| FT-55911-08 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Gang Zhou | Language, Myth, Identity: The Chinese Vernacular Movement in a Comparative Perspective | 5/1/2008 - 8/31/2008 | $6,000.00 | Gang | | Zhou | | | | Louisiana State University and A&M College | Baton Rouge | LA | 70803-0001 | USA | 2008 | Asian Literature | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 6000 | 0 | 6000 | 0 |
This book examines a historical moment in Chinese literary history--when baihua (the vernacular) was elevated to become the national language, and wenyan (classical Chinese) was attacked and eliminated from many literary practices, thus overturning the long-established linguistic hierarchy. My principal argument is that the inauguration of the vernacular in early twentieth-century China embodies a monolingual ideal actively endorsed by an emerging nation-state. Imagining modern Chinese literature as strictly in the vernacular further enhances and institutionalizes the vernacular as the ideal while suppressing China's multilingual past and present. |