Chinese Language Policy and Uyghur Youth: Examining Language Policies and Language Ideologies

ABSTRACT

This article examines the connections between educational language policy for Uyghur youth and the language ideologies among Uyghur families. Chinese language policy has historically accommodated multilingualism, and promoted minoritized language education; however, we reveal how policies have shifted towards favoring and promoting Putonghua (only) as the lingua franca. We then present interview data collected from four Uyghur youth attending university, all of whom are the targets of Uyghur language policy in China. In many ways, Chinese language policy has had the desired effect on these students. We provide a historical overview of educational language policy in China, with a focus on its impact on Uyghur speakers, and then illuminate how language attitudes and ideologies circulate through official policy texts, among families, and among students.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• language ideology
• language policy
• Putonghua
• Uyghur

Notes

1. All names of participants and schools are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [18YYB007]; Southeast University Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities [2242019S20042].

Notes on contributors

Yawen Han

Yawen Han is an associate professor at Southeast University. Yawen’s primary area of research is language-in-education policy, minority education, and internationalization in higher education. Much of his current work focuses on educational policy and practice for minority students and international students studying in universities of China.

David Cassels Johnson

David Cassels Johnson is Associate Professor of Education at the University of Iowa and Visiting Professor of Applied Linguistics at Shanghai International Studies University. He is the author of Language Policy (2013, Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor of Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning: A Practical Guide (2015, Wiley-Blackwell, with Francis M. Hult).