This paper explores how Chinese minority students participate and defend citizenship rights on a university campus against the backdrop of ongoing social changes. Three rights are focused on: freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom to use an ethnic language. The data were collected at three universities. Research methods involved policy analysis, interviews with staff members and students, and observations on campus. Adopting Sewell's theory of structure, the study regards state creations of citizenship rights as a resource, and uses a micro-sociological approach to dismantle the interactions of different social actors (state-party, university and minority students) in campus settings. The findings show that rights are embodied polysemic meanings, and their meanings are interpreted and negotiated in a bargaining process. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)