Abstract
The Shanghai variant of Chinese Sign Language (SCSL) is one of the main variants of Chinese sign languages, greatly influencing other sign languages, such as Hong Kong Sign Language and Singapore Sign Language. This paper is a first attempt to trace its origins and early history and deaf education in Shanghai until 1949. The data are collected in two ways: first, by delving into the archives, i.e., written records of deaf history and education in China during that time; second, by interviewing surviving deaf students who went to school before or around 1949. Our findings are as follows: (a) SCSL began in the 1920s and emerged as a distinct sign language in the 1940s. Two deaf schools were the power shaping its progress among several deaf schools established in Shanghai: Fryer deaf school and Group learning deaf school. The sign variants of these two schools form the backbone of SCSL. (b) Deaf teachers are one of the key factors that affect the early development of a sign language. Chinese deaf played a vital role in the rise and spread of SCSL in the 1930s and 1940s, as some deaf teachers opened deaf schools in Shanghai and other cities, even other countries or areas, thus helping SCSL to spread. (c) Arising in an international and multilingual environment, SCSL is characterized by traces of foreign sign languages, especially ASL, due to language contacts linked to deaf education at that time, e.g., some proper names, like XUJIAHUI, SHANGHAI-1 and some high-frequency words like water. (d) However, foreign sign languages' direct influence is negligible due to the lack of participation of deaf foreigners in deaf education in Shanghai and oralism advocated by foreign educators in relevant deaf schools. To sum up, deaf teachers for deaf schools are key to the early development and spread of SCSL.
Highlights
Shanghai Sign Language or, to be more precise, the Shanghai variety of Chinese Sign Language (SCSL) has been regarded as prototypical of southern CSL, one of two major varieties of CSL (Fischer and Gong, 2010)
With a combination of written records and interviews with old deaf subjects, we have found first that SCSL burgeoned at the end of the Nineteenth century (Phase 1), appeared in the 1920s−1930s (Phase 2) with two deaf schools as its backbone: Fryer Deaf and Group Learning, which formed the two earliest variants within SCSL
A series of deaf schools founded by the deaf, of the deaf, and for the deaf, led by Zhonghua, marked the early development of SCSL as an independent and distinct sign language in at least the later 1930s
Summary
Shanghai Sign Language or, to be more precise, the Shanghai variety of Chinese Sign Language (SCSL) has been regarded as prototypical of southern CSL (here, CSL is used as a term covering all varieties of sign languages in China), one of two major varieties of CSL (Fischer and Gong, 2010). When the teachers saw them, they were impressed and used the new signs for teaching themselves” (Song, 2000) Another interviewee, Dai, who spent 3 years in Shanghai Private, transferred to Fryer Deaf, compared both schools. Dai, who spent 3 years in Shanghai Private, transferred to Fryer Deaf, compared both schools He believed that Fryer Deaf offered a better learning environment because the deaf teachers in Fryer Deaf were more intelligent and experienced in using sign language for teaching. It is like a picture drawn by hands, while the new sign language is obscure.”
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