URGENT NEED FOR PROTECTION
The central and regional governments have allocated 10 million yuan (1.61 million U.S. dollars) in special funds for the inheritance and protection of the epic.
Since May 2007, 10 Manaschi trainees and 10 players of Kumuzi, a stringed instrument played to accompany the epic, have been sent to hone their skills with more advanced Manaschi each year. They receive a monthly wage of 500 yuan and a 600-yuan year-end bonus.
Inheritors of the epic on the national and regional levels receive monthly subsidies ranging from 240 yuan to 1,000 yuan, staff with the regional culture department said.
The Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Federation of Literary and Art Circles set up a Manas research center in the 1990s to collect and edit related material.
The Mandarin edition of the first episode, which contains 53,000 lines, come out in 2007. The second book is currently being edited and will soon be published.
Ma Xiongfu, vice president of Xinjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said the Mandarin version will allow more Chinese people to learn about Manas and serve as invaluable research material on the history and culture of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
As one of the translators, Ma said nobody has translated the original charm of the "Epic of Manas" into Mandarin yet.
Meanwhile, more difficulties remain despite protection efforts.
Governments at the regional, prefectural and county levels, as well as universities and non-governmental organizations such as the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, are simultaneously carrying out Manas preservation work, but each in its own way, said Ma.
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