Language Reforms in Modern China - Essay Example

Name: Course: Institution: Instructor: Date: Language Reforms in Modern China China is a nature believed to have a rich culture given its long road towards civilization. In early times, China was ruled according to dynasties which governed the nation’s political, social and economic activities. Dynasties were formed based on the descent from a common ancestor which acted as a bind between individuals of a particular dynasty. Among the earliest ruling dynasty was the Shang dynasty whose authority was based in Henan Province and ruled from 1324 and 1066 BC. The origin of Chinese civilisation is believed to have begun in the areas surrounding the Yellow River where close to 1800 clans lived towards the end of the Shang dynasty. With the onset of civilisation, economic and military activities increased among these clans and therefore the need for a common language arose. This would facilitate communication among the clans in exchanging commodities and the provision of services. The language need led to the development of the language referred to as Yinxu which is currently spoken in Henan Province (Chen, p5). The Chinese language has continuously been subjected to a linguistic metamorphosis ever since it was established that the presence of a common language will unite the several clans. Clans had their own language and often interacted but with no proper communication. This led to the development of autonomous clans which conducted their unique activities and had their own administration. This was the cause of political, social and economic wrangles which hindered development in the wider Chinese nation. To end the frequent wrangles, language was identified as a major tool to unite the Chinese and direct them towards achieving a common goal. However, the development of a new language proved to be a herculean task as numerous issues kept emerging as the development process progressed. The major issues that were faced by language reformers include the lack of a common dialect that the modern language could be pegged. According to Chen Yayan was identified as the standard Chinese language to be used in learning institutions but was not cultural inclusive (7). In the year 1840, China’s history was rewritten after it was defeated in the Opium War. The Chinese realised that the nation had been developing at a snail’s speed compared to other western nations. During this time, the industrial revolution had already begun to transform nation’s economic activities and the Chinese were yet to realise this effect. The Chinese resolved to channel their efforts towards revitalizing the nation’s economy where language reforms were identified as an important issue to address. The Chinese administration acknowledged the fact that various languages existed among its nationals who were geographically spread. To boost their nation’s economic performance, the identification and promotion of a modern Chinese language and implementing changes in the writing system were prioritised. The importance of a common language meant to unite the Chinese nationals towards striving for and achieving a common national agenda (Chen, p13). Most professionals had migrated to other nations, Japan in particular due to the development lag in China. On receiving information on the proposed language reforms in their mother land, they opted to go back and assist especially considering that language reforms had been successful in Japan (Gottlieb, p17). On coming back home to facilitate the process, they brought in a number of diverse views on the identification process which mostly confused the process. Some proposed for guoyu to be adopted as the standard Chinese language which was accepted by a number of language reformers. Reformers always have opposing views as how an issue is to be addressed and language reform in China was no exception. Although they believed in the success of language reform, they differed on the standard of the national language and how to increase awareness on the language among the nationals. The sound and articulation of the new language proved to be a thorny issue where some reformers proposed that it be based on the Beijing dialect. A consensus was necessary at this point and the reformers proposed the Nanjing, Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai dialects as the basis for the new modern standard language (DeFrancis, 36). Other reformers proposed that the modern language should adopt a more general form as opposed to basing it on a single dialect which could raise opposition from the nationals. Most of the reformers eventually agreed that the modern language should be encoded in a syllabic script where the phonetic values were precise and accurate. This was identified as the best means to develop and publicize the modern language and achieve positive results. However, not all reformers were comfortable with the idea and thus resulted into the formation of a committee in 1911 that conducted a survey to identify the dialects based on aspects such as vocabulary, phonology and grammar upon others. Depending on the outcome of the survey, the committee members will decide on the pronunciation and alphabet standards of the modern language. At this stage, consensus had been built on the composition of the language, its grammar, dialect and popularity. In 1912, The China Republic began the language planning work which saw the implementation of the agreed standards. The work began with the establishment of a Commission for Unifying Reading Pronunciation which was mandated with the determination of phonological standards of the modern language. Regions within China were adequately represented in the commission which included education experts from the Education ministry totalling to eight members (DeFrancis, p42). During the period of language reforms, power struggles were a common occurrence which directly impacted on the reform process. Power shifts inhibited the development of a modern language as it was conducted by a government body which was politically influenced. After working for months, the commission decided on the pronunciation of over 6,500 characters where the decision was made through voting for each of the characters. With this hurdle having been overcome, it was expected that the Chinese will move directly to publicizing the modern language. However, the outcome was put on hold due to the volatile political conditions at the moment. It was to be published later in 1919 in a new national dictionary that indicated the pronunciation of the characters. It should be noted that more of the characters adhered to the Beijing dialect which was largely influential. In 1920, the Education Ministry called for the countrywide publicising of the guoyu. The published 1919 dictionary experienced opposition from language reformists who argued that the modern language should adopt pronunciation from the Beijing dialect that is spoken by individuals who have at least attained high school education. This led to the formation of two opposing groups where one supported the 1919 dictionary while others supported the national language to be based on the Beijing dialect. Those calling for the Beijing dialect emerged successful in the long run after struggling for ten years (Ping, p14). Due to poor planning, the 1919 dictionary emerged to have a number of mistakes especially in the practicality of the modern language. Adequate information had not been collected in order to produce a language that was nationally accepted. The language had to identify with the various clans of the nation and not a few clans which were considered mighty. Ping notes that firstly, the tones in the 1919 dictionary were practically difficult and this caused discord among the language reformers. Secondly, the dictionary identified five tonal categories without proper indication of the realization of the phonetics (15). Tone variation proved to be a major problem with reformers calling for the adoption of various tones from diverse dialects. It was agreed that phonology aspects and phonetic values be derived from the Beijing dialect. The language unification committee was once again recalled and requested to oversee the standard pronunciation of the modern language. This led to the development of a new national pronunciation where characters that were inexistent in Beijing dialect were annotated based on the Beijing dialect. Pronunciation replacement was a crucial milestone to the development of a national standardised language in China. Before the development of a modern language, standard Chinese was based on the verbal pronunciation in reading and writing characters. In adopting the language’s phonology, different dialects were considered and assimilated in the new language. The 1919 dictionary exhibited these traditional features whereas the language was to be modern. Some features of the early standard language had ceased to exist and therefore the review of standard Chinese was appropriate. The adoption of the Beijing dialect into the modern language served as both a vernacular and literary standard. Adopting the Beijing dialect to constitute over 90 per cent of the modern language was not an easy task. The Beijing dialect was regarded as a low end language commonly spoken by people with lower social status. The modern language had to be prestigious and comprise of an element of respect (DeBernadi, p6). Developed modern languages were hurriedly adopted by introducing them into learning institutions. Without the reformers being consulted on whether the language was all inclusive for national development, the education ministry went ahead to introduce it. This led to the subsequent waste of resources and manpower after the new language was rejected. The promotion of the new language began in schools around the nation. Guowen which was the then national language increased the literacy ability of students. However, the introduction of Guoyu aimed at boosting proficiency in the modern language by scholars. This was a major objective to be achieved by the modern language as it led to the spread of the language across China. Starting from year one in primary school, students were to be taught the basics of the modern language and increased learning would be taught to ensure increased competency in the modern language. To cater for the adult learners, the education ministry published journal and magazines which were provided to adults interested in learning the modern language (Schiaffini, p90). Declaration of the Peoples Republic of China saw the government assume a much greater role compared to previous years of language modernisation. Publicizing the language was the next step towards fully completing the reform process. This was to ensure that the language spread far and wide and later generations will adopt it providing for its continuity. Two conferences were organized by the Language Planning Institution in 1955 to widely discuss on the issues pertaining to the modern language. Prior to the conferences, the institution had requested for various academic stakeholders to provide their views on the modern language which were to form the agenda of the two conferences. Ping states that at the end of the conferences, putonghua was defined as the standardised modern Chinese with its language definition comprising of three aspects namely; grammar, phonetics and lexicon (24). This saw the end of Guoyu and the beginning of Putonghua as the national modern language. Promotion of the modern language began after 1955 and promotional offices established in provinces and major cities. Massive campaigns for the language were conducted to ensure its penetration into the remote regions of the nation. Although the energy of the promotions continued to diminish with time, the language continued to spread even further and withstanding several revolutions (Ping, p26). Reforms in the Chinese language were aimed at ensuring the pursuance of a common agenda among the nationals in order to achieve economic prosperity. The reforms were excessive since they involved the repetition of several processes since some aspects of the developed language were rejected by scholars and language reformers. Language reforms were hurriedly adopted under unpredictable economic, social and cultural environments. The outcome of these reforms did not reflect the culture of all nationals and thus the language had to be rejected a couple of times before being accepted. Works Cited DeBernardi, Jean. Linguistic Nationalism: The Case of Southern Min. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1999. DeFrancis, John. Nationalism & Language Reform in China. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1950. DeFrancis, John. The Chinese Language: Fact & Fantasy. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1986. Gottlieb, Nanette. Kanji Politics: Language & Society in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005. Ping, Chen. Modern Chinese: Its History & Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999. Schiaffini, Patricia. The Language Divide: Identity & Literary Choices in Modern Tibet. Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 57. 2004. Read More

The Chinese administration acknowledged the fact that various languages existed among its nationals who were geographically spread. To boost their nation’s economic performance, the identification and promotion of a modern Chinese language and implementing changes in the writing system was prioritized. The importance of a common language meant to unite the Chinese nationals towards striving for and achieving a common national agenda (Chen, p13).Most professionals had migrated to other nations, Japan in particular due to the development lag in China.

On receiving information on the proposed language reforms in their motherland, they opted to go back and assist especially considering that language reforms had been successful in Japan (Gottlieb, p17). On coming back home to facilitate the process, they brought in several diverse views on the identification process which mostly confused the process. Some proposed for guoyu to be adopted as the standard Chinese language which was accepted by several language reformers. Reformers always have opposing views as to how an issue is to be addressed and language reform in China was no exception.

Although they believed in the success of language reform, they differed on the standard of the national language and how to increase awareness of the language among the nationals. The sound and articulation of the new language proved to be a thorny issue where some reformers proposed that it be based on the Beijing dialect. A consensus was necessary at this point and the reformers proposed the Nanjing, Wuhan, Beijing, and Shanghai dialects as the basis for the new modern standard language (DeFrancis, 36).

Other reformers proposed that the modern language should adopt a more general form as opposed to basing it on a single dialect which could raise opposition from the nationals. Most of the reformers eventually agreed that the modern language should be encoded in a syllabic script where the phonetic values were precise and accurate. This was identified as the best means to develop and publicize the modern language and achieve positive results. However, not all reformers were comfortable with the idea and thus resulted in the formation of a committee in 1911 that surveyed to identify the dialects based on aspects such as vocabulary, phonology, and grammar upon others.

Depending on the outcome of the survey, the committee members will decide on the pronunciation and alphabet standards of the modern language. At this stage, consensus had been built on the composition of the language, its grammar, dialect, and popularity. In 1912, The China Republic began the language planning work which saw the implementation of the agreed standards. The work began with the establishment of a Commission for Unifying Reading Pronunciation which was mandated with the determination of phonological standards of the modern language.

Regions within China were adequately represented in the commission which included education experts from the Education ministry totaling eight members (DeFrancis, p42).During the period of language reforms, power struggles were a common occurrence that directly impacted the reform process. Power shifts inhibited the development of a modern language as it was conducted by a government body that was politically influenced. After working for months, the commission decided on the pronunciation of over 6,500 characters where the decision was made through voting for each of the characters.

With this hurdle having been overcome, it was expected that the Chinese will move directly to publicizing the modern language. However, the outcome was put on hold due to the volatile political conditions at the moment. It was to be published later in 1919 in a new national dictionary that indicated the pronunciation of the characters. It should be noted that more of the characters adhered to the Beijing dialect which was largely influential. In 1920, the Education Ministry called for the countrywide publicizing of the Guoyu.

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