wear bright decorated cotton caps and silk veils. On special occasions, women wear embroidered shoes with a medium heel. Language and education The Dongxiang speak the Dongxiang language, a member of the Mongolic family. The language has distinct features resembling archaic Mongolian and has many foreign loan words borrowed from Arabic, Chinese, Persian, and a few Turkic languages. The Dongxiang people also have a rich tradition of oral literature and use the Arabic alphabet. As a result of the language shift, some 20,000 people in several villages in the Northeastern Dongxiang County now speak the so-called "Tangwang language": a creolized version of Mandarin Chinese with a strong Dongxiang influence, in particular in its grammar. Government statistics show that the Dongxiang are among the poorest and least literate of China's minorities, with most Dongxiang having completed only an average of 1.1 years of schooling, a problem aggravated by the lack of a written language. In 2004, the Ford Foundation provided US$30,000 in grant money for a pilot project to promote bilingual education in Mandarin and Dongxiang, in an effort to reduce school drop-out rates. The project is credited with the publication of a Dongxiang-Chinese bilingual dictionary as well as recent rises in test scores. Genetics Distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups in Dongxiang: O=24.29(O2=18.69,O1a=1.87,O1b=3.73) J=16.82 R1=16.82(R1a=14.02,R1b=2.8) R2=9.35 C=6.54 G=5.61 N=5.6 D=4.67 E=3.74 Others=6.56 In another study in 2010 found that the majority of the Dongxiang belonged to Haplogroup R1a (R1a : 54%). Famous Dongxiang people Ma Wanfu, anti-Qing rebel and Yihewani founder Ma Dahan, anti-Qing rebel References External links The Dongxiang The Dongxiang ethnic minority (Chinese government site) Dongxiang in China Oliver Corff: The Dongxiang Mongols and Their Language Ford Foundation Grant Information: Narisi Primary School of Dongxiang Autonomous County Poor, illiterate, and unaware they're in China Dongxiang people history and photo gallery Mongol peoples Dongxiang people Islam in China Muslim communities of China Ethnic groups officially recognized by China