Editor’s note: The Language on the Move team is delighted to announce the publication of Language Rights in a Changing China, a new book by our member Dr Alexandra Grey. To celebrate we are exclusively offering open access Mandarin translations of parts of the book (Preface; Conclusions).
Alexandra Grey, 2021, Language Rights in a Changing China: A National Overview and Zhuang Case Study, De Gruyter Mouton. [To preview parts of the English text, head over to Google Books]
The translation is by Dr Gegentuul Baioud and Speak Your Language Translation and Interpreting Services. We gratefully acknowledge the University of Sydney China Studies Centre for a 2020 Publishing Support Grant, which made the translation possible.
China has had constitutional minority language rights for decades, but what do they mean today? Answering with nuance and empirical detail, this book examines rights through a sociolinguistic study of Zhuang, the language of China’s largest minority group. The analysis traces language policy from the Constitution to local government practices, investigating how Zhuang language rights are experienced as opening or restricting socioeconomic opportunity. The study finds that language rights do not challenge ascendant marketized and mobility-focused language ideologies which ascribe low value to Zhuang. However, people still value a Zhuang identity validated by government policy and practice.
Rooted in a Bourdieusian approach to language, power and legal discourse, this is the first major publication to integrate contemporary debates in linguistics about mobility, capitalism and globalization into a study of China’s language policy. The book refines Grey’s award-winning doctoral dissertation, which received the Joshua A. Fishman Award in 2018. The judges said the study ‘decenter[s] all types of sociolinguistic assumptions.’ It is a thought-provoking work on minority rights and language politics, relevant beyond China.
Youq Cung Guek, gij gienz leih gaemz caeuq saw boux noix ndaej Fap Meh hen got ndaej geij cib bi ywq. Hauh neix gangj naeuz gij maz ne? Cek saw hoiq aeu Hauq Raeuz (Vah Cuengh) —yiengh gaemz bak boux noix vunz lai daeuz Cung Guek daeuj guh vamz ngeix yaeng hong hag hauq gaemz aen biengz, guh yiengh neix daeuj ngeix yaeng gij gienz leih gaemz bak boux noix. Gij vamz ngeix yaeng hong hoiq doeng gvaq faen sik gij gienz leih gaemz bak Fap Meh hen got haenx caeuq gij saeh guh cingq fouj deih fueng, sawq ra rox gij saeh gienz leih gaemz bak Boux Raeuz (Boux Cuengh) baenz lawz caux miz rox hamj hen youq ndaw gij saeh guh gax. Hoiq ngeix yaeng liux lej rox, gij gienz leih gaemz bak dox dax mbouj gvaq gij vamz ngeix hauq gaemz deih aeu rengz dox dax caeuq vamz lae ning hong haw gax daeuj guh da naek deih hah gaem daengq goek haenx. Baenz neix, gij Hauq Raeuz deih cungj vamz ngeix neix son daz haenx mbouj miz rengz gax geij lai. Daeuz vah, vunz lai goj yawj naek gij vamz goek ndang deih cingq cek caeuq saeh guh cingq fouj nyinh hawj haenx.
Cek saw hoiq ndaej raiz baenz ciuq gij leix lwnh hauq gaemz, gienz lig caeuq vah hauq fap lwd hong Bourdieu haenx. Cek saw neix dwg cek saw nduj deih dawz gij vamz dax lwnh hong vamz lae ning, cuj yi swh bwnj caeuq vamz fat daengx seiq gyaiq ndaw hong hag hauq gaemz gap haeuj gij vamz ngeix yaeng cingq cek hauq gaemz Cung Guek haenx. Cek saw neix coih ndei bien faenz lwnh baek six hong nangz Grey (Veiaili) deih aeu ndaej aen ciengj Joshua A. Fishman mwh bi 2018 haenx. Mbong boux bingz saw de naeuz aen vamz ngeix yaeng neix “ngauz ning hawj gij vamz ngeix nawh gak yiengh loih hingz haenx”. Cek saw neix dwg cek saw nem daengz gienz leih boux noix caeuq cingq ceih haenx, cek neix hawj vunz haeuj ngeix haeuj ngvanh lai lai. Cek neix goj miz gij raemx rengz caeuq raemx ngeix hawj gij vamz ngeix yaeng hong deih rog Cung Guek dem.
中国的少数民族语言权利被赋予宪法保障几十年，如今这些语言权利意味着什么呢？本书以深入细致的实证数据，以中国最大的少数民族语言-壮语-为研究案例，详细探讨了少数民族语言权利。本研究通过梳理宪法保障以及地方政府的语言政策，分析壮族语言权利是如何被视为开拓或限制社会经济机遇。研究发现，语言权利并没有挑战占日渐明显的以市场竞争力和流动性为重点的语言意识形态，这种语言意识形态并没有赋予壮语很高的价值。然而，人们仍然重视被政府政策和实践认可的壮族身份。
本书以Bourdieu的理论为研究路径，关注语言、权力和法律话语，是第一部将语言学领域的流动性、资本主义和全球化的讨论纳入中国语言政策研究的重要出版物。该书在Grey (惠艾丽) 的博士论文基础上得以完善，于2018年荣获费什曼奖。评委们说这项研究 “拆解了各种类型的社会语言学假设“。这本书关于少数民族权利和语言政治，发人深省，对中国以外的地区研究也具有很强的借鉴意义。
Related posts
Grey, A. 2018. The triumph of completing a PhD
Grey, A. 2017. How do language rights affect minority languages in China?
In interview: Alex Grey with Melanie Fernando
This work is licensed under a
An important update from Chinese language policy expert, Prof Minglang Zhou, especially his third point, below:
“First, learning to speak Mandarin is considered critical in the identification with the unified Chinese nation. In recent years, minorities in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and other minority communities have been coerced into learning Mandarin. Resistance to this approach leads to punishments, including re-education camps, detentions, job loss and financial retribution. Bilingual teaching and research has become a political taboo in Xinjiang and other minority areas, with the government forcing academic journals on the topic to close and scholars to instead research Mandarin education.
Second, Chinese culture is understood as being that of the Han majority culture, and it is increasingly criminal to suggest otherwise. The documentary The War in the Shadows describes how editors and publishers associated with Uyghur and Kazakh language textbooks for primary and secondary schools were recently sentenced to death or life in prison. Their alleged crime is to have included in the textbooks a high percentage of indigenous material and readings regarding historic figures who were not from today’s China or who rebelled against Han oppressors.
Third, earlier this year, the Legal Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress ruled unconstitutional any items in local autonomous laws which support the use of minority languages in local schools as a medium of instruction. In their first constitutionality ruling, the committee accused them of violating the constitutional article on Putonghua promotion.”
Source: https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2021/06/04/multiculturalism-in-china-from-melting-pot-to-pressure-cooker/