• Introduction: The Context of the Theory and Practice of China’s Language Policy.- Introduction: The Context of the Theory and Practice of China’s Language Policy.- Theory and Practice in the Center.- Fifty Years of Script and Written Language Reform in the P.R.C..- The Relationship between Putonghua and Chinese Dialects.- The Creation of Writing Systems and Nation Establishment.- Minority Language Policy in China.- The Center Versus The Periphery in Practice.- Language Spread Versus Language Maintenance: Policy Making and Implementation Process.- Good to Hear.- Putonghua Education and Language Policy in Postcolonial Hong Kong.- On the Promotion of Putonghua in China: How a Standard Language Becomes a Vernacular.- Theorizing Personal Experiences from the Practice.- Theorizing Over 40 Years Personal Experiences with the Creation and Development of Minority Writing Systems of China.- The Use and Development of Dai and its Vernacular Writing Systems.- Theory and Practice Viewed from Minority Communities.- The Use and Development of Tibetan in China.- The Introduction and Development of the Zhuang Writing System.- Policies on the Planning and Use of the Yi Language and Writing Systems.- Language Policy for Bai.- The Use and Development of Mongol and its Writing Systems in China.- Language Policy and Standardization of Korean in China.- Foreign Language Education Policy and Modernization.- Foreign Language Education in the PRC.- Postscript.- Language Matters in China: An Anthropological Postscript.

From the reviews: "This volume tries to give an overview of 'the dramatic linguistic revolution that has swept across China' during the second half of the twentieth century. ... In the 19 papers which this book presents, the reader is made well aware of the enormous complexities involved in language-planning in a country with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants. ... This quite detailed and scholarly study can be read by anyone with a deeper interest in Chinese culture, language, society." (E. Van Laerhoven, Acta Comparanda, Vol. XVI, 2005)