A Study On The Written Language Reform In The People's Republic Of China

The written-language reform in the P. R. C. inheritances and develops the past thoughts and practices which were rising in the serious crisis of dividing modern China by western powers. By drawing the rational parts from the past and abandoning the radical, mistaken parts of the past, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) achieved unprecedented success in the reform. The reform has been the most brilliant chapter of the Chinese written-language reform over100years.The three tasks of the reform led by CCP between1949and1986, which are to regulate and simplify the Chinese written-language, to popularize the mandarin and to carry out the Program of Chinese Pinyin, are the main studying objects of this paper. This paper investigates systematically the evolution of the theories and practices about the reform, evaluates objectively the great achievements and important influences of the reform, analysis profoundly the defects and deficiencies in the reform, sums up some experiences and lessons from the reform and hopes to give enlightenments to the further written-language reform in the P. R. C.This paper has8sections. The first section-Introduction-explains the background and the significance of this study, summarizes the research status in China and abroad, introduces the logic, methods and basic frame of this paper, and illustrates some key points, difficulties and innovations in this paper.Chapter1reviews the theories and practices about the written-language reform formed and implemented by the related thoughts and movements in several historical periods such as late Qing dynasty, the early years of the Republic of China,"May4th" period,1920's and1930's, etc. In this chapter, by tracing the main processes of the written-language reform led by CCP during the period of democratic revolution, it is pointed out that, the thoughts and theories about the reform led by CCP were the inheritance, sublation and development of those of the past periods, the reform carried out by CCP in the revolutionary base areas accumulated valuable experiences and lessons for the written-language reform of new China.Chapter2discusses the historical backgrounds of the written-language reform in new China and the strategic understanding held by CCP about the reform. Firstly, this chapter analysis the theory preparation for the reform in the early years of the foundation of new China, including Marxism theories about language, the thoughts and theories about written-language reform in modern China, the understanding about the laws of written-language development, etc. Secondly, this chapter explains the requirements of the times on the reform, mainly analyzing the domestic and abroad situations faced by CCP when the reform was put on the agenda-the needs for building new China domestically and the development trend of alphabetization about written-language globally.Chapter3discusses the comprehensive way of the reform in1949-1978, mainly covering the issues such as how to define the target and aims in the process of the reform led by CCP, how to set off the wave about the work of the reform and to make it steady progress through adjustment and consolidation, how to make it forge ahead slowly during the periods of "Cultural Revolution" and the2years of wandering. By reviewing the tortuous course in this period, the great success and some problems are examined.Chapter4is about the rethinking of CCP about the written-language since the foundation of new China and is about the adjustment of the guiding principal for the new period. This chapter mainly analysis the rethinking and adjustment about the direction of alphabetization and the necessity of continuing to promote the written-language reform under the new situation of opening-up and reforms, including the abolition of the Second Simplification Scheme of Chinese (draft) which was made during the "Cultural Revolution", the completion of bring order out of chaos about the written-language reform, the national conference about the works of language in1986for setting up the guiding lines of the language reform in the new period and for adjusting the key points of the works from written-language reform to language regularization and standardization, etc.By several topics, chapter5briefly introduces the main contents and achievements of the language works since1986in the new period. Because the key points of the works in this period are not written-language reform, this chapter doer not fully and deeply investigate the works about language, but review the situation and progress from the aspects of such as the attention and support of the central committee of CCP on the works, the vigorous popularization of mandarin, the active promotion of Chinese regularization and standardization, the continuation and perfection of Chinese Alphabet Scheme, the active development of informatics treatment in Chinese, and so on.Chapter6is the general evaluation about the written-language reform in the P. R. C. By adopting the principals of dialectical materialist and Historical materialism, this chapter makes objective evaluation about the nature, character, achievement, affect of the reform, analysis its deficiency and shortcoming, concludes some lessons for present works of language.The last section is the conclusion which mainly concerns the continuous exploration by scholars about the language reform, remarks the researches about the topic of the "Modernization of Chinese Language", and makes3proposals about how to rigorously promote the modernization of Chinese language.