History 391.01: Language and National Identity in Asia
Fall 2007
Instructor: Loretta KimClass Hours: M 1:10-4
Seitz House 8Location: Ascension Hall 114
Office Hours: W 2-4 or by appointmentOffice Telephone: 427-5922
Course Description
The use of certain languages and the modification of their spoken and written forms have been political strategies for establishing and perpetuating ideals of nationalism in 20th-century Asia. Proponents of language policies argue that official languages, shared languages, and standardized languages are important elements for economic, social, and cultural unity. Critics point out negative consequences such as the suppression or extermination of languages, along with corresponding social and cultural identities. This course will examine aspects of language legislation in eight national cases. Each case will present a topic of sociolinguistics such as script reform and incorporation of foreign vocabulary paired with a particular historical concept such as modernity and post-colonialism.
Requirements and Evaluation
In-class participation: 20%
The success of the course depends heavily on the active and informed participation of all students. Students will take turns assuming two roles. One person will be responsible for preparing study questions that will be distributed to all members of the class via email three days before class (Friday, 11:59pm). Another student will act as the commentator for the unit, preparing and delivering reflections on a discussion at the following class. Although the participation grade will be determined by one’s total contribution throughout the semester, it will be expected that fulfillment of these services to the class will be weighed significantly into the balance. Since there are so few class meetings, absences will be excused only for extreme circumstances such as family emergencies and serious, sudden illnesses. Students should make every effort to contact the instructor as soon as possible before or following a missed class.
Short papers: 30%
There will be three short papers of 3-5 pages each. Each paper will be due at the beginning of the class meeting for which the deadline is stated. Students are encouraged to discuss preliminary ideas with the instructor.
Final project: 50%
The major assignment for the course is a final paper between 12-15 pages in length. Students may apply for modified page limits (no less than 10 and no more than 20) on an individual basis before December 10, 2007. The instructor will consider each request but will only approve well-argued and reasonable appeals. The paper will constitute 70% (70/100 points) of the final project grade. The other 30% (30/100 points) will be based on the thorough preparation and timely submission of a proposal, annotated bibliography, and outline. Every student will also be expected to make a project presentation at the end of the semester.
* Required and Additional Readings: All students will be expected to at least complete all the required readings thoroughly. However, in order to excel in the class, a student should strive to read one or more of the additional readings (or citations from the required readings) for supplementary knowledge. The instructor may provide more suggestions during the course of the semester, and students may ask for individualized recommendations.
* Students are highly encouraged to bring any issues affecting the timely completion of assignments to the instructor’s attention as early as possible. Requests for extensions will only be granted in unforeseen emergencies or if there is sufficient evidence of sustained effort leading to the original deadline but extenuating circumstances arise. Unexcused late work will only be accepted for the 72 hours following a deadline, but 1/3 of a grade (A to A-, A- to B+) will be taken off per day.
Office Hours
All students are welcome and encouraged to attend office hours. In order to ensure an equitable distribution of time, formal office hours will be divided into 20-minute blocks. If no one has signed up or is physically waiting outside of the office, an appointment may be extended. Students may also email the instructor about meeting at another mutually convenient time.
Paper Format
All papers must be word-processed in one of the following fonts (Arial, Century Gothic, Courier, Geneva, Helvetica, Times, Times New Roman), double-spaced, and with each side margin no less than one inch. Both 11-point and 12-point fonts will be accepted.
Honor Code
The instructor will assume that all students have agreed to abide by the college honor code and are cognizant of proper research techniques, particularly regarding citations and selection of appropriate sources. Students are encouraged to bring any questions to the instructor’s attention.
Computer Use and Recording
Students are asked not to use laptop computers during class. Any student who needs to take notes on a laptop for specific, health/wellness-related reasons may consult with the instructor and Ms. Erin Salva at the Office of Disability Services. Students may also not record the class in any form without the explicit permission of the instructor.
Email Expectations
The instructor will usually check and respond to class-related email at least three times a day (roughly once every 8 hours). Students are encouraged to time inquiries accordingly.
Special Accommodations
Please contact Ms. Erin Salva () at the Office of Disability Services if you would like to discuss any conditions that may affect your ability to participate in the class.
Required Texts
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic
Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
Gottlieb, Nanette. Language and Society in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.
Rappa, Antonio L and Lionel Wee. Language Policy and Modernity in Southeast Asia: Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. New York: Springer, 2006.
Week 1: Introduction to the Course
August 27, 2007
Week 2: Overview and Basic Concepts
September 3, 2007
Required
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
* Chapter 14 / Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia
Schiffman, Harold. Linguistic Culture and Language Policy. London and New York:
Routledge, 1996. [Electronic Resource]
Additional References
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London and New York: Verso, 1991.
Chapter 5: “Old Languages, New Models” [67-82]
Coulmas, Florian. Language and Economy. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992.
Coulmas, Florian. Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers’ Choices. New York:
Cambridge UP, 2005.
Crystal, David. How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die. Woodstock and New York: Overlook Press.
Edwards, John. Language, Society, and Identity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985.
Edwards, John. Multilingualism. London: Routledge, 1994.
Fairclough, Norman. Language and Power. New York: Longman, 1989.
Fasold, Ralph. The Sociolinguistics of Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.
Fishman, Joshua A. Language and Ethnicity in Minority Sociolinguistic Perspective.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1989.
Gladney, Dru C. “Introduction: Making and Marking Majorities.” Making
Majorities: Constituting the Nation in Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Fiji, Turkey, and the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1998. [1-9]
Greenfield, Liah. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1992.
Hobsbawm, Eric and Terence Ranger. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
(Canto), 1992.
Phillipson, Robert. Rights to Language Equity, Power, and Education. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.
Shohamy, Elana. Language Policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London and
New York: Routledge, 2006.
Spolsky, Bernard. Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.
Week 3: CHINA
September 10, 2007
Required
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic
Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
* Chapter 12 / The Evolution of Language Policies in China
Ramsey, S. Robert. The Languages of China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1987.
Part 1: 3-86
Additional References
Moser, Leo J. The Chinese Mosaic: The Peoples and Provinces of China. Boulder and
London: Westview, 1985.
Zhou, Minglang, and Hongkai Sun, eds. Language Policy in the People’s Republic of China:
Theory and Practice Since 1949. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
* Chapter 3 / The Relationship between Putonghua and Chinese Dialects
* Chapter 7 / Good to Hear: Using the Trope of Standard to Find One’s Way in a Sea of
Linguistic Diversity
* Chapter 8 / Putonghua Education and Language Policy in Postcolonial Hong Kong
* Chapter 9 / On the Promotion of Putonghua in China: how a Standard Language
Becomes a Vernacular
Week 4: CHINA
September 17, 2007
Required
Chen. Ping. “Modern written Chinese, dialects and regional identity.” Language Problems and
Language Planning 20 (1996): 223-42. [Electronic Resource]
Chen, Ping. “Toward a phonographic writing system of Chinese: a case study in writing reform.”
International Journal of the Sociology of Language 122 (1996): 1-46. [Electronic Resource]
Ramsey, S. Robert. The Languages of China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1987.
Part 1: 87-156
Additional References
Coulmas, Florian. The Writing Systems of the World. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell,
1989. [91-136]
Riedlinger, Heinz. From writing reform to language and writing standardization : Chinese
language planning at the end of the Nineties. Bochum : Ruhr-Universität., 1999.
Week 5: CHINA
September 24, 2007
First Short Paper Due
Required
Ramsey, S. Robert. The Languages of China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1987.
Part 2: 157-end
Zhou, Minglang, and Hongkai Sun, eds. Language Policy in the People’s Republic of China:
Theory and Practice Since 1949. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
* Chapter 5 / Minority Language Policy in China: Equality in Theory and Inequality in Practice
* Chapter 13 / The Introduction and Development of the Zhuang Writing System
* Chapter 14 / Policies on the Planning and Use of the Yi Language and Writing Systems
* Chapter 15 / Language Policy for Bai
Additional References
Gladney, Dru G. “Clashed Civlizations? Muslim and Chinese Identities in the PRC.” Making
Majorities: Constituting the Nation in Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Fiji, Turkey, and the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1998. [106-131]
Mackerras, Colin. China’s Minorities: Integration and Modernization in the Twentieth Century. Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1994.
Song, Zhengchun. “Multilingual families of the Tuvinian people in Xinjiang (Mongolia).” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 97 (1992): 23-25.
Zhou, Minglang. Multilingualism in China: The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority
Languages 1949-2002. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003.
Zhou, Minglang, and Hongkai Sun, eds. Language Policy in the People’s Republic of China:
Theory and Practice Since 1949. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
* Chapter 12 / The Use and Development of Tibetan in China
* Chapter 16 / The Use and Development of Mongol and Its Writing Systems in China
* Chapter 17 / Language Policy and Standardization of Korean in China
Tsui, Amy and James Tollefson, eds. Language policy, culture and identity in Asian contexts.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007.
Chapter 7 / Language Policy and the Social Construction of Identity: the case of Hong Kong
Week 6: TAIWAN
October 1, 2007
Proposal Due
Required
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic
Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
* Chapter 13 / The Evolution of Language Policies and National Identity in Taiwan
Sandel, T.L. “Linguistic capital in Taiwan: The KMT's Mandarin language policy and its
perceived impact on language practices of bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi speakers.” Language in Society 32.4 (September 2003): 523-551. [Electronic Resource]
Tang, Xiaobing. “On the Concept of Taiwan Literature.” Modern China 25.4 (1999): 379-422.
[Electronic Resource]
Additional References
Chen, Chung-min, Chuang Ying-chang and Huang Shu-min, eds. Ethnicity in Taiwan: social,
historical and cultural perspectives. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 1994.
Lee, W.C. “Taiwan’s cultural reconstruction movement: Identity politics and collective action since 2000.” Issues and Studies 41.1 (March 2005): 1-51.
Makeham, John and A-chin Hsiau, eds. Cultural, ethnic, and political nationalism in
contemporary Taiwan: bentuhua. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Ren, Hai. “The Displacement and Museum Representation of Aboriginal Cultures in Taiwan.”
Positions 6.2 (1998): 323-344.
Week 7: JAPAN
October 15, 2007
Required
Gottlieb, Nanette. Language and Society in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.
Additional References
Besner, D. and Hilderbrandt, N. “Orthographic and phonological codes in the oral reading of
Japanese kana.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 13 (1987): 335-343.
Carroll, Tessa. Language Planning and Language Change in Japan. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series 86.l. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2001.
Coulmas, Florian. “Language adaptation in Meiji Japan.” Language Adaptation. Ed. Florian Coulmas. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 1989.
Gottlieb, Nanette. Kanji Politics: Language Policy and Japanese Script. London and New York: Keegan Paul International, 1995.
Gottlieb, Nanette. Linguistic Stereotyping and Minority Groups in Japan. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
Haarmann, Harald. Language in Ethnicity: A View of Basic Ecological Relations. Berlin, New York, and Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000. [Chapter 6: “The use foreign languages as symbols of prestige in Japan – problems of ethnic identity in modern Japanese society, 209-256]
Heinrich, Patrick. “The debate on English as an official language in Japan.” Language Regimes in Transformation: Future Prospects for German and Japanese in Science, Economy, and Politics. Ed. Florian Coulmas. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2006. [115- 140]
Kikkawa, Hitoshi. “Cultural and Human Rights of the Ainu in Japan.” The Politics of Multiculturalism in the Asia/Pacific. Ed. David Myers. Darwin, Australia: Northern Territory UP, 1995 [132-136]
Maher, John C. and Y. Kawanishi. “Maintaining culture and language: Koreans in Osaka.”
Diversity in Japanese Culture and Language. Eds. John C. Mather and Gaynor Macdonald. London: Kegan Paul International, 1995. [160-177]
Sibata, Takesi. Sociolinguistics in Japanese Contexts. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1999.
Tsui, Amy and James Tollefson, eds. Language policy, culture and identity in Asian contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007.
* Chapter 2 / Japan’s Language Policy and the “Lost Decade”
Week 8: KOREA
October 22, 2007
Second short paper due
Required
Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910. Berkeley: California UP, 1995. [Electronic Resource]
* Chapter 11 / Images of Domination
Rhee, M.J. “Language planning in Korea under the Japanese colonial administration, 1910-
1945.” Language, Culture and Curriculum 5.2 (1992): 87-97. [Electronic Resource]
Tsui, Amy and James Tollefson, eds. Language policy, culture and identity in Asian contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007.
* Chapter 3 / Globalization and Language Policy in South Korea
Additional References
King, Ross. “Nationalism and language reform in Korea: the Questione della Lingua in precolonial Korea.” Nationalism and the Construction of Korean Identity. Eds. Hyung Il Pai and Timothy R. Tangherlini. Berkeley: Center for Korean Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. [33-72]
Shin, Gi-Wook. Ethnic nationalism in Korea: genealogy, politics, and legacy. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2006.
Shin, Gi-Wook and Michael Robinson, eds. Colonial modernity in Korea. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Asia Center : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 1999.
Taylor, I. “The Korean writing system.” Processing of visible language. Vol. 2. Eds. P.A. Kolers, M. Wrolstad and H. Bouma. New York: Plenum Press, 1980.
Week 9: PHILIPPINES/VIETNAM
October 29, 2007
Annotated Bibliography due
Required
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic
Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
* Chapter 7 / Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Vietnam
Eira, Christina. “Authority and discourse: towards a model for orthography selection.” Written Language and Literacy 1.2 (1998): 171-224. [Electronic Resource]
Rafael, Vicente L. Contracting colonialism: translation and Christian conversion in Tagalog
society under early Spanish rule. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988. [2nd ed. - 1993]
* Chapter 2 / Tomas Pinpin and the Shock of Castilian
Week 10: BANGLADESH/INDIA/PAKISTAN
November 5, 2007
Required
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic
Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
* Chapter 1 / Language Policy and National Development in India
* Chapter 2 / The Politics of Language Policy in Pakistan
* Chapter 3 / Language, Identity, and the State in Bangladesh
Musa, Monsur. “Politics of language planning in Pakistan and the birth of a new state.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 118 (1996): 63-80. [Electronic Resource]
Ramaswamy, Sumathi. “Sanskrit for the Nation.” Modern Asian Studies 33.2 (1999): 339-381.
[Electronic Resource]
Additional References
Bhatt, Rakesh M. “Expert Discourses, Local Practices, and Hybridity: The Case of Indian Englishes.” Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. Ed. A. Suresh Canagarajah. Mahwah, NJ and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. [25-54]
Bose, Sugata and Ayesha Jalal. Modern South Asia: history, culture, political economy. 2nd ed.
New York: Routledge, 2004.
Bright, William. Language Variation in South Asia. New York: Oxford UP, 1990.
Brown, Michael E. and Sumit Ganguly, eds. Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
* Chapter 4 / Ethnolinguistic Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993.
* Chapter 2 / The Colonial State
Coulmas, Florian. The Writing Systems of the World. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1989. [179-201]
Deshpande, Madhav. Sociolinguistic Attitudes in India. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers, 1979.
Dua, Hans R. “Language Planning in India: Problems, Approaches and Prospects.” Language Planning: Focusschrift in Honor of Joshua A. Fishman on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Volume 3. Ed. David F. Marshall. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1991. [105-134]
Khubchandani, Lachman M. Plural Languages, Plural Cultures: Communication, Identity and Socio-political Change in Contemporary India. Honolulu: East-West Center, 1983.
King, Robert D. Nehru and the Language Politics of India. Oxford UP, 1999.
Pattanayak, D.P. “Diversity in communication and languages: predicament of a multilingual nation state: India, a case study.” Language of Inequality. Eds. Nessa Wolfson and Joan Manes. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1985. [399-407]
Reeves, G.W. Indian Language Politics. South Asian Issues, Research Paper No. 3. Nedlands, Australia: Indian Ocean Centre for Peace Studies, 1994.