A Glimpse of the Chinese Language - Peking's Language Reforms and the Teaching of Chinese in the United States

Oct 28, 2026

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A historical and educational analysis of the Chinese language and its modernization, centered on Peking’s language reforms and their implications for literacy and instruction. The text explains the origins and evolution of written Chinese characters, the role of radicals, and how pronunciation relates to meaning across regions. It also outlines major romanization systems for written Chinese and discusses teaching Chinese in the United States, supported by comparative reference materials.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages39

Reading Time1 h 38 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The Written Language

A GLIMPSE OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE:PEKING'S LANGUAGE REFORMS ANDTHE TEACHING OF CHINESE IN THE UNITED STATES Francis Shieh March 1965 P-3078 * Francis Shieh The RAND Corporation,Santa Monica,California # INTRODUCTION Chinese,the most widely spoken language in the world,is one ofthe five official languages of the United Nations;the others areEnglish,French,Spanish and Russian.In 1958,in the National DefenseEducation Act,the U.S.Office of Education classified Chinese as acritical language needed by Americans.It is apparent that responsi-bilities of the United States for world leadership have increasedfaster than our educational training.It is high time that we teachin our schools the language used by 25 per cent of the world's popula-tion in order that future generations of Americans will be able tomaster the Chinese language,for which there will be much need in theyears to come. Chinese has been regarded as a difficult language by people ofWestern culture.Peking's language reforms,designed to standardize — and simplify spoken and written Chinese,consist of three aspects:the simplification of Chinese characters,the use of Chinese Mandarinas the popular language and the adoption of the phonetic alphabet toromanize the Chinese characters.I shall try to give some ideasabout the Chinese written language first and then compare three majorsystems of romanization for written Chinese. I shall also mentionthe teaching of Chinese in the United States,together with opportunitiesfor study of the language.Finally,I attach the comparative key tosystems for romanization of Chinese,two tables of simplified Chinesecharacters,an index to Chinese phonetics,a list of Chinese radicals,and a list of the 0ld National Phonetic Symbols. This paper is intended to give some information as a guide forpersons who are interested in the Chinese language.It is by nomeans a research study but rather an informative general survey. # THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE Chinese is one of the earliest languages in recorded form.黄帝According to Chinese history,during the age of the emperor(Huáng Dìc.2698 B.C.)Cang ife倉颉was inspired by the marksof birds'claws to form the strokes of Chinese ideographs.Theearliest known Chinese writings were produced about 1700 B.C.(theShel1 and Bone era),as were the earliest known writings in Sanskrit.For many centuries,classical Chinese was used in the Far East much asclassical Greek was used in Western culture.Like Greek,Chinese,with modifications,is still being written and spoken.Chinese,therefore,is a classical as well as a modern language. —3— It is likely that the early writings were pictorial. The characterssuggested resemblances to actual objects:⊙A circle representedthe sun; it is now written as日A crescent meant the moon,D,now written asline 月,Mountain as three zigzag humps over a straightnow as山,and so on. In time,more complex conceptshad to be expressed and pictograms were extended or combined to formideographs.A sun rising behind a tree formed a new character meaning"east东.A sun drawn over a straight line representing thehorizon meant "dawn"旦. A tree doubled formed the characterfor ¹forest林;tripled it,it became a "dense forest."森To depict the abstract concept of "brightness the characters forsun and moon were put side by side明 As another example of the gradual evolution of Chinese,the She11and Bone era word for "horse''is written as(or zì) 篆书(字) 跟.Later Zhuàn Shuwas used from about 770 B.C.to 220 A.D.(Zhou,Qin and Han dynasties)and the word was modified tou看军and.During the Eastern Han dynasty(25-200 A.D.),Li Shū隶書as adopted ana the wora was further modified as馬approximately 350 A.D.(Eastern Jin dynasty)to the present,Kǎi Shū楷書(standard script)for the word was written马 hu才皆书. After Communistsimplification,the word became马. Even though some of thesimplified forms were used before,the Communists made it officialin printed form. . From Chinese characters(known as the Han language,Hàn zi汉字)are used in

FAQs

Why does the paper argue for teaching Chinese in the United States?

It links U.S. global leadership responsibilities to the need for education, citing Chinese as widely spoken and classified as a critical language in the 1958 National Defense Education Act.

What three aspects does the paper say Peking’s language reforms include?

They standardize and simplify spoken and written Chinese through character simplification, promoting Mandarin as the popular language, and adopting a phonetic alphabet to romanize Chinese characters.

How does the paper describe the evolution and structure of Chinese characters?

It traces characters from early pictorial writing to ideographs and discusses how radicals and phonetic elements combine to convey meaning and sound, with examples of how the same radical appears in different characters.

Oct 28, 2026

Upload by moss~