Language Policy in the People’s Republic of China Theory and Practice Since 1949 Language Policy VOLUME 4 Series Editors: Bernard Spolsky, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Elana Shohamy, Tel Aviv University, Israel Editorial Board: Claire Kramsch, University of California at Berkeley, USA Georges Lüdi, University of Basel, Switzerland Normand Labrie, University of Toronto, Canada Anne Pakir, Singapore University, Singapore John Trim, Former Fellow, Selwyn College, Cambridge, UK Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University, USA The last half century has witnessed an explosive shift in language diversity not unlike the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, but involving now a rapid spread of global languages and an associated threat to small languages. The diffusion of global languages, the stampede towards English, the counter-pressures in the form of ethnic efforts to reverse or slow the process, the continued determination of nation-states to assert national identity through language, and, in an opposite direction, the greater tolerance shown to multilingualism and the increasing concern for language rights, all these are working to make the study of the nature and possibilities of language policy and planning a field of swift growth. The series will publish empirical studies of general language policy or of language education policy, or monographs dealing with the theory and general nature of the field. We welcome detailed accounts of language policy-making - who is involved, what is done, how it develops, why it is attempted. We will publish research dealing with the development of policy under different conditions and the effect of implementation. We will be interested in accounts of policy development by governments and governmental agencies, by large international companies, foundations, and organizations, as well as the efforts of groups attempting to resist or modify governmental policies. We will also consider empirical studies that are relevant to policy of a general nature, e.g. the local effects of the developing European policy of starting language teaching earlier, the numbers of hours of instruction needed to achieve competence, selection and training of language teachers, the language effects of the Internet. Other possible topics include the legal basis for language policy, the role of social identity in policy development, the influence of political ideology on language policy, the role of economic factors, policy as a reflection of social change. The series is intended for scholars in the field of language policy and others interested in the topic, including sociolinguists, educational and applied linguists, language planners, language educators, sociologists, political scientists, and comparative educationalists. Language Policy in the People’s Republic of China Theory and Practice Since 1949 Edited by Minglang Zhou Dickinson College, U.S.A. Consulting Editor Hongkai Sun Chinese Academy of Social Sciences KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBook ISBN: 1-4020-8039-5 Print ISBN: 1-4020-8038-7 ©2004 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. Print ©2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers Boston All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Springer's eBookstore at: http://www.ebooks.kluweronline.com and the Springer Global Website Online at: http://www.springeronline.com To those who have devoted their whole lives to facilitating the use and maintenance of minority languages in China This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Table of contents vii List of contributors ix Preface by the series editors Bernard Spolsky and Elana Shohamy xv Foreword Victor H. Mair xvii Acknowledgements xix 1. Introduction: The Context of the Theory and Practice of China’s Language Policy Minglang Zhou & Heidi A. Ross 1 Part I: Theory and Practice in the Center 19 2. Fifty Years of Script and Written Language Reform in the PRC: The Genesis of the Language Law of 2001 John S. Rohsenow 21 3. The Relationship between Putonghua and Chinese Dialects Longsheng Guo 45 4. The Creation of Writing Systems and Nation Establishment: The Case of China in the 1950s Qingsheng Zhou 55 5. Minority Language Policy in China: Equality in Theory and Inequality in Practice Minglang Zhou 71 Part II: The Center Versus the Periphery in Practice 97 6. Language Spread Versus Language Maintenance: Policy Making and Implementation Process Dongyan Ru Blachford 99 7. Good to Hear: Using the Trope of Standard to Find One’s Way in a Sea of Linguistic Diversity Susan D. Blum 123 8. Putonghua Education and Language Policy in Postcolonial Hong Kong Bennan Zhang & Robin R. Yang 143 TABLE OF CONTENTS 9. On the Promotion of Putonghua in China: How a Standard Language Becomes a Vernacular Claire Saillard 163 Part III: Theorizing Personal Experiences from the Practice 177 10. Theorizing over 40 Years Personal Experiences with the Creation and Development of Minority Writing Systems of China Hongkai Sun 179 11. The Use and Development of Dai and Its Vernacular Writing Systems Yaowen Zhou & Fenghe Fang 201 Part IV: Theory and Practiced Viewed from Minority Communities 219 12. The Use and Development of Tibetan in China Maocao Zhou 221 13. The Introduction and Development of the Zhuang Writing System Xulian Li & Quanxi Huang 239 14. Policies on the Planning and Use of the Yi Language and Writing Systems Zhongliang Pu 257 15. Language Policy for Bai Feng Wang 277 16. The Use and Development of Mongol and Its Writing Systems in China Caodaobateer 289 17. Language Policy and Standardization of Korean in China Pingwu Tai 303 Part V: Foreign Language Education Policy and Modernization 317 18. Foreign Language Education in the PRC: A Brief Overview LuMing Mao & Yue Min 319 Postscript 331 19. Language Matters in China: An Anthropological Postscript Ann M. Hill 333 Index 339 viii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Dongyan Ru Blachford is a native of Beijing, China. She received her B.A. there and completed her graduate degrees in Canada: M.Ed. from University of Regina and Ph.D. from University of Toronto. In 1993, she received a research grant from a Canadian International Development Agency program, which enabled her to conduct research in various minority areas in China. Her research areas include minority language and education policy, bilingual education, cross cultural communication, social justice, and policy analysis and development. She is currently an assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts, University of Regina. Susan Blum is a cultural and linguistic anthropologist focusing on China. Author of Portraits of “Primitives ”: Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001) and co-editor of China Off Center: Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom (Hawai’i, 2002), she is currently finishing a book titled Deception and Truth in China. She is Director of the Center for Asian Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. Caodaobateer, a Mongol, is Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. He has participated in the PRC’s state projects on Mongol research since 1993. He has published over 20 articles on the Mongolian language and culture in Manzhou Yanjiu [Manchu Studies], Neimenggu Shehui Kexue [Inner Mongolian Social Sciences], and other journals in China. Fenghe Fang is Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is one of the earliest Dai natives participating in the PRC’s Dai language work. She joined the Yunnan Provincial Minority Language Committee’s Dai Research Department in 1954, and taught Dai at Yunnan Institute (University) for Nationalities for many years. She has published articles on Dai language and writing systems, and authored How the Han Can Learn Dai (Yunnan Minzu Press, 1996) and A Dictionary of Dehong Dai Homonyms. Longsheng Guo is Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the PRC State Language Commission and a doctorial candidate, with a specialization in language planning, at Beijing Normal University. His research interest includes language standardization, applied linguistics, and language in advertisement. He has also participated in state projects, such as the construction of the database for applied linguistics and the 2000 national survey of language use in China. Ann Maxwell Hill is Professor of Anthropology at Dickinson College. Her fieldwork, largely centered around issues of ethnic identity, has taken her to northern LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Thailand and southwest China. In China’s Yunnan Province, she works with the Yi minzu in Ninglang County. Her most recent publication is “Captives, Kin and Slaves in Xiao Liangshan,” in Journal of Asian Studies, November 2001. Quanxi Huang, a member of the Zhuang group, is Assistant Research Fellow and Associate Director of the Research Department of the Minority Language Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He received his MA in linguistics from the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing in 1990. His work and research cover compilation of Zhuang dictionaries, Zhuang standardization, and comparative study of the Dong-Dai (Tai-Kadai) languages. He has published a number of articles on these subjects. Xuliang Li, a member of the Zhuang group, is Associate