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The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective integrates a diverse range of disciplinary approaches in examining how the Chinese script represents and actively shapes personal and social identities in and beyond Asia. It is an ideal read for students and scholars interested in a broad and culturally rich introduction to research on the Chinese writing system. It can also serve as the main text of an undergraduate course on the subject.
Key features of this volume include:
- Insights from studies of the Chinese writing system in linguistics, script reform and technology, gender, identity, literature, and the visual arts;
- Examples embedded in inquiries of the cultural history and contemporary society of Asia;
- Rigorous yet accessible discussions of complex concepts and phenomena that assume no prior knowledge of Asian languages or linguistics;
- Supplementary multimedia materials and resources, including instructional support, available online.
List of contents
Part I Linguistic Preliminaries
Chapter 1 Foundational concepts
Chapter 2 What is writing?
Chapter 3 What kinds of writing systems are there?
Chapter 4 Pinyin tutorial
Part II Writing Chinese
Chapter 5 The Chinese speech
Chapter 6 Written Chinese
Chapter 7 The Chinese writing system
Chapter 8 Demythifying the Chinese script
Part III Borrowing the Chinese writing system
Chapter 9 Chinese characters in Asia: An overview
Chapter 10 Writing Korean
Chapter 11 Writing Japanese
Chapter 12 Writing Vietnamese
Part IV Reforming the Chinese script
Chapter 13 Phonetic writing before pinyin
Chapter 14 Pinyin
Chapter 15 Simplification of Chinese characters
Chapter 16 Writing and technology in modern China
Part V Identity and gender in writing Chinese
Chapter 17 Handwriting and personhood
Chapter 18 Sexism in the Chinese writing system
Chapter 19 N shu: Women's script
Chapter 20 Script choice in writing Japanese
Part VI Chinese Characters in art and literature
Chapter 21 Chinese calligraphy
Chapter 22 A calligraphy workshop
Chapter 23 Modern calligraphy in China
Chapter 24 Chinese Characters in Avant-garde art
Chapter 25 Chinese Characters and Western Modernist poetry
About the author
Yu Li is Assistant Professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola Marymount University, USA. Her research interests include Chinese linguistics, Chinese language pedagogy, East Asian calligraphy, and the Chinese linguistic landscape in the diaspora.
Summary
The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective integrates a diverse range of disciplinary approaches in examining how the Chinese script represents and actively shapes personal and social identities in and beyond Asia.
Report
"This is a comprehensive introduction to the Chinese writing system from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. The author writes beautifully on the linguistic, socio-cultural, anthropological, literary and artistic aspects of Chinese characters." - Hongyuan Dong, Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Linguistics, The George Washington University in Washington DC, USA.
"This book is a welcome new introduction to the Chinese writing system. I see the strengths of the book in three areas: its wide scope in the topics it covers, its thoroughness in the treatment of the topics, and its balance between scholarly discussions of the topics and its attention to popular interest in the topics." - Guohe Zheng, Professor of Japanese, Ball State University, USA.
