The Language Policy In Contemporary China

Language policy is the fundamental attitude towards social language issues held bythe nation and the government, reflecting the nation’s political ideas. As part of nationalpolicy, language policy has drown the world’s attention for its national unity andstability at home and national image and power abroad. Owing to its close associationwith various fields of social life such as the politics, economy and culture, languagepolicy is more than an interdisciplinary topic. It is related to multiple fields and subjects,especially in close relation with politics. Therefore, this paper attempts to studycontemporary Chinese language policy from the political perspective.Contemporary Chinese language policy including two parts: the National Policy ofCommonly Used Language and Writing in Chinese and the Minority Language andWriting Policy. Provisions were made by constitution and Law of the People’s Republicof China on Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language for these two policiesrespectively. The former refers to the ‘national promotion of Mandarin and thestandardized Chinese characters’ and the latter refers to ‘all peoples have the freedom touse and develop their own spoken and written languages.’ These two provisions can beregarded as the core of contemporary Chinese language policy, which reflectrequirements of subjectivity and diversity respectively. And the combination ofsubjectivity and diversity is the basic feature of contemporary Chinese language policy.This paper analyzes contemporary Chinese language policy from the perspective of two political theories. The first is the perspective of state sovereignty, focusing on theanalysis of the national policy of commonly used language and writing in Chinese. Andthe second is the perspective of ethnic rights, mainly discussing minority languagepolicy. Basing on the Marxist theory related to nation and ethnic, comparing specificpractice of domestic and overseas language policies and combining contemporaryChinese language life and realistic national situation, this paper analyzes developmenthistory, political basis and application effects and gets many helpful findings.Sovereignty is the most significant national attribute and safeguarding statesovereignty is the primary goal to administer state affairs well and ensure nationalsecurity. The stimulation and implementation of National Common Language Policythat conforms to needs of national politics has a direct relation with the maintenance ofstate sovereignty and the consolidation of state power. In process of forming anddeveloping, contemporary Chinese National Common Language Policy plays animportant role in safeguarding state sovereignty. The establishment of NationalCommon Language provides fundamental guarantee for safeguarding state sovereignty;the reasonable choice of National Common Language lays foundation of safeguardingstate sovereignty; the scientific popularization of National Common Language developsa basic way of safeguarding state sovereignty; the language purity and informationconstruction conforms to the realistic needs. In a word, through authority’s stablishment,reasonable choice, effective popularization and scientific foundation, contemporaryChinese National Common Language Policy plays a major role in safeguarding statesovereignty. Looking into the future, the stimulation and implementation of NationalCommon Language Policy should keep the basic purpose of safeguarding statesovereignty and keep abreast of the developing trend of times on the basis of inheritedprevious achievements. The main focus should be the ontology planning of NationalCommon Language in order to enhance international core competitiveness and play more significant role in safeguarding state sovereignty and gaining national interests.Ethnic is the foundation of national establishment and development. To protectthe rights of ethnic groups is an integral requirement of safeguarding ethnic unity andnational stability. To stimulate and implement ethnic language policy that conforms toneeds of ethnic development affects directly ethnic rights protection and ethnic relationsharmony. In process of forming and developing, contemporary Chinese ethnic languagepolicy plays an important role in safeguarding ethnic rights. Positive protection againstlanguage rights is the fundamental expression of safeguarding ethnic rights; vigorousdevelopment in ethnic language is a core work of safeguarding ethnic rights; fullyrespect on language attitude is the basic principle of safeguarding ethnic rights;scientific attitude to endangered language is a realistic issue of safeguarding ethnicrights. In brief, through protecting language rights, developing ethnic language, respectlanguage attitude and envisage endangered language, contemporary Chinese ethniclanguage policy plays an important role in safeguarding ethnic rights. Looking into thefuture, the stimulation and implementation of ethnic language policy should keep thecore purpose of safeguarding ethnic rights. According to the need of social development,on the basis of inherited previous experience, the main focus should be the ontologyplanning and scientific protection of ethnic language in order to promote harmoniousdevelopment of all ethnic languages and play more significant role in safeguardingethnic rights and gaining ethnic and national identity.Comparing with other studies on current language policy, this paper brings forthsome new ideas. First, there is an innovation in study perspective. Most current studiesanalyze language policy from perspective of linguistics, however, this paper choosespolitics as the perspective, which is in close relation with language policy, whichreveals political nature of language policy more easily. Second, there is an innovation instudy contents. Most current domestic studies mainly concerns about National Common Language Policy and Language Corpus Planning. However, this paperanalyzes two fundamental policies, which are National Common Language Policy andethnic language policy in the meantime, focusing on political influence behind languagestatus planning, which is new. Moreover, there is an innovation in study routes. Notstudying all aspects of language policy, but focusing on exploring the origin ofstimulation and change and revealing political ideas of language policy, through whichthis paper has more prominent study theme. Last but not least, there is an innovation instudy methods. As an interdisciplinary study result, this paper combines multidisciplinestudy methods to strive to achieve the furthest study purpose.Under the historical background of our nation focusing on achievement of Chinesenation’s bright prospect on the road to revival, it serves both theoretical and practicalsignificance by studying contemporary Chinese language policy from the perspective ofpolitics, exploring political rules behind it, thinking its future development tendency andproviding scientific planning of language policy that is beneficial to safeguard statesovereignty and ethnic rights and promote ethnic and national identity. As a trial trip ofstudying Chinese language policy from perspective of politics, this paper hopes to raisemore political studies and interdisciplinary exploration towards language policy,mobilize the combination and cooperation of linguistics and politics on language policyissues and jointly promote study and practice of current Chinese language policy.