This edited volume foregrounds language diversity research in the developing field of Sinophone studies. It explores sociolinguistic landscapes in the PRC, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Singapore. Divided into three parts focusing respectively on historical trajectories, language planning, and multilingual practices, this book unveils the social, cultural, and political aspects of multilingualism in these Sinophone communities.

Part 1 addresses sociolinguistic development between the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, examining not only Mandarin varieties, but also regional Sinitic varieties and English. Richard VanNess Simmons discusses the codification of standard Chinese in late imperial China, highlighting the sustained prestige of Southern Mandarin at the time. Mårten Söderblom Saarela investigates the politicization of spoken language in plurilingual Qing China, analyzing various measures the imperial court took to preserve the Manchu vernacular and promote Mandarin. Don Snow's focus is on written regional vernaculars, and he examines, in particular, the role missionaries played in Romanizing Southern Min in Mainland China and Taiwan. Lastly, Christiane Meierkord gives a comparative overview of the spread of English in China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Singapore and discusses its established status as an intra-national and international lingua franca.

Part 2 explores language planning among the Sinophone polities. Henning Klöter's chapter unpacks the official language planning in the PRC and Taiwan and argues that advocating one national language has consolidated the dominance of Mandarin but marginalized the topolects in both polities. It is compensated by Su-Chaio Chen's and David C. S. Li & Choi-Lan Tong's chapters, which examine the promotion of multilingualism in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Chen argues that in Taiwan, the local language policy is not as effective as the English language policy. Li & Tong outline functions of and attitudes towards the local languages and acknowledge the commonality of translanguaging in multilingual Hong Kong and Macao. On a different note, Yeng Seng Goh & Yeow Wah Fong explicate the ideologies underlying Singapore's language planning and highlight an identity shift in the Chinese communities from ‘diasporic’ Chinese to Chinese Singaporean, resulting from the promotion of Mandarin and English.

Part 3 presents studies of multilingual practices in Sinophone societies. Sihua Liang's investigation of language attitudes and identities of migrant children in Guangzhou reveals the problematic use of ‘mother tongue’ in contemporary China. Peter Siemund & Lijun Li's chapter supplements Goh & Fong's study by examining the impacts of Singapore's language policies on the city-state's linguistic texture. Both His-Yao Su's and Julia Wasserfall's chapters investigate English-Chinese code mixing/switching in Taiwan. Su foregrounds the negative sentiments Taiwanese people have towards English code mixing as embedded in the slang term lào yīngwén; but Wasserfall confirms the commonality of English insertions in Mandarin discourses, nonetheless. Chin-hui Lin's chapter shifts the focus back to Taiwan Mandarin, discussing the ubiquity of the utterance-final particle ê, which reflects Taiwan's complex social history and the language contact between Mandarin and less mainstream varieties. In the book's closing chapter, Jeroen Wiedenhof draws readers’ attention to undocumented ‘quirky’ phenomena in Mandarin, calling for reconceptualization and a critical reflection on the description and standardization of Mandarin.

This volume is inspirational for researchers interested in understanding the Sinophone world through its linguistic landscapes and language phenomena.