Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge

02/06/2026

[China Research Seminar] Paul Bevan (SOAS, University of London) “Will the Real Chuck Thode Please Stand Up! Charles Thode and his Song, ‘Butterfly Wu’"

Time: Thursday 4 June 2026, 14:00-15:30
Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
This talk builds on the previous work I undertook on popular cultural themes in my book Intoxicating Shanghai and my forthcoming monograph Shanghai’s Shadow Waltz. The story takes place in Shanghai during the years 1935 and 1936, in and around the Paramount Ballroom, a popular nightclub that opened in the West of that city in 1934. Central to the story is the American pianist and songwriter Charles ‘Chuck’ Thode, who performed in the Paramount Ballroom together with band leader Serge Ermoll and a host of foreign cabaret acts. This talk looks specifically at the song composed by Thode in honour of the film star Butterfly Wu, as well as his highly controversial life as a performer and composer in China and the USA. The story has a cast of five: two Chinese singers; a Chinese poet and lyricist; an ethnically Russian dance band leader; and an American cocktail pianist. The paper charts the colourful lives of these individuals and explores how they came together as dedicatee, performers, and composer of a now forgotten song.

Bio:
Paul Bevan is a Sinologist, historian, researcher and literary translator. From 2020 to 2023 he worked as Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, he was Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is currently a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Paul’s research focuses equally on the visual arts and literature, and concerns the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Era and the late Qing dynasty, particularly with regard to periodicals and magazines. Paul’s first book, A Modern Miscellany – Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938, Leiden: Brill, 2015, was hailed as ‘a major contribution to modern Chinese studies’; his second, ‘Intoxicating Shanghai’: Modern Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines During Shanghai’s Jazz Age was published by Brill in 2020. John A. Crespi’s review calls attention to the translations imbedded in the book: ‘Featured within the book’s densely informative analyses are translations of four modernist short stories. [These] in themselves contribute significantly to modern Chinese literary studies…’. Paul has translated two early twentieth-century novels: The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: an Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and the story of her brother, Ma Yongzhen, Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai (Earnshaw Books, 2024).

21/05/2026

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！✨

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] Benjamin Brose (University of Michigan) “A Hermit of the Zhongnan Mountains"

Time: Thursday 21 May 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
Gao Henian 高鶴年 (1872-1962), a devoted Buddhist practitioner and inveterate traveler, spent nearly thirty years on pilgrimages to Buddhist and Daoist mountains and monasteries across China. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he kept detailed accounts of his experiences on the road, which were later collected and published together as A Record of Visits to Famous Mountains (Mingshan youfang ji 名山遊訪記). This talk introduces the life and work of Gao Henian, with a particular focus on the years he spent living in a small hermitage deep in the Zhongnan mountains.

Short bio:
Benjamin Brose is Professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim (2023). He is also the editor of Buddhist Masters of Modern China: The Lives and Legacies of Eight Eminent Teachers (2025) and the co-editor of Inner Worlds: Individuals and Interiority in Chinese Religious Life (2025).

17/05/2026

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] Benjamin Brose (University of Michigan) “A Hermit of the Zhongnan Mountains"

Time: Thursday 21 May 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
Gao Henian 高鶴年 (1872-1962), a devoted Buddhist practitioner and inveterate traveler, spent nearly thirty years on pilgrimages to Buddhist and Daoist mountains and monasteries across China. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he kept detailed accounts of his experiences on the road, which were later collected and published together as A Record of Visits to Famous Mountains (Mingshan youfang ji 名山遊訪記). This talk introduces the life and work of Gao Henian, with a particular focus on the years he spent living in a small hermitage deep in the Zhongnan mountains.

Short bio:
Benjamin Brose is Professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim (2023). He is also the editor of Buddhist Masters of Modern China: The Lives and Legacies of Eight Eminent Teachers (2025) and the co-editor of Inner Worlds: Individuals and Interiority in Chinese Religious Life (2025).

14/05/2026

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] James Robson (Harvard) “The Grove and the Lotus: A Tale of Two Manuscripts Containing Lost Texts from China Preserved in Japan"

Time: Thursday, 14 May 2026 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: FAMES room 8/9

Abstract:
This talk will focus on a manuscript from Kōyasan 高野山 that includes handwritten texts on the frontside and the backside. The front side contains a 9th century (823 CE) manuscript of the Wenguan cilin文館詞林 [Grove of Texts from the Literature Office; Jpn. Bunkan shirin]. Different sections of the manuscript, classified as a “National Treasure” 国宝, have been located at the Shōchi-in正智院 and Hōju-in 宝寿院 on Kōyasan 高野山, and the full manuscript has recently made available to me. The Wenguan cilin—originally in 1,000 juan—was ordered to be complied by Emperor Gaozong 唐高宗 (628-683) in the early Tang and the project was completed by Xu Jingzong 許敬宗 (592-672) in 658. It included texts from the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) up through the early Tang. By the Southern Song the Wenguan cilin had become lost in China and became virtually forgotten (probably due to the success of the Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 [Blossoms and Flowers from the Literary Garden]). Some fragments were discovered in Japan in the late-18th century. To date about 30 juan have been recovered and published in various editions. Many of the surviving works, which were long presumed to be lost, survive in the newly discovered fragments. This collection is noteworthy since it includes works that are not found in other large collections in China.

The backside of the manuscript contains another text, namely Senkan’s 千観 (918–983) Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō 法華三宗相対抄 [Extracts on the Comparison [of the Interpretations] of the Lotus Sūtra by the Three Schools], which is a valuable work for the study of Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism (as well as Hossō and Sanron), and doctrinal debates concerning the issue of “buddha-nature” 仏性問題 in particular. Senkan was a specialist of Buddhist logic, but his works have received surprisingly little attention by scholars since he and his lineage were largely overshadowed by the success of the lineage traced from Ryōgen 良源 (912-985) to Genshin 源信 (942-1017). What is distinctive about the Kōyasan manuscript of the Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō is that it includes a rich body of quotations from other Tiantai Buddhist texts which no longer survive in China (including, for instance, the Tang dynasty Fahua jing xuanzan yaoji 法華經玄贊要集 by Qifu 栖復). For the purposes of this talk I will focus my attention on the quotations from the no longer extant Chinese Buddhist sources that are contained in the manuscript. Therefore, this talk will concern both the study of early medieval Chinese literature and history as preserved in the individual texts collected in the Wenguan cilin and the study of Tang-Song Chinese Tiantai Buddhism and Heian and Kamakura period Japanese Tendai Buddhism. One of the questions that will be addressed is: Is there any relationship between the two works that are found back-to-back on this manuscript? I am afraid that I will be unable to offer any definitive answer to that question, but it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the flow of texts and people between China and Japan from the 8th-10th century.

Short bio:
James ROBSON 羅柏松 is the James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and the Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He also served as the Director of the Harvard Asia Center for six years. Robson received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, after spending many years doing research in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He previously taught at Williams College, the University of Michigan, and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He specializes in the history of East Asian religions and Chinese local history. His book the Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China received the Stanislas Julien Prize and the Toshihide Numata Prize in Buddhist Studies. He is also the editor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions: Daoism.

10/05/2026

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] James Robson (Harvard) “The Grove and the Lotus: A Tale of Two Manuscripts Containing Lost Texts from China Preserved in Japan"

Time: Thursday, 14 May 2026 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: FAMES room 8/9

Abstract:
This talk will focus on a manuscript from Kōyasan 高野山 that includes handwritten texts on the frontside and the backside. The front side contains a 9th century (823 CE) manuscript of the Wenguan cilin文館詞林 [Grove of Texts from the Literature Office; Jpn. Bunkan shirin]. Different sections of the manuscript, classified as a “National Treasure” 国宝, have been located at the Shōchi-in正智院 and Hōju-in 宝寿院 on Kōyasan 高野山, and the full manuscript has recently made available to me. The Wenguan cilin—originally in 1,000 juan—was ordered to be complied by Emperor Gaozong 唐高宗 (628-683) in the early Tang and the project was completed by Xu Jingzong 許敬宗 (592-672) in 658. It included texts from the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) up through the early Tang. By the Southern Song the Wenguan cilin had become lost in China and became virtually forgotten (probably due to the success of the Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 [Blossoms and Flowers from the Literary Garden]). Some fragments were discovered in Japan in the late-18th century. To date about 30 juan have been recovered and published in various editions. Many of the surviving works, which were long presumed to be lost, survive in the newly discovered fragments. This collection is noteworthy since it includes works that are not found in other large collections in China.

The backside of the manuscript contains another text, namely Senkan’s 千観 (918–983) Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō 法華三宗相対抄 [Extracts on the Comparison [of the Interpretations] of the Lotus Sūtra by the Three Schools], which is a valuable work for the study of Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism (as well as Hossō and Sanron), and doctrinal debates concerning the issue of “buddha-nature” 仏性問題 in particular. Senkan was a specialist of Buddhist logic, but his works have received surprisingly little attention by scholars since he and his lineage were largely overshadowed by the success of the lineage traced from Ryōgen 良源 (912-985) to Genshin 源信 (942-1017). What is distinctive about the Kōyasan manuscript of the Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō is that it includes a rich body of quotations from other Tiantai Buddhist texts which no longer survive in China (including, for instance, the Tang dynasty Fahua jing xuanzan yaoji 法華經玄贊要集 by Qifu 栖復). For the purposes of this talk I will focus my attention on the quotations from the no longer extant Chinese Buddhist sources that are contained in the manuscript. Therefore, this talk will concern both the study of early medieval Chinese literature and history as preserved in the individual texts collected in the Wenguan cilin and the study of Tang-Song Chinese Tiantai Buddhism and Heian and Kamakura period Japanese Tendai Buddhism. One of the questions that will be addressed is: Is there any relationship between the two works that are found back-to-back on this manuscript? I am afraid that I will be unable to offer any definitive answer to that question, but it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the flow of texts and people between China and Japan from the 8th-10th century.

Short bio:
James ROBSON 羅柏松 is the James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and the Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He also served as the Director of the Harvard Asia Center for six years. Robson received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, after spending many years doing research in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He previously taught at Williams College, the University of Michigan, and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He specializes in the history of East Asian religions and Chinese local history. His book the Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China received the Stanislas Julien Prize and the Toshihide Numata Prize in Buddhist Studies. He is also the editor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions: Daoism.

07/05/2026

Just a reminder that the second lecture is taking place today! ✨

[2026 Chuan Lyu Lectures in Taiwan Studies] Prof. Henning Klöter (Humboldt-Universität) “Languages in Taiwan”

Venue: FAMES room 8/9 Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

Time: Lecture 1, "The Making of a Language in Colonial Taiwan: Between Linguistics and Ideology" - Tuesday, 5 May, 16:00-17:30.

Lecture 2, "Linguistic Landscapes of Taiwan: Between Polyglossia and Playfulness" - Thursday, 7 May, 14:00-16:00.

Abstract:
"The Making of a Language in Colonial Taiwan: Between Linguistics and Ideology" (5 May)

Southern Min (Minnan) comprises a group of closely related Sinitic varieties spoken by an estimated 35 million speakers across southeastern China, Taiwan, and ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Characterized by a rich tone system and complex tone sandhi, Minnan dialects display considerable internal variation while also exhibiting high mutual intelligibility across regional varieties. This raises the long-standing question of whether Minnan should be considered a single language or a group of dialects – a question that cannot be resolved on purely linguistic grounds.

Focusing on Taiwan, this presentation examines Minnan from both linguistic and language-ideological perspectives, with particular attention to issues of glottonymy. A range of competing names – such as Hoklo, Hokkien, Taiwanese, and Tai-oan-oe – have been used to designate the language, each carrying distinct social, political, and ideological implications. These naming practices reflect shifting perceptions of linguistic identity rather than discrete linguistic realities.

The presentation situates these developments within the context of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan (1895–1945), outlining the aims and instruments of colonial language planning and the systematic promotion of Japanese. Against this backdrop, the emergence of a perceived common Taiwanese language can be understood as a response to colonial linguistic hierarchies. Taiwanese intellectuals such as Lien Heng 連橫 (1878–1936), and N̂g Se̍k-hui (1900–1945) and Koeh Bîng-khun 郭明昆 (1908–1943) played important roles in articulating a language ideology that advocated the writing, cultivation, and standardization of Tai-oan-oe as a distinctly Taiwanese language. In conclusion, the presentation argues that the existence of a Taiwanese language cannot be substantiated on strictly linguistic grounds. Rather, Taiwanese exists because its speakers perceive, name, and enact it as such. Notably, the glottonym Taiwanhua (‘Taiwanese’) originated as a Japanese colonial coinage and gained widespread acceptance among Taiwanese intellectuals from the late 1920s onward, illustrating the central role of language ideology in the making of linguistic entities.

"Linguistic Landscapes of Taiwan: Between Polyglossia and Playfulness" (7 May)

Taiwan is characterized by a high degree of polyglossia resulting from successive layers of migration, colonization, and language planning. The island’s contemporary linguistic ecology includes Mandarin, Taiwanese (Southern Min), Hakka, indigenous Austronesian languages, and a range of foreign languages, each associated with distinct historical trajectories and policy regimes. After 1945, language planning under the Nationalist government strongly promoted Mandarin as the sole national language, leading to its rapid spread and to a marked decline in the public and private use of local languages. These policies not only reshaped patterns of language use but also reconfigured the symbolic hierarchies among languages in public space.

This presentation situates Taiwanese polyglossia within the analytical framework of linguistic landscape research, understood as the study of “words and images displayed and exposed in public spaces” (Shohamy & Gorter 2009: 1). From a language-planning perspective, linguistic landscapes are approached as both outcomes of past policy interventions and sites where contemporary language ideologies are reproduced, negotiated, or contested. Drawing on the concept of “invisible languages” (Langer & Havinga 2015), the analysis examines which languages dominate Taiwan’s linguistic landscapes and investigates the social, political, and ideological processes that contribute to their visibility or marginalization.

Empirically, the analysis distinguishes between official and commercial signage. It is argued that official signage largely continues to embody a “Greater China” ideology rooted in pre-1980s language planning, while simultaneously indexing modernity and global orientation through the selective use of English. In contrast, commercial signage displays a significantly higher degree of linguistic hybridity, creativity, and playfulness, reflecting more bottom-up language practices. While the main local language, Taiwanese, has achieved limited visibility, it remains largely confined to domains such as food, rurality, and local culture. Other local languages, by contrast, remain almost entirely absent from public space.

In conclusion, the Taiwanese linguistic landscape can be read as a symbolic arena in which the long-term effects of language planning intersect with contemporary struggles over ethnolinguistic identity and vitality. The visibility – or striking invisibility – of particular languages across domains reflects not only communicative choices but also the relative power of competing ethnolinguistic and social groups. In this sense, Taiwan exemplifies how linguistic landscapes come to index the outcomes of language planning, supporting the claim that “the presence or absence of rival languages in specific domains of the linguistic landscape can come to symbolize the strength or weakness of competing ethnolinguistic groups in the intergroup setting” (Landry & Bourhis 1997: 28).
https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/events/making-language-colonial-taiwan-between-linguistics-and-ideology

https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/events/linguistic-landscapes-taiwan-between-polyglossia-and-playfulness

Speaker's bio:
Henning Klöter is Full Professor of Modern Chinese Languages and Literatures at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before joining Humboldt-Universität in 2015, he held (assistant) professorships at National Taiwan Normal University and at the universities of Bochum, Mainz, and Göttingen. He received his PhD in Chinese Linguistics from Leiden University in 2003 and completed his Habilitation in Sinology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2010.

His research focuses on language variation in the Sinophone world, past and present, with particular emphasis on the historical documentation of Sinitic varieties and on modern language planning in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and Singapore. A central strand of his work examines Western missionary linguistics from the early modern period, especially missionary descriptions of Chinese vernaculars in East and Southeast Asia, and their relevance for the study of language contact, migration, and historical sociolinguistics.

His publications include Written Taiwanese (Harrassowitz, 2005), The Language of the Sangleys: A Chinese Vernacular in Missionary Sources of the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2010), and the co-edited volume Language Diversity in the Sinophone World: Historical Trajectories, Language Planning and Multilingual Practices (Routledge, 2020). He is currently involved in the projects Chinese Grammar Platform (ChinGram), co-funded by the European Union, and Early Manila Hokkien (EMHo), which investigates missionary linguistics and migration through early lexicographic sources. He serves as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (with Ke Zhang).

05/05/2026

A friendly reminder that our first Chuan Lyu lecture is today!

[2026 Chuan Lyu Lectures in Taiwan Studies] Prof. Henning Klöter (Humboldt-Universität) “Languages in Taiwan”

Venue: FAMES room 8/9 Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

Time: Lecture 1, "The Making of a Language in Colonial Taiwan: Between Linguistics and Ideology" - Tuesday, 5 May, 16:00-17:30.

Lecture 2, "Linguistic Landscapes of Taiwan: Between Polyglossia and Playfulness" - Thursday, 7 May, 14:00-16:00.

Abstract:
"The Making of a Language in Colonial Taiwan: Between Linguistics and Ideology" (5 May)

Southern Min (Minnan) comprises a group of closely related Sinitic varieties spoken by an estimated 35 million speakers across southeastern China, Taiwan, and ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Characterized by a rich tone system and complex tone sandhi, Minnan dialects display considerable internal variation while also exhibiting high mutual intelligibility across regional varieties. This raises the long-standing question of whether Minnan should be considered a single language or a group of dialects – a question that cannot be resolved on purely linguistic grounds.

Focusing on Taiwan, this presentation examines Minnan from both linguistic and language-ideological perspectives, with particular attention to issues of glottonymy. A range of competing names – such as Hoklo, Hokkien, Taiwanese, and Tai-oan-oe – have been used to designate the language, each carrying distinct social, political, and ideological implications. These naming practices reflect shifting perceptions of linguistic identity rather than discrete linguistic realities.

The presentation situates these developments within the context of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan (1895–1945), outlining the aims and instruments of colonial language planning and the systematic promotion of Japanese. Against this backdrop, the emergence of a perceived common Taiwanese language can be understood as a response to colonial linguistic hierarchies. Taiwanese intellectuals such as Lien Heng 連橫 (1878–1936), and N̂g Se̍k-hui (1900–1945) and Koeh Bîng-khun 郭明昆 (1908–1943) played important roles in articulating a language ideology that advocated the writing, cultivation, and standardization of Tai-oan-oe as a distinctly Taiwanese language. In conclusion, the presentation argues that the existence of a Taiwanese language cannot be substantiated on strictly linguistic grounds. Rather, Taiwanese exists because its speakers perceive, name, and enact it as such. Notably, the glottonym Taiwanhua (‘Taiwanese’) originated as a Japanese colonial coinage and gained widespread acceptance among Taiwanese intellectuals from the late 1920s onward, illustrating the central role of language ideology in the making of linguistic entities.

"Linguistic Landscapes of Taiwan: Between Polyglossia and Playfulness" (7 May)

Taiwan is characterized by a high degree of polyglossia resulting from successive layers of migration, colonization, and language planning. The island’s contemporary linguistic ecology includes Mandarin, Taiwanese (Southern Min), Hakka, indigenous Austronesian languages, and a range of foreign languages, each associated with distinct historical trajectories and policy regimes. After 1945, language planning under the Nationalist government strongly promoted Mandarin as the sole national language, leading to its rapid spread and to a marked decline in the public and private use of local languages. These policies not only reshaped patterns of language use but also reconfigured the symbolic hierarchies among languages in public space.

This presentation situates Taiwanese polyglossia within the analytical framework of linguistic landscape research, understood as the study of “words and images displayed and exposed in public spaces” (Shohamy & Gorter 2009: 1). From a language-planning perspective, linguistic landscapes are approached as both outcomes of past policy interventions and sites where contemporary language ideologies are reproduced, negotiated, or contested. Drawing on the concept of “invisible languages” (Langer & Havinga 2015), the analysis examines which languages dominate Taiwan’s linguistic landscapes and investigates the social, political, and ideological processes that contribute to their visibility or marginalization.

Empirically, the analysis distinguishes between official and commercial signage. It is argued that official signage largely continues to embody a “Greater China” ideology rooted in pre-1980s language planning, while simultaneously indexing modernity and global orientation through the selective use of English. In contrast, commercial signage displays a significantly higher degree of linguistic hybridity, creativity, and playfulness, reflecting more bottom-up language practices. While the main local language, Taiwanese, has achieved limited visibility, it remains largely confined to domains such as food, rurality, and local culture. Other local languages, by contrast, remain almost entirely absent from public space.

In conclusion, the Taiwanese linguistic landscape can be read as a symbolic arena in which the long-term effects of language planning intersect with contemporary struggles over ethnolinguistic identity and vitality. The visibility – or striking invisibility – of particular languages across domains reflects not only communicative choices but also the relative power of competing ethnolinguistic and social groups. In this sense, Taiwan exemplifies how linguistic landscapes come to index the outcomes of language planning, supporting the claim that “the presence or absence of rival languages in specific domains of the linguistic landscape can come to symbolize the strength or weakness of competing ethnolinguistic groups in the intergroup setting” (Landry & Bourhis 1997: 28).
https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/events/making-language-colonial-taiwan-between-linguistics-and-ideology

https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/events/linguistic-landscapes-taiwan-between-polyglossia-and-playfulness

Speaker's bio:
Henning Klöter is Full Professor of Modern Chinese Languages and Literatures at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before joining Humboldt-Universität in 2015, he held (assistant) professorships at National Taiwan Normal University and at the universities of Bochum, Mainz, and Göttingen. He received his PhD in Chinese Linguistics from Leiden University in 2003 and completed his Habilitation in Sinology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2010.

His research focuses on language variation in the Sinophone world, past and present, with particular emphasis on the historical documentation of Sinitic varieties and on modern language planning in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and Singapore. A central strand of his work examines Western missionary linguistics from the early modern period, especially missionary descriptions of Chinese vernaculars in East and Southeast Asia, and their relevance for the study of language contact, migration, and historical sociolinguistics.

His publications include Written Taiwanese (Harrassowitz, 2005), The Language of the Sangleys: A Chinese Vernacular in Missionary Sources of the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2010), and the co-edited volume Language Diversity in the Sinophone World: Historical Trajectories, Language Planning and Multilingual Practices (Routledge, 2020). He is currently involved in the projects Chinese Grammar Platform (ChinGram), co-funded by the European Union, and Early Manila Hokkien (EMHo), which investigates missionary linguistics and migration through early lexicographic sources. He serves as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (with Ke Zhang).

02/05/2026

[2026 Chuan Lyu Lectures in Taiwan Studies] Prof. Henning Klöter (Humboldt-Universität) “Languages in Taiwan”

Venue: FAMES room 8/9 Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

Time: Lecture 1, "The Making of a Language in Colonial Taiwan: Between Linguistics and Ideology" - Tuesday, 5 May, 16:00-17:30.

Lecture 2, "Linguistic Landscapes of Taiwan: Between Polyglossia and Playfulness" - Thursday, 7 May, 14:00-16:00.

Abstract:
"The Making of a Language in Colonial Taiwan: Between Linguistics and Ideology" (5 May)

Southern Min (Minnan) comprises a group of closely related Sinitic varieties spoken by an estimated 35 million speakers across southeastern China, Taiwan, and ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Characterized by a rich tone system and complex tone sandhi, Minnan dialects display considerable internal variation while also exhibiting high mutual intelligibility across regional varieties. This raises the long-standing question of whether Minnan should be considered a single language or a group of dialects – a question that cannot be resolved on purely linguistic grounds.

Focusing on Taiwan, this presentation examines Minnan from both linguistic and language-ideological perspectives, with particular attention to issues of glottonymy. A range of competing names – such as Hoklo, Hokkien, Taiwanese, and Tai-oan-oe – have been used to designate the language, each carrying distinct social, political, and ideological implications. These naming practices reflect shifting perceptions of linguistic identity rather than discrete linguistic realities.

The presentation situates these developments within the context of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan (1895–1945), outlining the aims and instruments of colonial language planning and the systematic promotion of Japanese. Against this backdrop, the emergence of a perceived common Taiwanese language can be understood as a response to colonial linguistic hierarchies. Taiwanese intellectuals such as Lien Heng 連橫 (1878–1936), and N̂g Se̍k-hui (1900–1945) and Koeh Bîng-khun 郭明昆 (1908–1943) played important roles in articulating a language ideology that advocated the writing, cultivation, and standardization of Tai-oan-oe as a distinctly Taiwanese language. In conclusion, the presentation argues that the existence of a Taiwanese language cannot be substantiated on strictly linguistic grounds. Rather, Taiwanese exists because its speakers perceive, name, and enact it as such. Notably, the glottonym Taiwanhua (‘Taiwanese’) originated as a Japanese colonial coinage and gained widespread acceptance among Taiwanese intellectuals from the late 1920s onward, illustrating the central role of language ideology in the making of linguistic entities.

"Linguistic Landscapes of Taiwan: Between Polyglossia and Playfulness" (7 May)

Taiwan is characterized by a high degree of polyglossia resulting from successive layers of migration, colonization, and language planning. The island’s contemporary linguistic ecology includes Mandarin, Taiwanese (Southern Min), Hakka, indigenous Austronesian languages, and a range of foreign languages, each associated with distinct historical trajectories and policy regimes. After 1945, language planning under the Nationalist government strongly promoted Mandarin as the sole national language, leading to its rapid spread and to a marked decline in the public and private use of local languages. These policies not only reshaped patterns of language use but also reconfigured the symbolic hierarchies among languages in public space.

This presentation situates Taiwanese polyglossia within the analytical framework of linguistic landscape research, understood as the study of “words and images displayed and exposed in public spaces” (Shohamy & Gorter 2009: 1). From a language-planning perspective, linguistic landscapes are approached as both outcomes of past policy interventions and sites where contemporary language ideologies are reproduced, negotiated, or contested. Drawing on the concept of “invisible languages” (Langer & Havinga 2015), the analysis examines which languages dominate Taiwan’s linguistic landscapes and investigates the social, political, and ideological processes that contribute to their visibility or marginalization.

Empirically, the analysis distinguishes between official and commercial signage. It is argued that official signage largely continues to embody a “Greater China” ideology rooted in pre-1980s language planning, while simultaneously indexing modernity and global orientation through the selective use of English. In contrast, commercial signage displays a significantly higher degree of linguistic hybridity, creativity, and playfulness, reflecting more bottom-up language practices. While the main local language, Taiwanese, has achieved limited visibility, it remains largely confined to domains such as food, rurality, and local culture. Other local languages, by contrast, remain almost entirely absent from public space.

In conclusion, the Taiwanese linguistic landscape can be read as a symbolic arena in which the long-term effects of language planning intersect with contemporary struggles over ethnolinguistic identity and vitality. The visibility – or striking invisibility – of particular languages across domains reflects not only communicative choices but also the relative power of competing ethnolinguistic and social groups. In this sense, Taiwan exemplifies how linguistic landscapes come to index the outcomes of language planning, supporting the claim that “the presence or absence of rival languages in specific domains of the linguistic landscape can come to symbolize the strength or weakness of competing ethnolinguistic groups in the intergroup setting” (Landry & Bourhis 1997: 28).
https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/events/making-language-colonial-taiwan-between-linguistics-and-ideology

https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/events/linguistic-landscapes-taiwan-between-polyglossia-and-playfulness

Speaker's bio:
Henning Klöter is Full Professor of Modern Chinese Languages and Literatures at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before joining Humboldt-Universität in 2015, he held (assistant) professorships at National Taiwan Normal University and at the universities of Bochum, Mainz, and Göttingen. He received his PhD in Chinese Linguistics from Leiden University in 2003 and completed his Habilitation in Sinology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2010.

His research focuses on language variation in the Sinophone world, past and present, with particular emphasis on the historical documentation of Sinitic varieties and on modern language planning in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and Singapore. A central strand of his work examines Western missionary linguistics from the early modern period, especially missionary descriptions of Chinese vernaculars in East and Southeast Asia, and their relevance for the study of language contact, migration, and historical sociolinguistics.

His publications include Written Taiwanese (Harrassowitz, 2005), The Language of the Sangleys: A Chinese Vernacular in Missionary Sources of the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2010), and the co-edited volume Language Diversity in the Sinophone World: Historical Trajectories, Language Planning and Multilingual Practices (Routledge, 2020). He is currently involved in the projects Chinese Grammar Platform (ChinGram), co-funded by the European Union, and Early Manila Hokkien (EMHo), which investigates missionary linguistics and migration through early lexicographic sources. He serves as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (with Ke Zhang).