Chinese history was co-constructed by Han (Chinese) people, transmitters of farming language and culture, and non-Han people, typically transmitters of nomadic language and culture in North and Northwest China. Governance by non-Han steppe rulers lasted for almost ten centuries (half of the history of imperial China since the First Emperor of Qin) and the Gansu-Qinghai area was the most important migration corridor between Central and East Asia. These languages and populations have competed, mixed and merged for ages. Surprisingly, a cross-linguistically comprehensive portrait of this region is missing in spite of individual language descriptions. The present Project will study language mixture and language replacement patterns in the Gansu-Qinghai area, which geographically constitutes a natural demarcation between nomadic herders and farmers. In this intense contact area, home to nomadic languages and populations, Sinitic (Han) languages started to resemble non-Han languages, adopting similar syntactic means, while Yugur languages (Western Yugur belongs to Turkic language group and Eastern Yugur belongs to Mongolic language group), spoken by typical nomadic populations, kept their syntax relatively intact. The mixing degree of languages and populations in this area remains unclear, and in-depth research with an interdisciplinary approach is necessary. The Project will determine the linguistic situation in this anthropological corridor by targeting two nomadic languages (Western and Eastern Yugur) and a variety of Sinitic languages. The analysis of language mixing and language replacement processes will be based on quantified data modeling, part of which will come from molecular anthropology and other fields such as history and archeology. This interdisciplinary approach will offer a global vision of language and population mixing in the Gansu-Qinghai area and a living sample of language preservation or loss due to different lifestyles and cultures.

The Government of PRC has shown a strong political will to develop social work as a new academic profession in rapidly changing Chinese society. The Chinese universities are in the need of support for meeting this challenge in an appropriate way. There is a special need to develop practice education in social work training. This project (BUIBRI) aims to help the Chinese universities to strengthen relationship with working life and prepare students for effective professional practice in collaboration with stakeholders including governmental organizations. The project brings expertise in practice education by training practice trainers. In addition it provides pedagogical materials and methods for development of practice education as well as contributes to development of social work as academic discipline in terms of an integrated system of research, education and practice. It promotes social work's capacity to become such a field of research, education and practice which meets Government's expectations. The long-term impact concerns social work faculties and practice organizations and their pedagogical relationship nationwide.