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xxvi INTRODUCTION

The goal of the reading instruction in Learning Chinese is to foster an under-

standing of the reading process and develop basic reading skills in students
with little or no prior experience in Chinese so that they may make the transi-
tion to graded reading materials already in print, beginning with such well-
tested classics as The Lady in the Painting and Strange Tales in a Chinese Studio
(both published by Yale University Press).

C. COMPOSITION Of the four essential language skills—listening, speaking,

reading, and writing–the last (better called ‘composition’) is the most elusive,
and after years of schooling, even native speakers often find written expression
difficult. The problem stems from the lack of the sort of feedback that guides
face-to-face interaction; not just linguistic features like stress and intonation,
but facial expressions, gestural movements, and the physical context of the
interaction, all of which help to monitor the communicative event. However,
because writing persists, the good writer learns to tailor it to an imagined audi-
ence, providing more redundancy in the form of complete sentences, precise
usage, and elaboration. This careful tailoring often depends on language intu-
ition that only native speakers possess, and even the most fluent speakers of a
learned language usually depend on native speakers to verify the accuracy of
written work.
While learning to write well enough to serve even basic needs of written
communication is a skill best left to higher levels of language learning, when
conversational and reading skills are more advanced, composition can serve a
useful purpose even at foundation levels. Because it is a productive skill, like
speaking, composition can help with vocabulary growth, usage, grammar, and
cohesion. In later units, Learning Chinese occasionally makes use of ‘guided
compositions’, in which an outline of the content is given and the task is to
incorporate it into a written text. Teachers may wish to add other written assign-
ments, in the form of diary entries, biographical sketches, or personal letters
(such as the one that appears in Unit 7).

Romanization versus characters

Even though written Chinese is generally a style of its own, rather different
from spoken language, it is obviously possible to write out conversations and

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other spoken material using characters. Dramatic plays and the dialogue sec-
tions of novels and language textbooks are among the genres that record
spoken language in this way. However, as you know, while the Chinese script
is an efficient and aesthetically pleasing writing system for native speakers of
the language, it has disadvantages for learners who need a way of representing
pronunciation and keeping track of language material during the learning
process. Learning Chinese separates the study of the language in general from
the study of characters in particular. Conversational material is presented in
the standard, phonetically based notation of the Chinese-speaking world, called
Hanyu Pinyin, ‘spelling the sounds of Chinese’. Utilizing Hanyu Pinyin for
the core units ensures that the learning of spoken material is not conditioned
by factors related to character acquisition; in effect, it means that dialogues and
other spoken material can be more natural and extensive than would be pos-
sible if all the characters that represent them had to be learned at the same
time.
Because Learning Chinese separates character reading (and writing) from
other aspects of language learning, students who wish to study or review the
spoken language without reference to characters can ignore, or postpone, the
character units, while those with sufficient vocabulary and grammatical knowl-
edge can alternatively study the character material alone.

Writing of characters
While learning to write, or reproduce characters, does help with recognition
(and so, ultimately, with reading), it is not the case that you need to be able to
write all characters from memory in order to be able to read them. A hint or
two—the ‘heart’ sign in one character, a ‘phonetic’ element in another—will
often be enough for the expectations arising from context to be confirmed. In
recognition of this, the character material in Learning Chinese is organized
primarily to develop reading skills. Information on how to write the graphs is
included to draw attention to the general structure of characters, as well as to
facilitate their reproduction. It is certainly useful to learn to write from memory
a few hundred of the more common characters in order to absorb the general
principles of character construction. It is also useful to be able to write personal
information in characters so that you can sign in and sign out, fill out forms,

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and jot down your contact information. Otherwise, like most Chinese them-
selves nowadays, the bulk of your writing will make use of Chinese language
word processing, which involves selecting from a set of character options—in
other words, character recognition, not production. Thus, Learning Chinese
takes the position that learning to write characters from memory is not a
primary goal at foundation levels.

The simplified and traditional character sets

Without the requirement that characters be written from memory, the exis-
tence of two sets of Chinese characters (the simplified set used on the Mainland
and in Singapore, and the traditional set associated with Taiwan and many
overseas communities) becomes much less problematical. Both sets can be
introduced simultaneously. Students note the relationship between the two
forms, learn to read both in context (though Learning Chinese places more
emphasis on the simplified set), and select one to write. We recommend fol-
lowing the Mainland majority and learning to write the simplified set, which
is generally based on well-established written variants. Individuals are free to
choose, but should be aware that while formal examinations tend to offer ver-
sions of both, Mainland study programs expect their students to be able to read
simplified characters.

From textbook to classroom

The selection and ordering of topics in Learning Chinese is based on my own
experience learning and teaching Chinese over several decades. It is guided by
what the beginning student is likely to encounter in and out of the classroom
setting, as well as by the need to provide a broad foundation of grammatical,
lexical, and cultural information for future work in Chinese. It mixes practical
topics, such as providing biographical information, buying train tickets, or
giving toasts, with topics of general interest, such as geography, regional lan-
guages (‘dialects’), and brand names. Such topics are easily enriched with
online materials such as satellite maps, photographs, video clips, and advertise-
ments. They are also easy to transform into effective classroom activities.

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The language learner as explorer

It is my belief that, given the enormity of the task of learning a new language
(which I sometimes liken to repairing a car while driving it, or renovating your
house while still living in it), it is helpful to be as interested in the new language
as it is to be fascinated by the new culture—of which language is a part. Unfor-
tunately, writing about language tends to be dry and unnecessarily technical.
Until now, there has been no ‘Indiana Jones’ for linguists. In Learning Chinese,
we have not only made the language the focus of some conversations and nar-
ratives, but we have also frequently gone out of the way to comment on the
history, structure, and delightful quirks that are scattered across the linguistic
terrain. In my own experience, one of the main topics of conversation with
Chinese friends all over the world has been the language itself, whether it be
regional accents, local usage, or the Chinese equivalent of ‘splat’. (Which is,
incidentally, biā, a sound for which, officially at least, there is no character.)
The other two common subjects of conversation are weather and, as you might
expect, food; therefore, these two topics are also given some prominence in
Learning Chinese.
Learning Chinese is exuberant rather than restrained. Its Chinese content is
current and lively, with subjects that range from ordering food to bargaining,
from religion to the Chinese school system. It is also larded with quotations,
rhymes, popular culture, linguistic information, and historical and geographi-
cal notes. It is intended to be an intellectually stimulating resource for both
students and teachers alike.

Basic geography

Names for China

The immediate source of the name ‘China’ is thought to be a Persian word1,
which appeared in European languages during the 16th or 17th century as a
name for porcelain, that was then applied to the country from which the finest
examples of that material came. If this is correct, then ‘China’ derives from
‘china’, not the other way around.

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Another name, Cathay, now rather poetic in English but surviving as the
regular name for the country in languages such as Russian (‘Kitai’), as well as
in the name of the Hong Kong–based airline Cathay Pacific, is said to derive
from the name of the Khitan (or Qitan) Tartars, who formed the Liao dynasty
in the north of China during the 10th century. The Liao dynasty was the first
to make a capital in the region of modern Beijing.
The Chinese now call their country Zhōngguó, often translated as ‘Middle
Kingdom’. Originally, this name meant the central, or royal, state of the many
that occupied the region prior to the Qin unification in 221 BCE. Other names
were used before Zhōngguó became current. One of the earliest was Huá (or
Huáxià, combining Huá with the name of the earliest dynasty, the Xià). Huá,
combined with the Zhōng of Zhōngguó, appears in the modern official name of
the country—as the following entries show.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC)—Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó

The PRC is the political entity proclaimed by Mao Zedong when he gave the
inaugural speech (‘China has risen again’) at the Gate of Heavenly Peace
(Tiān’ānmén) in Beijing on October 1, 1949. The PRC also claims sovereignty
over Taiwan and all other regions currently controlled by the government in
Taipei.

The Republic of China (ROC)—Zhōnghuá Mínguó

The ROC was the name of the political entity established in 1912, after the fall
of the Manchu Qing dynasty, which took place the previous year. The man
most responsible for the founding of the Republic was Sun Yat-sen (Sūn
Yìxiān in Mandarin), and for this, he has earned the epithet ‘Father of the
Country’. Although he was named provisional president in 1911, fears for the
unity of the country led to the appointment of Yuan Shih-k’ai (Yuán Shìkǎi),
an important military and diplomatic official under the Qing, as the first presi-
dent of the Republic in 1912. In 1949, the president of the Republic, Chiang
Kai-shek (Jiǎng Jièshí), fled with the government to Taiwan and maintained the
name Republic of China as part of his claim to be the only legitimate govern-
ment of the whole of China. De facto control, however, has been limited to the

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island of Taiwan, clusters of islands in the Taiwan Straits, the ‘offshore islands’
of Quemoy (Jīnmén) and Matsu (Mǎzǔ) close to the mainland, and some minor
islands in the South China Sea and to the east of Taiwan. In recent years, even
in formal contexts (such as on recent postage stamps), ‘Taiwan’ sometimes
takes the place of ‘Republic of China’ as a name for the political entity.

Taiwan–Táiwān
Taiwan is some 210 kilometers off the coast of eastern China’s Fujian province;
its central mountains are just visible from the Fujian coast on a clear day. The
Dutch colonized the island in the early 17th century, fighting off the Spanish,
who had also established bases on the northern part of the island. The Dutch
called the island Formosa, from the name Ilha Formosa ‘beautiful island’, given
to it earlier by the Portuguese (who did not actually colonize it).
Taiwan’s earliest inhabitants spoke Austronesian languages unrelated to
Chinese, and indigenous groups such as the Ami, Paiwan, and Bunan (who
still speak non-Chinese languages) are descendents of those early Taiwan
Austronesians. By the 13th century, Chinese speaking Hakka and Fukienese—
regional Chinese languages—had established small communities on the island.
These were joined by refugees from the Ming after the fall of that dynasty on
the mainland. The Qing dynasty annexed Taiwan in 1683, making it a province.
In 1895, Taiwan, along with nearby islands such as the Pescadores group
(Pénghú Lièdǎo), was ceded to Japan as part of the settlement of the Sino-Jap-
anese war. It remained a Japanese colony until 1945, when it was returned to
the Republic of China.
Under the Nationalist government, Mandarin (Guóyǔ) was made the official
language of the country, while Taiwanese (Táiyǔ), a form of Southern Min
spoken by the majority of its population, was suppressed. In recent years,
however, Taiwanese has undergone a resurgence in public life.

Hong Kong—Xiāng Gǎng

Hong Kong lies within the Cantonese-speaking region of southern China. The
English name derives from the Cantonese pronunciation of the place, ‘Heung
Gong’, which means ‘fragrant harbor’ (Xiāng Gǎng in Mandarin). Hong Kong

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was formally ceded to the British in the Treaty of Nanking (Nánjīng), which
was signed at the end of the Opium War in 1842 on a ship anchored in the
Yangtze River, slightly to the east of Nanjing. The Kowloon Peninsula (Jiǔlóng
‘nine dragons’) was added in 1860 after the Second Opium War, and the New
Territories (Xīnjiè), which includes islands and mainland territory, were leased
to the British in 1898 for 99 years, making Hong Kong total slightly more than
1,000 square kilometers.
In 1984, well before the expiration of the New Territories lease, Prime Min-
ister Margaret Thatcher and Chairman Deng Xiaoping formulated the Sino-
British Joint Declaration, an agreement for the return of Hong Kong to Chinese
sovereignty. In 1990, the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ [Yī Guó,
Liǎng Zhì] was formulated: Hong Kong would retain its laws and a high degree
of political autonomy for 50 years. At midnight on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong
became a Special Administrative Region [Tèbié Xíngzhèngqū] of China, which
guaranteed it autonomy within the PRC in all but foreign affairs and defense.
Historically, Hong Kong has been settled by a number of distinct Chinese
groups. These include the Bendi (‘locals’), who emigrated during the Song
dynasty (10th–13th century) after being driven from their homes in north
China; the Tanka, fisherfolk who lived on boats and are thought by some to be
the descendents of the non-Han Yue people; the Hokla, early immigrants from
Fujian; the Hakka, who ended up mostly in less fertile parts of the New Ter-
ritories; and numerous clans and people from nearby Cantonese-speaking
regions, as well as other parts of China. Despite its small size, Hong Kong has
more successfully preserved the traces of many traditional Chinese social forms
and practices than have many other parts of the Chinese-speaking world.

Macau—Àomén
Sixty kilometers to the west of Hong Kong, across the Pearl River estuary, is
Àomén, known in English as Macau. The Chinese and English names have
different sources. Àomén, means, literally, ‘gate to the inlet’; but the Portuguese
name, ‘Macao’ (English Macau), is said to derive from the name of a revered
local temple, called ‘Maagok’ in Cantonese (Māgé), dedicated to Matsu, a
goddess worshipped by fishermen and sailors2.

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The peninsula of Macau was settled by the Portuguese in 1557, and was
administered by them for over 400 years, though the question of who held
sovereignty was not resolved3 until 1999, when it reverted completely to Chinese
territory. The two small islands of Coloane and Taipa were added to the terri-
tory in the middle of the 19th century, and later connected to the Macau pen-
insula by bridges. Recently, the islands have been joined by landfill, and the
central portion has become the site of the Cotai Strip, envisioned as an Asian
version of the Las Vegas strip—only larger. Macau is the only place in China
where gambling is legal.

Chinese lands; Chinese overseas

Informally, the two Chinese political entities are often referred to as Mainland
China (Zhōngguó Dàlù)—or simply ‘the Mainland’—and Taiwan, rather than
the PRC and the ROC. The occasional need to talk about a single Chinese entity,
consisting of the Chinese mainland plus Hong Kong and Taiwan, has recently
given rise to a term, Liǎng’àn Sāndì (‘two-shores three-lands’).
Chinese who live outside the Liǎng’àn Sāndì can be classified as Huáqiáo,
generally translated as ‘Overseas Chinese’. In its broadest sense, Huáqiáo can
apply simply to ethnic Chinese living outside the Liǎng’àn Sāndì, regardless of
how assimilated they are to local cultures. More typically, however, it has a
narrower application, referring to Chinese who retain features of Chinese
culture in their adopted homelands and who keep ties with the motherland.
There is another term, Huáyì (‘Chinese-hem [of a robe]; frontier’) that is applied
to ethnic Chinese born overseas, e.g., Měiguó Huáyì ‘Chinese Americans’, etc.

Nationalists and Communists

After the establishment of the PRC in 1949, it was customary to distinguish
the two political entities by their only extant political parties, the Communist
Party (Gòngchǎndǎng), abbreviated CCP, and the Nationalist Party (Guómíndǎng,
or Kuomintang), the KMT. Hence, ‘the Communist government’, ‘the Nation-
alist leaders’, etc. Recent changes in Taiwan and on the Mainland make neither
term appropriate. In 2000, the Nationalists lost to Chen Shui-bian and the
Democratic Progressive Party, though they returned to power in 2008 with the

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election of the KMT candidate, Ma Ying-jeou (Mă Yīngjiŭ in Mandarin). Mean-

while, on the Mainland, the Communist Party, though retaining its institu-
tional position in the government, has become less of a dominating force in
political life.

0 500 mi

0 800 km

HEILONGJIANG

Harbin
Ürümqi Changchun
N
INNER MONGOLIA JILIN
A.R.
Shenyang
XINJIANG UYGUR A.R. LIAONING
Hohhot
Beijing
HEBEI Tianjin
GANSU Yinchuan
Shijiazhuang
Aksai Chin Taiyuan
Xining NINGXIA Jinan
is claimed HUI
SHANXI
by India QINGHAI A.R. SHANDONG
Lanzhou
Xi an
Xi’an
TIBET A.R. Zhengzhou The Diaoyu Islands/
SHAANXI JIANGSU
HENAN Senkaku Shoto are administered
Nanjing by Japan, but claimed by the
Hefei SHANGHAI
SICHUAN ANHUI Shanghai People’s Republic of China and
Lhasa HUBEI
Wuhan Hangzhou the Republic of China.
Chengdu CHONGQING
Chongqing ZHEJIANG
Changsha Taiwan and a few islands off
Nanchang
Most of the area the coast of Fujian are
of the Indian state Guiyang HUNAN JIANGXI administered by the Republic
Fuzhou
of Arunachal Pradesh GUIZHOU FUJIAN of China and claimed by the
Kunming
Province is claimed by China. People’s Republic of China.
YUNNAN
Autonomous Region GUANGXI GUANGDONG
Municipality Guangzhou
Nanning
Special Administrative Region
Hong Kong The Pratas Islands are administered by
claimed by India, administered by PRC Macau the Republic of China and claimed by
claimed by PRC, administered by India the People’s Republic of China.
claimed by PRC, administered by the Republic of China Haikou
claimed by PRC, administered by Japan HAINAN

Liǎng’àn Sāndì

Peking, Beijing, and Peiping

One of the curious consequences of the political differences between the PRC
and the ROC is that they have different names for the city formerly known to
the English-speaking world as Peking. For the PRC, the capital is Běijīng ‘north-
ern capital’, the city that has been the capital for all but brief periods since 1422,
when Emperor Yong Le of the Ming dynasty moved the government north from
Nánjīng ‘southern capital’. However, in 1927, the Nationalists under Chiang
Kai-shek, having little real power in the north and under threat from the
Japanese, made Nanjing their capital and restored the name Běipíng (Peiping)
(‘northern-peace’) that the northern city possessed before becoming capital in

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the 15th century. Officially, the Nationalists retained the name Běipíng even
after the Japanese conquered the city of Nanjing, and continued to do so after
Beijing reverted to the capital in 1949 under the PRC.
The spelling ‘Peking’ is probably a reflection of the Cantonese pronunciation
of the name Beijing, in which the initial of the second syllable is pronounced
with a hard ‘k’ sound. Representations of Cantonese pronunciation were often
adopted by the British as official postal spellings (cf. Nanking for Nánjīng and
Chungking for Chóngqìng). Though most foreigners now spell the name of the
city, in Mandarin pinyin transcription, as Beijing, the old spelling and pronun-
ciation survive to this day in certain proper names, such as Peking University
(still the official English name of the institution) and Peking duck. The tran-
scription, Beijing, is not without its problems either, since speakers who do
not know the pinyin system tend to make the ‘j’ sound more foreign or exotic
by giving it a French quality: [bay-zhing]. As you will soon learn, the actual
standard pronunciation is closer to [bay-džing].

Linguistic background

Chinese
One of the consequences of the long duration of Chinese history is that the
term ‘Chinese’ has come to have a wide range of applications. It can refer to
the earliest records, written on oracle bones, and dated to the second millen-
nium BCE. It can refer to the languages in the Sinitic branch—the ‘Sino’ of the
Sino-Tibetan family—which includes not only the standard language but
regional languages (‘dialects’) such as Cantonese and Hokkien. (In this sense,
Chinese is to the modern Chinese languages as Romance is to the modern
Latin languages French, Spanish, Italian, and so on.) Finally, in its most narrow
sense, it can refer to the modern standard language, often called Mandarin by
English speakers.

Mandarin and Chinese

When the Portuguese began to have extensive contact with China in the late
16th and early 17th centuries, they adapted the word ‘mandarin’ (itself adapted

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to Portuguese from Indian and other sources) to refer to Chinese officials;

hence modern meanings such as ‘powerful official; member of a powerful
group’. They also used it for the language spoken by such officials, called
Guānhuà in Chinese, ‘the speech of officials’. Guānhuà was the name given to
specialized speaking practices, based on northern Chinese, which served as a
lingua franca among officials and members of other educated classes who
might come from different parts of China and speak mutually unintelligible
Chinese in their home regions.
Guānhuà can be regarded as the precursor of the modern standard language.
In English, the name ‘Mandarin’ has survived the transformation from special-
ized language to the modern standard, but the name Guānhuà has not. The
Chinese term only survives in the specialized terminology of linguists, who use
the term Běifāng Guānhuà Tı̌xì ‘northern Guanhua system [of dialects]’ to refer
to the northern dialect grouping that includes Mandarin and other distinct
dialects now spoken over a vast stretch of territory in the north, west,
and southwest of China. Western linguists often refer to this grouping as the
Mandarin dialects, using ‘Mandarin’ in a generic sense. The Mandarin dialects
stand in contrast to other dialect groupings, such as the Cantonese or
Fujianese.
Strange as it may seem, the Chinese-speaking world has no single term for
modern standard Chinese, or Mandarin. In the PRC, it is officially called
Pǔtōnghuà (‘the common language’), a term with a legacy dating back to
the early part of the 20th century; in Taiwan, it is called Guóyǔ (‘the
national language’), a term dating to at least 1918; while in Singapore, it is
called Huáyǔ (‘the language of the Huá’)—Huá being an ancient name for the
Chinese people. In ordinary speech, other terms are often used: Hànyǔ (‘lan-
guage of the Han’), for example, or Zhōngwén (‘Chinese-language’).
Mainlanders tend to find it strange that English speakers refer to the stan-
dard language as Mandarin. Norman (1988: 136) recommends using the term
Standard Chinese or, when possible, just Chinese, and keeping Mandarin for
the dialect grouping. In certain contexts, Chinese will suffice, but at times it
will be ambiguous, for it does not rule out Cantonese, Shanghainese, and other
so-called ‘dialects’. The longer term, Standard Chinese, is awkward, and assumes

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that there is only one standard, which makes it difficult to talk about differences
in, say, Taiwan and Mainland Mandarin. So, in Learning Chinese, if the simple
term ‘Chinese’ is not sufficient, we fall back on the venerable term ‘Mandarin’,
taking heart from the usage of such eminent Chinese as Yuen Ren Chao, who
wrote a much-loved textbook called Mandarin Primer (1948), and more recently,
Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew, who wrote a volume describing his own study
called Keeping My Mandarin Alive (2005).

The origins of spoken Mandarin

Historically, a majority of the Chinese population spoke regional or local lan-
guages and was illiterate. For them, there was no general medium of commu-
nication across regional lines. For the educated, Guānhuà served in a limited
way as a spoken medium, while Classical Chinese, the language of administra-
tion, education, and high culture (see below), served as a written medium. By
the 19th century, it was clear that the lack of a spoken norm that could serve
the communicative needs of all classes across the country was a major obstacle
to the modernization of China, and eventually efforts were made to identify a
suitable medium and promote it as the standard. Guānhuà was an obvious
candidate. However, by the 19th century, it had become strongly associated
with the educated speech of Beijing, putting southerners at a disadvantage.
Classical Chinese, though it had no regional bias, was a highly stylized written
language with ancient roots that made it an unsuitable basis for a national
spoken medium.
After various interesting, but completely impractical, attempts to establish a
hybrid language to balance regional differences (particularly between north and
south) the Chinese language planners settled on a northern strategy: promoting
the pronunciation of the educated speech of the capital, Beijing, but incorporat-
ing material from a broad range of other sources as the basis of usage. Thus,
words with wide distribution were adopted over northern or Beijing localisms,
for example. The spoken standard also absorbed material from written sources
that introduced words and phrasing from the important economic and cultural
region of the Lower Yangtze Valley (Shànghǎi to Nánjīng) as well as words for
modern concepts first coined in Japanese.

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Norms and variation

Though both Taiwan and the PRC have always agreed on the educated Beijing
standard for pronunciation, geographical distance, political separation, and
cultural divergence have resulted in the emergence of two norms for spoken
usage, as a comparison of dictionaries from Taiwan and the PRC will demon-
strate. These differences, though still moderate in scope, extend from the pro-
nunciation of particular words to grammar and usage.
Even within the emerging norms of Standard Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan
versions), enormous variety exists at the local level. The case of Taiwan is illus-
trative. There, Guóyǔ (Mandarin) is not the first language of much of the popu-
lation. The most common first language is Táiyǔ (Taiwanese), a Southern Min
language that is very similar to the Southern Min spoken in the province of
Fujian across the Taiwan Straits. (Until the success of the ‘Speak Mandarin’
movement, Southern Min was also the language of most Singapore Chinese;
elsewhere in Southeast Asia, it remains an important language in Chinese
communities.)
With so many in Taiwan speaking Táiyǔ as a first language, it is not surpris-
ing that the Mandarin spoken there is often influenced by the pronunciation,
grammar, and usage of Taiwanese. The result is a unique Taiwanese Mandarin.
The same phenomenon occurs elsewhere, of course, so that no matter where
you are in China, Mandarin heard on the street will generally have local fea-
tures. Native speakers quickly get used to these differences, just as English
speakers get used to regional accents of English. Learners will typically find the
variation disruptive, and they will need time and experience to adjust to it.
Though there are probably more and more Chinese who speak some variety
of Mandarin as their first language, and whose speech is close to the appointed
norms, it is still true that the majority of Chinese speak more than one variety
of Chinese, and for many of them the standard speech represented in this
textbook would be a second language. A few years ago, USA Today published
statistics on the ‘world’s most common languages, ranked by population that
uses each as a first language’. Mandarin was listed first, with 885 million speak-
ers (followed by Spanish with 332 million and English with 322 million). The
figure for Mandarin does not include those who speak Cantonese or one of the

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INTRODUCTION xxxix

other regional languages, but it must include a large number of speakers whose
Chinese would be difficult to understand by someone familiar only with the
Beijing standard.
When describing the best Chinese language, Chinese speakers tend to focus
on pronunciation, praising it as biāozhǔn ‘standard’. For this reason, native
Chinese speakers, who tend to be effusive in their praise in any case, will some-
times flatter a foreigner by saying he or she speaks the language better than
they do. By ‘better’, they mean with a better approximation to the standard,
educated accent. Apart from language classrooms, the most biāozhǔn Mandarin
is heard on the broadcast media, in schools, and in the speech of young,
educated urban Chinese.

Regional languages and minority languages

There are seven major dialect groupings of Chinese, including the geographi-
cally extensive Mandarin group (divided into southwestern, northwestern, and
northern regions) mentioned earlier. Of the others, Cantonese (Yuè), Shang-
hainese (Wú), Fukienese or Hokkien (Mı̌n), and Hakka (Kèjiā) are the best
known. (Yuè, Wú, and Mı̌n are Chinese linguistic designations, while Hokkien
and Hakka are the regional pronunciations of the names Fújiàn and Kèjiā,
respectively.) All represent groupings of diverse dialects thought to share a
common origin. Even within each group, the varieties are not necessarily mutu-
ally intelligible. Cantonese, for example, includes dialects such as Hoisan
(Táishān) which are quite distinct from the standard dialect.
In many respects, the dialect groupings of Chinese—represented by Canton-
ese, Shanghainese, Hakka, etc.—are different languages. They are not, after
all, mutually intelligible, and they have their own standard speeches (Guang-
zhou for Cantonese, Suzhou for Shanghainese, etc.). In linguistic terms, they
are often said to be comparable to Dutch and German or Spanish and Portu-
guese. However, unlike those European languages, the Chinese ‘dialects’ share
a written language and identify with a common culture. Recently, the term
‘topolect’, a direct translation with Greek roots of the Chinese term fāngyán
(‘place-language’), has gained currency as a more formal term for what are
generally called ‘regional languages’ in this book. So we may speak of Canton-

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 Learning Chinese Sample

xl INTRODUCTION

ese as the standard language within the Cantonese (or Yuè) grouping, and
varieties such as Hoisan (Táishān) as dialects within Cantonese.
Regional languages should be distinguished from the languages of the non-
Chinese (non-Han) ethnic groups—such as the Mongolians, Tibetans, or
Uighurs—that make up about 8–9 percent of the total population of China.
There are 56 officially recognized ethnic minorities in China, almost all of them
with their own languages or language groups.

A Bái couple in their finery, Dàlı̌,

Yúnnán (photograph by Jordan Gilliland)

Standard Written Chinese

Standard Written Chinese (or written Mandarin) is the language of composi-
tion, learned in school and used by all educated Chinese regardless of the
particular variety or regional language that they speak. A Cantonese, for example,
speaking Taishan Cantonese at home and in the neighborhood, speaking some-
thing closer to standard Cantonese when he or she goes to Guangzhou, and

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