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Language Reform in China: Some Recent Developments*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Harriet C. Mills
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Extract

The current Chinese language reform movement is of the most profound cultural and political importance in China itself as well as to foreign students of the area. Its goal is within a relatively short period to standardize the basic northern dialect as the common national language of China and to replace traditional Chinese characters with a phonetic script. As Mao Tse-tung stated in 1951: “The written language must be reformed; it should follow the common direction of phoneticization which has been taken by the world's languages.”

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , August 1956, pp. 517 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1956

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References

1 Chüeh, Wei, “Reforming Written Chinese,” People's China, Dec. 16, 1955, pp. 12–14.Google Scholar

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