and CCTSS member sinologist. He has authored and co-authored several books on Chinese history, culture, and language, including Mastering Modern Chinese through the Classics, Chinese Proverb Stories for Lifelong and Classroom Learning, This Is China: The First 5,000 Years, Tibetan Folktales, Princess Peacock and Tales of Other Chinese Peoples, and The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales of the Han Chinese. He is an editor of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of China (Berkshire, 2009) and a significant contributor to the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture (Routledge, 2004). He has translated several renowned or award-winning Chinese authors, such as Li Di, Su Tong, Xu Huaizhong, Xue Tao, Zhang Wei, Zhao Benfu, and Zhou Daxin.