Western Missionaries Study The Impact Of Changes In The Movement Of Chinese Language Characters

In the history of cultural communication between China and the West, the western missionaries serve as important cultural ambassadors during the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties. Their strategy of cultural missionary brought in the advanced technology and western ideology to China, which drives the transformation of Chinese language, social culture, technology and etc. This paper aims to investigate the relations between the western cultural missionary and the transformation of Chinese language. It firstly makes for a profound understanding that the cultural activities of western missionary are the foreign sources which produces a significant influence contributing to the transformation of Chinese language. Secondly, this study also conduces to a correct comprehension and evaluation of the historical contribution of the western missionary upon Chinese language, especially the comprehensiveness and integrity of Chinese language evolution, which particularly has an important practical and academic value.In fact, the previous studies on the evolution of Chinese language are not comprehensive enough due to the fact that the already made achievements are mainly carried out by literature revolution, historical investigation, mandarin scholars, educator and new literature writers. However, if we take a look at the root cause of Chinese language transformation, we could not neglect the influence of the cultural activities of western missionary in China. The research results made before reveals that few efforts are made on the contribution of western missionary to Chinese language transformation. It is even rare to investigate this issue in the perspective of sociolinguistics.The main innovations of this paper are as following:1. The cultural activities of western missionary could not go well without Chinese language. They analyze and investigate Chinese language in the activities of using Chinese, translating western books, creating Chinese newspapers, opening new schools and publishing houses, which in fact facilitate the transformation of Chinese language. Based on a large number of historical materials, this paper takes a systematic examination of the cultural activities of western missionary in China, quoting the influences exerted by western missionary, which will make for a clear understanding about the relation between the cultural activities of western missionary and the transformation of Chinese language.2. The comprehensive study on the transformation and evolution of Chinese language is relatively insufficient, especially the research on the social cause of the transformation of Chinese language. The previous researches just attribute the transformation of Chinese language to the social dilemma at that time. However, there are other reasons that drive this transformation. This research tries to clarify the development vein of the transformation of Chinese language, particularly the root cause of this transformation, aiming to explore the root cause and ideological driving forces boosting the transformation of Chinese language.As the result, the research makes clear a good understanding of the relation between the cultural activities of western missionary in China and the transformation of Chinese language. The translation activities of western missionary and the publishing Chinese newspapers stimulate the contact between Chinese and western languages, give guidance to the transformation of Chinese language and become the herald of Vernacular Movement; missionaries’ learning and studying Chinese language help to bring about the formation of historical and comparative linguistics as well as the construction of Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet (officially adopted in1958) and promote the evolution of Chinese language and linguistic thought. In fact, the cultural activities of western missionary not only have exerted a profound influence on the transformation of Chinese language, but also changed the evolving course of Chinese language.This paper is divided in six Chapters:Chapter one clearly states the motivation of this study, and presents the current study on the relations between western missionary and the transformation of Chinese language. Based on the literature review, it then proposes the research problems, research significance and research methodologies. Finally, it briefly introduces the general clue and organization of this research.Chapter two mainly illustrates the relationship between the translation activities of western missionary and the transformation of Chinese language. It systematically discusses the different stages of western missionary’s translation activities, translation contents and specific strategies. By reviewing this, this part explores the interactions between Chinese concept of western missionary and the transformation of Chinese language.Chapter three:Based on the research on Chinese language made by western missionary, this paper puts its emphasis on their research of Chinese phonology, and the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet made by early missionaries, examining the relations between the transformation of Chinese language and the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet made by early missionaries.Chapter four:Those Chinese newspapers and publishing houses created by western missionaries played key roles in the modern history of China. The newspapers created by them serve as a completely new literature carrier, whose appearance set up new sample and style of for Chinese language. This part mainly discusses the function and influence of the newspapers in promoting exotic culture and knowledge as well as its driving forces in the evolution of Chinese language.Chapter five mainly discusses the relations between western linguistic thoughts and the transformation of Chinese language. It focuses on the relations between the attitude of the western missionary and the formation of historical linguistics, analyzing the influence of western linguistic thoughts disseminated by the newspapers created by western missionaries. Based on the above observation, it finally explores the interactive relations between social development and language evolution.Chapter six concludes the contents and findings of this research, and further investigates the interactions between social development and language evolution. Finally, it points out the limitations and restrictions of this research.