Table of Contents

Introduction: The Context of the Theory and Practice of China’s Language Policy.- Introduction: The Context of the Theory and Practice of China’s Language Policy.- Theory and Practice in the Center.- Fifty Years of Script and Written Language Reform in the P.R.C..- The Relationship between Putonghua and Chinese Dialects.- The Creation of Writing Systems and Nation Establishment.- Minority Language Policy in China.- The Center Versus The Periphery in Practice.- Language Spread Versus Language Maintenance: Policy Making and Implementation Process.- Good to Hear.- Putonghua Education and Language Policy in Postcolonial Hong Kong.- On the Promotion of Putonghua in China: How a Standard Language Becomes a Vernacular.- Theorizing Personal Experiences from the Practice.- Theorizing Over 40 Years Personal Experiences with the Creation and Development of Minority Writing Systems of China.- The Use and Development of Dai and its Vernacular Writing Systems.- Theory and Practice Viewed from Minority Communities.- The Use and Development of Tibetan in China.- The Introduction and Development of the Zhuang Writing System.- Policies on the Planning and Use of the Yi Language and Writing Systems.- Language Policy for Bai.- The Use and Development of Mongol and its Writing Systems in China.- Language Policy and Standardization of Korean in China.- Foreign Language Education Policy and Modernization.- Foreign Language Education in the PRC.- Postscript.- Language Matters in China: An Anthropological Postscript.

Reviews

From the reviews: "This volume tries to give an overview of ‘the dramatic linguistic revolution that has swept across China’ during the second half of the twentieth century. … In the 19 papers which this book presents, the reader is made well aware of the enormous complexities involved in language-planning in a country with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants. … This quite detailed and scholarly study can be read by anyone with a deeper interest in Chinese culture, language, society." (E. Van Laerhoven, Acta Comparanda, Vol. XVI, 2005)