Customer Reviews

Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics

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Chen does an excellent job of tracking the development of Modern Chinese not only in the mainland - where language policy reform, character simplification, and drives to increase national literacy rates make for interesting reading - but also in Taiwan, Singapore and overseas Chinese-speaking communities. The author is clear and thorough in his analysis of dialects as well as Standard Mandarin, and disparate influences (such as Japan) are discussed in detail. While I am happy to see that the book uses proper pinyin romanization for Chinese terms, the only improvement I could suggest would be to include the hanzi (character) equivalent as well to assist second-language learners of Chinese. A good resource for both linguists and students of the language.

Nathan Dummitt
author of Chinese Through Tone & Color

Those interested in the history and development of modern Chinese will find this a must read. It covers the written and spoken language and has some interesting, little known points, such as the influence of Japanese on modern Chinese and the liberal policies of Beijing towards dialects. He also talks about Taiwan and Singapore and the status of the various Chinese "languages". Reading this book you realize what a modern language Putonghua or Guoyu is in many ways. Informative yet easy to read this belongs on the bookshelf of any serious Chinese student. I hope Chen Ping is working on a follow up devoted to the spoken language and it's varieties.