Nation-Building Through Language Policy: The Chinese Experience

Abstract

In 1808, the German Romanticist Johann Fichte contended that "men are formed by language far more than language is formed by men." Following this and understanding that language is closely tied to personal identity, to what extent can language become a means to influencing identity and, through that, influencing actions? This presentation will look at the role that language played throughout twentieth century China by focusing on how language was employed as a nation-building instrument in China’s transformation from empire to nation-state by promoting a common identity where previously none had existed. This study looks at the case of China for it presents a continuous group of people affected by three different governments in less than a century, who experienced three different nationbuilding campaigns, where three different sets of language policies were applied. By looking at thelanguage policies and planning during the Republic of China from 1912-49, the Maoist People’s Republic of China during the 1950s, and the shift in policy in the 1970s and 1980s with Deng Xiaoping, I examine how and why language policy changed and how successful the policies were in affecting an idea of nation and national identity amongst China’s populations. By studying the motivations, aims, and consequencesof language planning this study leads to an understanding of why nations engage in language planning and acknowledges the power, or lack thereof, that deliberate language reform and policy can have ininitiating greater social and political change.