Major publications on bilingual education have been based on research and theories in the West; few have addressed the status of bilingual education in Asia. This work is one of the first to discuss the practices, policies, and concepts of bilingual education in China. It includes two types of bilingual education largely unknown to the West. One is bilingual education for the minority Chinese, which is the teaching of Mandarin Chinese (Pu Tong Hua) and an ethnic minority language (e.g., Tibetan, Mongolian, Yao, Bai). The other is bilingual English and Chinese education (mostly for the Chinese majority, Han), which has become an important national education issue in recent years. The goal of the former is for minorities to achieve Min-Han Jiantong—that is, native-speaker competence in both the home language and Mandarin Chinese—the latter is to produce Fuhexing Rencai—that is, well-rounded talents with sound knowledge in a specialized area and competency in a foreign language in a globalized economy.

The book is comprised of four sections. Section 1, “Policy, Curriculum and Ideological Orientations,” situates the discussion of bilingual education in the sociohistorical context of China and bilingual education in the West. The three chapters address the two types of Chinese bilingual education. Whereas Adamson centers on the process of depoliticalization of the English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum in China since 1949, Postiglione, Jiao, and Manlaji describe a unique, controversial program for ethnic Tibetans, called Inland Boarding Schools, that takes Tibetan children away from home to live and study in secondary schools in many major cities outside of Tibet. Lam's chapter covers both types of programs, which she compares with models of bilingual education developed in other parts of the world. She argues that an implicit trilingual policy model is practiced in China because all Chinese are required to learn Mandarin Chinese and English in addition to speaking one or more dialects or minority languages at home.

Sections 2 and 3 include seven chapters that describe specific programs and practices for both types of bilingual education in several regions of China. Dai and Cheng's description of various bilingual program models adopted in different minority regions is particularly informative. Two other chapters provide further examples of diversity in program models: Specific programs with Tibetan, Dongxiang, Dong, Bai, and Dai ethnic groups are discussed by Dai and Zhang and by Cobbey. The remaining four chapters in these two sections are concerned with different English-Chinese bilingual education programs. Based on Bourdieu's sociological theory, Hu provides a particularly insightful critical analysis of the Chinese-English bilingual education craze. He analyzes layers of interests that various stakeholders at different levels, such as policy makers, school districts, businesses, and parents, vested in promoting bilingual education regardless of its consequences exhibit.

The last section of the book is concerned with the provision of English for minority students. Whereas Huang's chapter focuses on teacher perceptions of Chinese-English bilingual education at the postsecondary level, Jiang, Liu, Quan, and Ma study learner differences and program resources in K–12 EFL classrooms in minority regions of Gansu Province. Both chapters suggest inadequate resources and an underprepared teaching force as barriers to the provision of English for Chinese ethnic minorities.

Feng concludes the book by reexamining the goals for the two types of Chinese bilingual education. The widespread utilitarianism in Chinese-English bilingual education and the concealed assimilation in minority bilingual education are two critical issues addressed in this chapter; Feng provides suggestions for addressing these challenges in a globalized educational context.

Although this book provides a very comprehensive picture of bilingual education in China and the chapters are excellent, a minor drawback is the organization and grouping of the chapters. Feng provides a strong rationale for the division of the chapters into these four sections; however, it might be easier for readers to follow if the chapters were grouped according to the two types of bilingual education, with a conclusion chapter bringing the two sections together. Overall, this is an informative work and a must-read for anyone interested in language education in general and bilingual education in particular.