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Language and Script Reform LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT REFORM JOHN DEFRANCIS 1. BACKGROUND Present developments in the area of language and script reform in China represent a further stage in a movement which goes back to the nineties of the last century. The views advanced, the proposals made, and the decisions reached can best be understood if placed against the perspective of similar activities during the past three-quarters of a century. Chinese activities in the area of script reform were initiated by the publication in 1892 of a book by Lu Kan-chang. The author, a native speaker of the Amoy dialect, presented a system of fifty-five semi-Western, semi-Chinese symbols together with the following views: (1) In order to increase literacy and speed up the educational process, China should adopt a phonetic system of writing. (2) Separate phonetic scripts should be created for each of the various dialects of China (e.g. Mandarin, Amoy) by selecting from among his fifty-five symbols those needed to represent the dialect. (3) After illiterates had learned the system for their own dialect, they should all go on to study the nation-wide standard language. Lu Kan-chang's pioneer work was followed by similar activities of other would-be reformers in the dying years of the Manchu empire. Despite varying degrees of local success, none of the schemes was taken up officially and all eventually faded out. Renewal of interest in the subject after the establishment of the Republic of China led to the calling in 1913 of a Conference on Unification of Pronunciation and to the creation of what came to be known as the National Phonetic Symbols, a set of simple symbols having the same general appearance as Chinese characters. The name of the conference indicates clearly the limited scope envisaged for the symbols. They were to be used only to represent the sounds of the national language, and then only as adjuncts to characters, as a means of representing the sounds of the characters. What little use was ever made of the symbols as an independent script was largely confined to the national language. In their primary function of indicating the pro- nunciation of characters the symbols have had a modest success and continue to be used in dictionaries and other places where phonetic annotation is needed. The next important development occurred in the twenties with the creation, largely by Y. R. Chao, of the National Language Romanization. The most distinctive LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT REFORM 131 feature of this system was the indication of tones by what was called 'tonal spelling'. The scheme was devised chiefly as a means of writing the national language, as the name indicates, and was not intended to be used in creating independent scripts for the various dialects. Despite its official acceptance in 1928 as the Second Pattern of the National Alphabet (the first being the above-mentioned Phonetic Symbols), the scheme did not receive official encouragement and was not widely used. In the thirties a further stage in the reform movement came about with the creation of still another system variously known as Latinxua (Latinization) or Sin Wenzi (New Writing) or Latinxua Sin Wenzi (Latinized New Writing). The scheme was originally developed in the Soviet Union as part of its anti-illiteracy program for use by the approximately one hundred thousand Chinese within its confines. Sub- sequently it spread into China itself. Here it was taken up in the Communist-con- trolled areas, where it received the support of some of the top Communist leaders, in foreign-controlled cities like Shanghai, and even in areas under the control of the central government. The Latinized New Writing was distinctive chiefly in two ways: it did not provide for indication of tones, and it reverted to the idea initially advanced by Lu Kan-chang of devising separate scripts for the various dialects, with Mandarin accepted as the national common language provided that it was not imposed on dialect speakers as the exclusive standard. The appearance of the New Writing on the Chinese scene engendered a sharp debate. The scheme was attacked by those who objected to any thought of the characters giving way to an alphabetic system of writing. It was also criticized by supporters of the National Language Romanization on technical grounds for its failure"to indicate tones, and on political grounds for what was considered a threat to national unity by the provision of separate scripts for the various dialects. The Latinization movement reached its height in the middle and late thirties, died out toward the end of World War II,1 but began to display some sparks of life again in the years immediately following the defeat of Japan, years marked by the outbreak of civil war and the final victory of the Communists in 1949. This seemed to foreshadow still another stage in the movement for reform of Chinese writing. In a postscript dated February 23, 1949, to his Rebirth of the Chinese language, a col- lection of articles on the Latinization movement, Ni Hai-shu, one of the leading supporters of the New Writing, spoke of the future in the following terms :2 Today and from now on the movement for phonetic writing will no longer be merely a superficial change in the written symbols but will be the liberation and development of the whole Chinese language from the shackles of the monosyllabic Chinese characters. The language policies actually instituted by the new government from its inauguration in 1949 down to the present can be summarized as follows:3 1 The material up to this point is summarized from my book Nationalism and language reform in China. a Ni Hai-shu, Chung-kuo yii-wen-te hsin-sheng, p. 570. 8 H. Mills, "Language reform in China", The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 15 (passim). 132 JOHN DEFRANCIS 1. Simplification of the Chinese characters by reducing the number of strokes in complicated characters. 2. Promotion throughout the country of a standard language based on the Peking dialect. 3. Creation of a phonetic system as a means of (a) annotating Chinese characters, (b) promoting the common language, (c) creating alphabetic scripts for the non- Chinese-speaking minorities of China, and (d) possibly at some unspecified date in the future replacing the traditional characters with a phonetic system of writing. This then, in broad outline, is the background against which the discussions within China on various aspects of the reform will be examined. Such an examination, in addition to taking up the things which were discussed in this latest phase of the reform movement, also needs to take up some important matters which were NOT discussed or were touched upon only in passing. For example, though the preceding outline makes clear that the policies of the Communist regime today are at variance with those advocated during the Latinized New Writing period, on the basis of current publications one is hard put to learn much about what prompted the change in attitude. There is a tantalizing dearth of information about some of the key issues involved in the whole reform program. This must be borne in mind in the following discussion of the main policies of simplification of characters, promotion of a stand- ardized national language, and creation of a phonetic alphabet. 2. RATIONALE OF THE REFORM PROGRAM The most authoritative exposition of the whole reform program has been presented by Premier Chou En-lai. In a speech4 delivered on January 10, 1959 he made the following opening remarks: Current tasks of reforming the Chinese written language involve the simplification of the Chinese (Han) characters, popularization of the common speech ... and the drawing up and putting into practice of the Scheme for a Chinese Phonetic Alphabet. First task is the simplification of the Chinese characters. Chou gave no reasons for the priority and touched only lightly on why simplification should be undertaken at all. He noted that "nowadays the mass of the people have begun to master the written language and urgently demand that the characters be reformed - a situation that never existed in any period of our history", that "sim- plified characters are easier to learn and to write than the characters in their original form", that "the general tendency in the evolution of characters is toward simpli- fication", and that since the people had for centuries been creating popular forms for their own use all that needed to be done was "to collect and arrange in order what had been created by the people and, after thorough discussion, popularize the results". * Chou En-lai, "Current tasks of reforming the written language", in Reform of the Chinese written language, pp. 7-29. LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT REFORM 133 "The second task", said Chou, "is the popularization of the common speech..." Alluding to the "great diversity in dialects" which exists in China, Chou added the following comments regarding the second task: This diversity in dialects has an unfavourable effect on the political, economic and cultural life of our people .... Without a common speech, we shall, to a greater or lesser extent, meet with difficulties in our national construction ... It is, therefore, an important political task to popularize vigorously the common speech with the Peking pronunciation as the standard. As to the relationship between dialects and common speech, Chou had this to say : Popularization of the common speech has as its aim the removal of the barrier of the dialects, not of prohibiting or abolishing the dialects. The answer to the question whether popu- larization of the common speech means to prohibit or abolish the dialects is definitely "No!" Dialects will exist for a long time.
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