Demolishing Script

Abstract

The neologism 拆那‎ (pronounced “chai-na” in Mandarin)—a nickname for China that has recently begun to gain popularity—is a catachresis, a misnomer that brings into sharp relief a set of fissures at the heart of China’s contemporary identity, its history, and even the language(s) with which it is closely associated. Whereas the concept of Sinoglossia takes as its starting point the heterogenous foundation of both China and the Chinese language(s), the term chai-na gestures instead to the violent processes of disjunction, demolition, dispossession, and uncanny return that have played a critical role in constituting China and the Chinese language(s) as we see them today. Composed of the characters拆‎ (chai), a verb meaning “to demolish,” and 那‎ (na), a pronoun meaning “that,” chai-na literally means “demolish that,” and gestures to the rapid process of urbanization that is currently transforming the nation. As a product of a complicated set of translingual transformations, the neologism is symptomatic of the radical dynamism that has always characterized the Chinese script, while simultaneously symbolizing the common belief that it is precisely the relative stability of the Chinese script that has helped anchor the transhistorical cohesion of the Chinese nation.