Modern East Asia

[Anonymous]

While it is true that American text books are biased, there are authors out there who are teaching history on primary source documents, such as Howard Zinn. It is important to teach from primary sources. It is possible to attain various viewpoints in American history. In China, there are no other viewpoints. It is still not allowed.

[Anonymous]

There were some questions running in my head as I was reading about adding dialogue to the Tom and Jerry cartoons in an attempt to standardize language.

Were there previous attempts to unify the country under a standard language?

Why now? What are the driving forces to attempting to convert all people to the standard dialect? If multiple languages were accepted before, why is the government making these changes?

Just wondering

[clay dube]

The push for Mandarin is not new, but is being pursued with renewed vigor. Partly it's for national unity and partly from a nationalistic nervousness about anyone putting forward a real suggestion of cultural distinction. Partly it's a response to Taiwanese claims of uniqueness and partly it's resentment of the popularity of foreign cartoon fare. Another example of the preoccupation with language came a few years ago when Beijing decreed that shops in the city had to stop using foreign words in their names and signs (except for foreign-owned franchises such as McDonalds). And there have been similar pronouncements against using traditional characters instead of gov't sanctioned simplified ones. The others (which many consider more beautiful can be readily found in parks, temples, and the like), but people are not supposed to use them in store signs.

[Anonymous]

Please explain the differences and what is more acceptable -- where -- when. Even if I am not chosen for the study tour, we are going to Japan and China next year. I want to prepare with some knowledge of the language, so which would be best to study. Are there any computer programs out there with which to study? Is the push by China for a standard language their way of unification? Sounds like it.

[Anonymous]

Of course, the most well know policy for standardizing the Chinese writing system was implemented by Emperor Shi Huangdi during the Qin Dynasty. He was quite successful in this as he was in standardizing the money system and weights and measures. All these are typical policies used to unify a country or empire. As 7th grade history teachers know, this was done by the Romans, by the Umayyads in the Islamic Empire, and many others. Charlemagne's chief scholar Alcuin, used his neat print as the official script for monks, Carolignian miniscule, and this became what we today call lower case letters. Much is made of the importance of using one standard type of Chinese writing in the movie "Hero" which gives a more favorable view of Shi Huangdi.

[Anonymous]

There have been some interesting articles recently in the papers about how Japanese companies are opening up executive positions and policies to non-Japanese people and ways of doing things. The article writers say this is due to economic pressures, mainly, business downturns, which have motivated this different thinking. Whereas, previously these businesses could say that keeping their boardrooms and business practices purely Japanese was the reason for their successes, now, apparently, they are ready to let in foreign ideas and people even into managing their companies. One of the best examples of this is the recent selection a non-Japanese American to head the Sony Corp. While he had previously run the American division of Sony, now he will also be in charge of the larger Sony Corp., including Japan. This seems like much more than simply using foreign ideas about new products or new techniques as the Japanese have done throughout their history. Now they are actually giving, or at least sharing control of their businesses with foreigners. They may think they can still have ultimate control, but both the fact and appearance of this change in management will have numerous effects on their businesses, and on Japanese society also.

[Author]

Posts