Beijing Postcards Bookclub: A Billion Voices
In 1912, the last emperor of China abdicated. One of the first things the new Republic did was to address the problem of creating a national language in China. The country’s multiple so-called “dialects” were so strong that they were in fact independent languages, with their own grammar and pronunciation.
A conference named “The Council on the Unification of Pronunciation” was set up to deal with this issue, but the Republic could hardly have found a more controversial figure than the chairman Wu Zhihui to lead the work. Wu Zhihui had extreme views to say the least. He famously stated that China should “flush all classical literature down the toilet”. He despised the dethroned Qing government and described the Manchus as a “dog fucked race”.
Needless to say, the work on a national language had a rocky start under Wu Zhihui’s leadership, and there was a long and winding road ahead before what we know as Chinese today was established as the language of China.
David Moser has written a fascinating book about China’s journey towards a national tongue, and we are so lucky that he has agreed to help us create updates as we read the book and will also appear at our next book club discussion in the new year.
BookClub Weekly Update
Episode 1: The anarchist who wanted to flush the Chinese traditional literature down the toilet
Wu Zhihui was a very controversial leader of the efforts to create a national standard pronunciation of the chinese language.
Episode 2: The father of modern Chinese
In this episode, David Moser talks about Hu Shi, one of the most important figures of the May Fourth Movement. Hu Shi is often credited with implementing Baihua, or spoken language, in written Chinese. This was a very important development that enabled millions of Chinese people to read and study.
Episode 3: Fear of Becoming Chinese
When the Manchus took over China they had to find a fine balance between respecting Chinese tradition and protecting their own culture.
Episode 4: The Unspoken Language that Unified A Nation
Even though Chinese characters bound together the empire for thousands of years, the Chinese language did not get a unified pronunciation till after the last emperor abdicated in 1912.
Episode 5: The May Fourth Movement Legacy
On May 4, 1919, Chinese intellectuals marched to the Tiananmen Gate. They were protesting against the handover of the former German concession in Qingdao to Japan, and the act that western liberal powers did not stand up for the Chinese nation, even though China was recognized among the victorious powers of the First World War. This perceived betrayal made many Chinese intellectuals tilt towards another ideology: Communism. Language was an important component in what came to be known as the May Fourth Movement. Many intellectuals felt that there could be no meaningful change without reforming the written language - some even argued that Chinese characters should be abolished altogether.
Episode 6: Confusing Confucianism
It is easy for us to think of the Chinese classics as something that did not change for thousands of years, but that is far from the truth. It was common for dynasties to not only compile but also censor and even rewrite portions of the classics. A good example of this is the 18th century Si Ku Quan Shu 《四库全书》, one of the largest encyclopedias ever compiled in Chinese history.