Written by Gina Tam This excerpt is from my book Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860-1960. The book centers the history of the Chinese nation and national identity on fangyan – languages like Shanghainese, Cantonese, and dozens of others that…
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Written by Alexandra Grey China sees linguistic diversity and language use as matters to be governed. It has therefore enacted laws and promulgated official policies about (non-Mandarin) minority languages, national standardized Mandarin (Putonghua) and Mandarin dialects over the course of…
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Written by Editor Our sixth issue explores the politics of language in modern and contemporary China. We asked our contributors to reflect on the various ways in which languages (spoken, written, signed and/or otherwise) are understood, practiced, taught, learned, promoted,…
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