Language Planning in China

Aiming to facilitate the understanding of language planning theory and practices in contemporary China by the rest of the world, Yuming presents 30 papers demonstrating a dual emphasis on theory and practice when investigating linguistic issues encountered by twenty-first-century Chinese society. Defining language life as different kinds of social activities that involve language use, language knowledge and language technologies, as well as the learning and study of them, he cites language life as the basis of language planning. Noting the goal of language planning as the achievement of harmony in language life, he argues that it is language life, rather than language, per se, that a government should manage. Thirty chapters cover such subjects as language as a “hard power”; language standardization; bilingual and bi-dialectical competence; Chinese language in the information age; the history of the international dissemination of Chinese; the modernization of lexicography in China; the intension and extension of qieyinzi, inter alia. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Li Yuming, Beijing Language and Culture University, China.