The Colorful Diversity of Mandarin’s Past
Prof. Richard Simmons (School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong)
Before the promulgation of an official standard language in the 20th century —first Guóyǔ 國 語, then Pǔtōnghuà 普 通 話 — China had an unofficial standard that had served for many centuries in the Míng and the Qīng. That unofficial standard, called Guānhuà 官 話 (“Mandarin”), was spoken by officials, soldiers, merchants, and any others who interacted along important commercial routes, such as canals and ports, and in cities and towns throughout the vast Chinese empire. This talk explores colorful historical records and lively anecdotes that survive from the Qing period to illustrate the vibrant and diverse Mandarin milieu of historical times.
Date：Friday, October 27,2023
Time：3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Venue：C Block Exhibition Foyer, The ISF Academy
Speaker：Prof. Richard Simmons (School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong)
Language：English (bilingual panel discussion)
Registration：Click here
Video Link：Click here
About the Speaker
Richard VanNess Simmons is Professor in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong specializing in the history of the Chinese dialects and Mandarin. He has done fieldwork mapping dialects in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. He recently published Studies in Colloquial Chinese and its History: Dialect and Text (HKU Press, 2022).
Recommended books
- Coblin, W. South. 2000. “A Brief History of Mandarin.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 120, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec., 2000), pp. 537- 552.
- Coblin, W. South. 1997. “A Compendium of Phonetics in Northwest Chinese.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series Number 7. Berkeley. (Chapter 1)
- Coblin, W. South. 1991. “Studies in Old Northwest Chinese.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series Number 4. Berkeley. (Introduction)
- Ramsey, Robert S. 1987. The Languages of China. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Primarily Chapters 2 and 3)
- Simmons, Richard VanNess. 2022. Studies in Colloquial Chinese and its History: Dialect and Text. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press. (This is an edited collection of 15 papers by various scholars in the field, many touch upon the history of Mandarin.)
- Simmons, Richard VanNess. 2020. “What was Standard Chinese in the 19th Century? Divergent views in the times of transition.” In: Henning Klöter and Mårten Söderblom Saarela, eds. Language Diversity in the Sinophone World: Historical trajectories, language planning, and multilingual practices. Routledge, 2020, 13-59.
- Simmons, Richard VanNess. 2017 “Varieties of Mandarin.” In The Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Edited by Rint Sybesma, et al. Leiden: Brill, 2017, Vol. II, pp. 672-682.
