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1. Definition and History of the Term Stenography or shorthand refers to a system for rapid writing that allows the recording of speech in actual time. The term was rendered as kuàizì 快字 ‘speed script’, when it first came to be known in China in the late 19th century. After 1910, this term has been replaced by the Japanese-coined terms sùjì 速記 (Jap. sokki 速記) or sùjìxué 速記學. Recently, sùlù 速錄 or sùlùxué 速錄學 have become widely used for stenography that uses computers or the electronic stenotype machine developed by Táng Yàwěi 唐亞偉 (1915–2012) in 1994, the Chinese Stenograph ( Zhōngguó sùlùjī 中國速錄…

Báihuà 白話, lit. ‘clear speech’ or ‘unadorned speech’ refers to Vernacular Chinese, a written language that is opposed to wényán 文言, lit. ‘literary speech’ or ‘ornate speech’, Literary Chinese or Classical Chinese. The term báihuà mainly denominates: 1. A non-standard vernacular style found in written sources from the Táng until the Qīng dynasty which is thought to have been closer to the spoken language than the dominant literary standard at the time ( wényán). In this sense, the meaning of báihuà overlaps with "Early Modern Chinese" ( Jìndài Hànyǔ 近代漢語). 2. A written language clo…

1. Definition The National Language Movement ( guóyǔ yùndòng 國語運動) was a movement among educators and intellectuals from the 1920s to 1940s for the promotion of Mandarin as the national language ( guóyǔ 國語). The term “national language movement” has also been used to include all efforts to reform the Chinese language since the end of the 19th century, but several of these efforts claim their independent status as “movement”, especially the “vernacular literature movement” ( báihuàwén yùndòng 白話文運動) (Báihuà), after 1917 also known as the “Literary Revolution” ( wénxué gémìng 文學革命), an…

1. Chinese Influence on Japanese The emergence of writing in Japan is inextricably linked with the Chinese writing system. From scattered earlier instances of writing produced by immigrant scribal craftsmen Japan transformed into a literate society during the 7th century following closer contacts with China and Korea, the spread of Buddhism, and attempts of the Yamato 大和 rulers to build a Chinese-style administration. From these beginnings until the modern period, the Chinese script ( kanji 漢字) remained the “ultimate basis of all Japanese writing” (Lurie 2011:170), e…