The whole world has been watching the vast changes that are currently occurring in China, but few people are aware that at the same time, to ensure the writing system serves these changes well, Chinese characters have also undergone significant reform. While focusing on current problems, developments and possible solutions, this book also details the major implementation of language planning programs for the modernization of the Chinese writing system that have occurred over the last century. The volume provides a broad and in-depth analysis of the conflict between one of the world's oldest surviving script systems and the latest developments in communication technology. Comprehensive in coverage, interdisciplinary in structure, with copious references to assist readers in locating a wide range of resources, this book offers an analytic discussion of character planning that will prove of great value to language policymakers and those who are interested in China/East Asian studies and sinology.

Provides an all-inclusive review and evaluation of the diverse literatures on the subject, in both English and Chinese, many of which have not been available to international academia Undertakes a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of the reform programs for modernizing the modern Chinese writing system Informs the general interest reader, sinologists and Asian study scholars of the latest developments in the struggle for the world oldest surviving writing system to survive a digital world Links language planning and writing reform developments in China with international experience in these areas Suggests solutions to the dilemmas faced by character-based writing systems in their access to and use of modern computer-based systems

Autorentext

Zhao Shouhui (PhD, University of Sydney) is Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Pedagogy & Practice (CRPP) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A professional language teacher by training, Zhao has been teaching and researching in Chinese applied linguistics for the past 17 years at 7 universities in five countries beginning in 1988, when he completed his MA in Applied Linguist at Renmin University of China (Beijing). Zhao is a member of All-China Society of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and the Chinese and Oriental Language and Information Processing Association (COLIPS, Singapore).Zhao has sole authored about twenty refereed articles in areas of Chinese Language Pedagogy, Chinese Computational Linguistics and Higher Education, and he is also the primary co-author of three dual-authored Chinese language textbooks and the co-complier of two dictionaries. He has also contributed a number of ephemeral pieces (prose, short stories, comments, film reviews, etc...) to a range of literary publications and websites/broadcastings. Richard B. Baldauf Jr. (PhD, University of Hawai'i) is Associate Professor of TESOL in the School of Education at the University of Queensland and a Vice President on the Executive of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA). He has published numerous articles in refereed journals and books.

Inhalt
Prologue.- Making Hanzi Accessible.- Reflections on New Perspectives.- New Challenges for a Digital Society.- Standardization as a Solution.- Influencing Outcomes.- Envisioning the Future.- Some Critical Issues.