Putonghua vs. minority languages: distribution of language laws, regulations, and documents in mainland China

ABSTRACT

Using a database containing Chinese language laws, regulations, and documents from 1986 to 2019, this study investigates the distribution of Putonghua and minority language policies in mainland China. It is found that: (i) in terms of the hierarchy of law, there are five levels of policies in China, with the Constitution and language laws as guidelines and local regulations dominant in quantity; (ii) in terms of the temporal dimension, while Putonghua policy has always been stressed, particularly serving economic growth in the last five years, the emphasis on Putonghua and attention to minority languages vary over time, while minority languages are treated as linguistic resources and their ongoing use and development may be overlooked; and (iii) in terms of provincial regions, while Putonghua is officially designated as a main language, ethnic minority areas differ in their partial language autonomy and adopt quite different language policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Language policy and planning
• mainland China
• Putonghua policy
• minority language policy
• bilingual policy
• ethnic minorities

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71872165), the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of Chinese Ministry of Education (18YJC630241), and the Research Fund of Chinese Language Commission (YB135-95). All views expressed are those of the authors and not of the sponsoring organizations.