The Chinese Writing System in Asia - An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Nota dell'editore:

The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective integrates a diverse range of disciplinary approaches in examining how the Chinese script represents and actively shapes personal and social identities in and beyond Asia. It is an ideal read for students and scholars interested in a broad and culturally rich introduction to research on the Chinese writing system. It can also serve as the main text of an undergraduate course on the subject.

Key features of this volume include:

• Insights from studies of the Chinese writing system in linguistics, script reform and technology, gender, identity, literature, and the visual arts;

• Examples embedded in inquiries of the cultural history and contemporary society of Asia;

• Rigorous yet accessible discussions of complex concepts and phenomena that assume no prior knowledge of Asian languages or linguistics;

• Supplementary multimedia materials and resources, including instructional support, available online.
  
  Indice dei contenuti: 
  
  

  Part I Linguistic Preliminaries

  Chapter 1 Foundational concepts

  Chapter 2 What is writing?

  Chapter 3 What kinds of writing systems are there?

  Chapter 4 Pīnyīn tutorial

  Part II Writing Chinese

  Chapter 5 The Chinese speech

  Chapter 6 Written Chinese

  Chapter 7 The Chinese writing system

  Chapter 8 Demythifying the Chinese script

  Part III Borrowing the Chinese writing system

  Chapter 9 Chinese characters in Asia: An overview

  Chapter 10 Writing Korean

  Chapter 11 Writing Japanese

  Chapter 12 Writing Vietnamese

  Part IV Reforming the Chinese script

  Chapter 13 Phonetic writing before pīnyīn

  Chapter 14 Pīnyīn

  Chapter 15 Simplification of Chinese characters

  Chapter 16 Writing and technology in modern China

  Part V Identity and gender in writing Chinese

  Chapter 17 Handwriting and personhood

  Chapter 18 Sexism in the Chinese writing system

  Chapter 19 Nǚshū: Women’s script

  Chapter 20 Script choice in writing Japanese

  Part VI Chinese Characters in art and literature

  Chapter 21 Chinese calligraphy

  Chapter 22 A calligraphy workshop

  Chapter 23 Modern calligraphy in China

  Chapter 24 Chinese Characters in Avant-garde art

  Chapter 25 Chinese Characters and Western Modernist poetry