Full Description
The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Language and Culture represents the first English anthology that delves into the fascinating and thought-provoking relationship between the Chinese language and culture, exploring various macro and micro perspectives.
Chinese culture boasts a history of ten thousand years, while the Chinese language's recorded history spans at least three thousand years, dating back to the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions (OBI).
This handbook is comprised of 17 chapters from 18 scholars including Victor Mair and William S-Y. Wang. Many chapters approach their respective topics with a comprehensive and historical outlook. Certain extensive subjects are addressed in multiple chapters, complementing one another. These topics include:
The languages and peoples of China, and the southern Chinese dialects
Mandarin's evolution into a national language and its related writing reforms
Language as a propaganda tool in the Cultural Revolution and in contemporary China
Chinese idioms and colloquialisms
This book offers an approachable exploration of the subject, appealing to both specialists and enthusiasts of the Chinese language and culture.
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction
Part I
Writing, Sounds, and Culture
1 Chinese Manuscript Culture
2 A Century of Chinese Writing Reform
3 Chinese Phonology and Cross-Cultural Exchange in History
4 Monosyllabicity of Chinese in a Quadripartite Classification of World Languages: Exceptions Explained
Part II
Philosophy, Politics, and Culture
5 The Linguistics of Chinese Philosophical Keywords
6 Power and Persuasion: Language and Politics in China
7 Chinese Exceptionalism: Linguistic Construction of a Superpower
8 Distinguishing between Early Modern and Modern Chinese Lexicons: Mandarin's Journey to Becoming a national language
Part III
Words, Expressions, Discourse, and Culture
9 Chinese Idioms and Culture
10 Colloquialisms and Chinese Culture
11 Place Name as Personal Identification
12 Chinese Emotions: Words, Meaning and Culture
13 Classroom Discourse in Chinese as a Second Language
Part IV
China, Chinese, Dialects, and Culture
14 Sinophone Studies
15 A Dynamic Perspective on the Languages and Peoples of China
16 On the Origin of Han Chinese and Chinese Dialects of South China
17 The Common Language, Dialects and Chinese Cultural Traditions
Index
