Every country has its own common spoken and written language. In China, Putonghua (Common Chinese Language)

and standardized Chinese characters are endowed with the legal status of the national standard language, which is promoted in the whole society and freely used by all citizens in their daily lives.

However, China's efforts to promote the national standard language in areas resided by ethnic minorities have been called into question by some Western politicians, who argue that the policy endangers ethnic languages and violates linguistic equality. So, is it necessary or justified for China to promote a standard spoken and written language? Does it really infringe upon the language rights of ethnic minorities?

The status of Chinese language comes from history

The formation of a standard language or common language often goes through a long evolutionary process. Since the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, China has been a unified multi-ethnic country with a large population, a vast territory, and a complex and diverse language and culture. In fact, the language of the Han people had already played the role as a standard language in the pre-Qin period. In the subsequent dynasties, no matter when the country was unified or divided, whichever ethnic group the rulers were from, there was never any major conflict on the standard language used in the country. The influence of the national standard language has been steadily increasing and deepening throughout the extensive process of multi-ethnic exchanges and communication, thereby naturally establishing a solid foundation for its status as the mainstream language.

The Chinese language, whether in spoken or written form, is continuously changing and growing, as it is enriched by ethnic languages. Frequent economic, political, and cultural exchanges among ethnic groups have led to the formation of a complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship between the Chinese language and the languages of ethnic minorities since ancient history. The Chinese language serves as a valuable resource for ethnic minorities to acquire essential vocabulary for their own development, and the Chinese language also constantly absorbs vocabulary from the languages of ethnic minorities to enhance its own lexicon. For instance, the frequently used terms Piyazi, Hutong, Hada, Kehan (Khan), Nang, and Bazha (Bazar) all originate from the languages of ethnic groups other than Han. In Xinjiang, people from various ethnic groups share the knowledge that Dadangzi means father, Anazi means mother, and Balangzi means child. These are typical mixed terms of address, reflecting mutual influences between languages.

The Chinese language and characters have gone far beyond the ethnic boundary and are widely used by all groups. Some ethnic minorities have fully embraced Chinese as their primary means of communication. For example, after the 7th century, Persians and Arabs who migrated from Central Asia to China gradually integrated into the mainstream society and formed the Hui people. They scattered around the country, lived together with the Han people, gradually adopting the Chinese language. Likewise, of the 700,000 She (畲) people, except for some in Huilai county of Guangdong province still using their own language, the rest have all switched to Chinese in local dialects. Ethnic groups such as Mongolian, Zhuang, Salar, Miao, Yao, Dongxiang, Tu, Bao'an, Qiang, Mulao, Bai, etc., have very high proportions of people who speak both Chinese and their own languages. The works of ethnic intellectuals are often published in Chinese.

The national standard languages of China are Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters. However, Putonghua is not equal to Chinese. Chinese language is historically the language of the Han people, including various dialects. Putonghua is a part of the spoken Chinese language, with Beijing pronunciation as its basis and Northern dialects as its foundation. It is the official standard language of China. Standardized Chinese characters are the national written language that have been formed through simplification and standardization. Although the standard written language is based on Chinese characters, it is no longer a language or writing system belonging to any ethnic group, but an inter-ethnic common language that has gradually formed along with the development and growth of the Chinese nation. Therefore, the promotion of Putonghua and standardization of Chinese characters in ethnic minority areas is not assimilation as alleged by Western politicians, but an objective need for to facilitate effective communication among diverse ethnic groups.

All countries are committed to the standardization of language

In the contemporary world, multi-ethnic or multi-racial composition is the basic state of a sovereign nation. From the perspective of the historical process of social development, a unified and standardized national common language is the prerequisite for the formation and development of any modern country. In fact, the promotion of national standard languages, official languages, and inter-ethnic lingua franca in developed countries has been basically completed as early as in their industrialization and modernization process.

The promotion of national standard spoken and written language is not a policy arrangement unique to China. Jonathan Pool, an American scholar, once argued that a country with extremely diverse languages would be underdeveloped, while a developed country was sure to have a highly unified common language.

Historically, the U.S. has repeatedly promoted the learning and popularity of English through legislation, education policies, and immigration language policies. For example, the Bilingual Education Act (BEA) in 1968, the "Lau v. Nichols case" in 1974, Proposition 227 in 1998, and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002 all promoted English education in the U.S. From language policies in the early days of the immigration wave, to the officialization of English and the "English Only" movement in the last century, to the Bilingual Education Movement in the 1960s, the U.S. has long tried to promote and popularize the use of English.

The British colonial presence in India lasted for more than 300 years, and the direct colonial rule lasted for more than 190 years. The British colonial rule had a great impact on the language development of India, especially the spread of English. In 1950, in the first Constitution of India, Hindi and English were designated as official languages. The Official Languages Act of 1963 provided for the retention of English as an official language, which could be extended indefinitely, depending on circumstances. In 1967, India announced its famous three-language formula, which required secondary schools to teach English, Hindi, and local languages/dialects. Today, English is spoken by about 125 million people in India, making it the country with the second-most English speakers in the world after the U.S. English has been accepted by all ethnic groups in India, and English-advantage is considered to be the most important factor for India to enhance its international competitiveness in the context of globalization.

Another Asian country, Japan, has also gone through a process of spreading and developing a common language. During the Meiji Restoration, the written language of different regions of Japan varied greatly, and there were many dialectal variations in the spoken language, which posed a huge obstacle to the process of urbanization and labor mobility. Therefore, as early as 1903, Japan began devoting to the standardization of language, especially through the implementation of the modern state building project of “Kokugo-Kokumin-Kokka” (National Language-National Identity-National State)" from the institutional level, which created favorable conditions for the modernization and industrialization process of Japan at that time.

A necessity for China's modernization

The promotion of Putonghua has been a fundamental language policy since the founding of the People's Republic of China, not a recently introduced policy of assimilation of ethnic minorities as claimed by some Western politicians. China has a vast territory and many ethnic groups. The residential distribution among all ethnic groups is scattered, while each ethnic group both remains with their own concentrated community and stays in mixed residence with the Han people. This has determined that the modernization of China as a unified multi-ethnic country needs to be based on a national standard spoken and written language. This is not to eliminate Chinese dialects, nor to eliminate ethnic languages. It is only meant to eliminate language barriers and promote the construction of a modern country.

On Jan. 1, 2001, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language came into effect, establishing the legal status of Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters as the standard spoken and written Chinese language. As China's first special law on spoken and written language, the new law conforms to the development needs of Chinese society, introducing the rule of law in the use of China's standard spoken and written language, and playing an irreplaceable and significant role in improving education and promoting social progress.

Scientific research shows that language skills need to reach a certain level before they can have an impact on income, and the popularization of a standard spoken and written language in a region needs to reach a certain threshold to promote economic development. Over the past few decades, China has made great achievements in standardizing the spoken and written language, from ensuring basic literacy to improving school education and social education. The national prevalence of Putonghua has reached 80.72%, with over 95% of literate individuals utilizing standardized Chinese characters, and the illiteracy rate in China has decreased from 80% in the 1950s to less than 4%.

Along with China's gradual transformation from poverty and backwardness to prosperity and strength, people’s communication skills in Chinese have been enhanced, and the language barriers between different ethnic groups in different regions have been basically eliminated.

A few years ago, China carried out a poverty alleviation campaign, and one of the important measures was to strengthen the education and promotion of standard spoken and written Chinese. Baiweng village in Guizhou province used to be a poverty-stricken village inhabited by the Yao people. It faced challenges in local tourism development due to limited Chinese language proficiency among middle-aged and elderly residents as well as insufficient understanding of their own culture among some young people.

In 2018, the local authority launched the Double Training Initiative, providing people with both the national standard language education and rural practical skills training. The initiative also facilitated intergenerational knowledge exchange—enabling young individuals to educate the elderly in Chinese language while also allowing the elderly to impart indigenous knowledge upon the younger generation. This innovative approach effectively addressed language barriers while simultaneously preserved cultural heritage and uplifted the impoverished community.

Liuna village in Laibin city, Guangxi province, was once a typical poverty-stricken area, with more than 90% of the population being of the Zhuang ethnicity. Its geographical location and language had created great barriers for local people to communicate with the outside world, and they were unable to work in other places to earn money. In 2018, Xincheng county, where Liuna village is located, launched a series of activities to promote Putonghua so as to get out of poverty. The activities led to the implementation of public language classes and evening classes. They also led to the "small-hand-joining-big-hand class" —encouraging children to teach their parents Chinese. They helped the local people learn and master Putonghua, overcome language barriers, go out of the mountains to find well-paid jobs, and achieve family prosperity.

Of course, Liuna village is not the only village benefiting from the promotion of Putonghua. By the end of 2020, 83.03% of the people lifted out of poverty in Guangxi could use Putonghua for daily communication. Local young and middle-aged farmers basically overcame the language barriers and embarked on the journey to prosperity.

Language is a bridge and a key. A nursery rhyme in Didi Ancient Village, Ebian Yi Autonomous County, Sichuan Province goes that "the world would be bigger if you speak Putonghua better." It can be said that the promotion and popularization of standard spoken and written language is the objective need for all ethnic people in China to move toward modernization and an effective path for them to integrate into China's economic and social development. It is thereby the only way for a modern country to achieve overall prosperity and development.

The author is Wang Haoyu and Chang Chunli, School of Public Administration, Southwest Jiaotong University.

Liu Xian /Editor    Xue Wensi /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Liu Xian /Coordination Editor

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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