Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics

The Chinese language, spoken by over one billion people, has undergone drastic changes over the past century. This book presents a comprehensive, up-to-date account of the development of Modern Chinese from the late nineteenth century to the 1990s. It describes and analyzes in detail, from historical and sociolinguistic perspectives, the establishment and promotion of Modern Spoken Chinese and Modern Written Chinese, and the reform of the Chinese script, and reveals the interaction of linguistic, historical and social factors in the recent development of the language.

Ping Chen is Senior Lecturer in Chinese language and linguistics at the University of Queensland. He has previously taught at UCLA, the University of Oregon, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, and the City University of Hong Kong. He has published widely in the area of Chinese linguistics.