Language Planning and Policy in Asia Japan, Nepal and Taiwan and Chinese Characters

This volume covers the language situation in Japan, Nepal and Taiwan, as well as the modernisation of Chinese Characters in China, explaining the linguistic diversity, the historical and political contexts and the current language situation -- including language-in-education planning, the role of the media, the role of religion, and the roles of non-indigenous languages. Two of the authors are indigenous and the other two have been participants in the language planning context.

Robert B. Kaplan is Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Southern California. He has published numerous books and articles in refereed journals and written several special reports to government both in the US and elsewhere. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics and is a member of the editorial board of the 1st and 2nd editions of the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2002). Additionally, he edited the Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics. He has served as President of the National Association for Foreign Students Affairs, of TESOL, and of the American Association for Applied Linguistics.Richard B. Baldauf, Jr is Associate Professor of TESOL in the School of Education at the University of Queensland and a member of the Executive of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA). He has published numerous articles in refereed journals and books. He is co-editor of Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific (Multilingual Matters, 1990), principal researcher and editor for the Viability of Low Candidature LOTE Courses in Universities (DEET, 1995), co-author with Robert B. Kaplan of Language Planning from Practice to Theory (Multilingual Matters, 1997) and Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin (Kluwer, 2003), and co-author with Zhao Shouhui of Planning Chinese Characters: Revolution, Evolution or Reaction (Springer, 2007).

1. Language Policy and Planning in Chinese Characters, Japan, Nepal and Taiwan: Some Common Issues Robert B. Kaplan and Richard B. Baldauf Jr. 2. Chinese Character Modernisation in the Digital Era: A Historical Perspective Zhao Shouhui (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) 3. Japan: Language Planning and Policy in Transition Nanette Gottlieb (University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia) 4. The Language Situation in Nepal Sonia Eagle (Kanda University of International Studies, Japan) 5. The Language Situation in Nepal: An Update Sonia Eagle 6. The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan Feng-fu Tsao (National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan) 7. The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan: An Update Feng-fu Tsao Biographical Notes on Contributors