Abstract
The exposure to foreign languages prompted Chinese diplomats of the late Qing Dynasty to reflect over China's spoken and writing systems in general, resulting in the initiative for the modernizing reform of Chinese language and writing system which developed into the later far-reaching proposition of “unification of spoken and written language.” However, in the beginning, the conceptualization of the unification appeared to be heterogenously “chaotic.” When Huang Zunxian came to the scene, he helped to transform the cultural psychology of scholar bureaucrats by reconceptualizing the idea of “unification of speech and writing” from the perspective of the modern nation-state. As a result, the “apparatus” of the “modern” Chinese language was beginning to have a boundary.
Keywords
language contact, unification of speech and writing, nation-state, the modern, diplomat
First Page
156
Last Page
165
Recommended Citation
Deng, Wei. 2022. "An Analysis of the Language Contact of the Late-Qing Diplomats and Its Historical Construction: With Reference to Huang Zunxian’s View of “Unity of Speech and Writing”." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 42, (2): pp.156-165. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol42/iss2/16
