1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Language and Culture
The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Language and Culture represents the first English anthology that delves into the fascinating and thought-provoking relationship between the Chinese language and culture, exploring various macro and micro perspectives.
Chinese culture boasts a history of ten thousand years, while the Chinese language’s recorded history spans at least three thousand years, dating back to the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions (OBI).
This handbook is comprised of 17 chapters from 18 scholars including Victor Mair and William S-Y. Wang. Many chapters approach their respective topics with a comprehensive and historical outlook. Certain extensive subjects are addressed in multiple chapters, complementing one another. These topics include:
- The languages and peoples of China, and the southern Chinese dialects
- Mandarin’s evolution into a national language and its related writing reforms
- Language as a propaganda tool in the Cultural Revolution and in contemporary China
- Chinese idioms and colloquialisms
This book offers an approachable exploration of the subject, appealing to both specialists and enthusiasts of the Chinese language and culture.
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction
Liwei Jiao
Part I
Writing, Sounds, and Culture
1 Chinese Manuscript Culture
Imre Galambos
2 A Century of Chinese Writing Reform
Victor H. Mair and Jing Hu
3 Chinese Phonology and Cross-Cultural Exchange in History
Chu Chia Ning
4 Monosyllabicity of Chinese in a Quadripartite Classification of World Languages: Exceptions Explained
Chen Weiheng
Part II
Philosophy, Politics, and Culture
5 The Linguistics of Chinese Philosophical Keywords
Paul R. Goldin
6 Power and Persuasion: Language and Politics in China
Fengyuan Ji
7 Chinese Exceptionalism: Linguistic Construction of a Superpower
Liu Kang
8 Distinguishing between Early Modern and Modern Chinese Lexicons: Mandarin’s Journey to Becoming a national language
Shen Guowei
Part III
Words, Expressions, Discourse, and Culture
9 Chinese Idioms and Culture
Liwei Jiao
10 Colloquialisms and Chinese Culture
Zhou Jian
11 Place Name as Personal Identification
Zhuqing Li
12 Chinese Emotions: Words, Meaning and Culture
Zhengdao Ye
13 Classroom Discourse in Chinese as a Second Language
Fangyuan Yuan
Part IV
China, Chinese, Dialects, and Culture
14 Sinophone Studies
Edward McDonald
15 A Dynamic Perspective on the Languages and Peoples of China
William S-Y. Wang
16 On the Origin of Han Chinese and Chinese Dialects of South China
Deng Xiaohua
17 The Common Language, Dialects and Chinese Cultural Traditions
Zheng Wei
Index
Biography
Liwei Jiao is Senior Lecturer of East Asian Studies at Brown University. His research interests include Chinese phraseology, lexicography, language and culture, and language instruction. His publications include a series of Routledge dictionaries, such as 500 Common Chinese Idioms, 500 Common Chinese Proverbs and Colloquial Expressions, and A Cultural Dictionary of the Chinese Language. He has also contributed three entries, including one on Yuen Ren Chao, to the Encyclopedia of China (third edition, 2022).
