Essay Proposal

Essay Proposal

Thesis

The Chinese script has continued to evolve until the emergence of Kai Shu 楷書 (standard script). The same factors that governed the creation and standardization of earlier scripts is mirrored in the creation of the vernacular Cantonese script of Hong Kong.

Basic Outline

I plan on using Qin through Tang Dynasty texts to lay out a pattern for how the clerical script evolved into to the standard script. Also to show the standardization of the radical system by Xu Shen. I will then use blogs of current Hong Kong Chinese, newspaper articles, and signs in Hong Kong to show that they are creating characters the same way that Li Su and Xu Shen did earlier. Some of the main comparisons that I plan to draw include the following:

     They borrow a character that is common use, but add a new radical to it in order to change the meaning; the original character and the new character have approximately the same pronunciation and intonation.

     They borrow a character that was used in the past, but has not been used at all recently, or is very uncommon, and then assign a new meaning to it. Thus keep everything the same just adding to the polyvalence of the character.

     They create a new character by modifying one that is used, but giving it a different pronunciation and a different meaning; the character is changed enough to make it obviously different from the original.

I will end by showing how the Cantonese vernacular script has yet to be officially standardized, and explore, using the Qin-Tang sources, possible outcomes of the script. This will be done by comparing the evolution of early Chinese to the evolution of the Cantonese script and projecting the outcomes of the Chinese script on the vernacular Cantonese script.

Plan to acquire background knowledge

Over the past few months I have been slowly learning about the evolution of the Chinese script. As a resource for the continuation of that study I will use the following books: Zhou Youguang. The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2003. and Boltz, William G. The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1994. These two books contain mostly broad overviews of the evolution of the Chinese script, but also include more specific sections which parallel the author's area of expertise.

Plan to acquire Qin-Tang Dynasty texts

All of the books that the library does not have, which is most of them, I will acquire them the through inter-library loan service. For the rest of the sources I plan on using the Harvard University Virtual Chinese Rubbings Collection, http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/home?_collection=rubbings, for many of them. The site includes scans of rice paper rubbings of stele and other carved-in-stone artifacts. My other main source for these early written and starved documents are the following: Qiu Xigui. Chinese Writing. New Haven, CT: Birdtrack Press, 2000. and De Bary, Theodore and Bloom, Irene. Sources of Chinese tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. These three sources contain hundreds of individual documents that will just need to be sifted through.

Plan to acquire examples of current vernacular Cantonese usage

The first place that I plan to get examples of Cantonese is from the blogs of high school and college age people from Hong Kong. I have already found quite a few; it is easy to locate them by searching on google. The second place to look is for newspaper articles. To find these I plan to look on the Hong Kong government website, as well as the websites of the individual newspaper companies that print in. Hong Kong. The third is mostly going to come through google image searches. I plan on locating everyday signs that people in. Hong Kong would see by searching for pictures taken in Hong Kong. These three sources will show the depth of immersion in the Cantonese characters by showing its use with teens and early adults as well as business men and everyday people. As an introduction to this section of research I plan on reading the only author who has touched on the subject of a vernacular Cantonese character script, Donald Bruce Snow. I plan on reading the book, article, and dissertation by him: Cantonese as a Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular, A Short History of Published Cantonese: What is Dialect Literature?, and Written Cantonese and the Culture of Hong Kong: The Growth of a Dialect Literature. These works also contain specific examples of Cantonese vernacular script in use in various media which I can draw from to illustrate the evolution and usage of the characters.

Plan to analyze sources

 For the Qin through Tang sources I will plot a timeline of the character development and see the progression of the script. This will also show the evolution and change of the script which will show a specific trend that I can use as a map for chartering the course of the Cantonese script. Using the sources that I find on the Cantonese script I can view the different uses to show the unstandardized nature of the script, as well as show the nature of the characters. The main point that I will want to draw from the sources is to show, by breaking down the structure of the characters, how the they have been created.

Schedule

Jan. 6-11: Proposal, start to acquire the books and sources required for the paper

Jan. 13-18: Research Qin-Tang texts - make note cards

Jan. 20-25: Organize Qin-Tang sources

Jan. 27-Feb. 1: Research Hong Kong vernacular script - make note cards

Feb. 3-8: Organize Vernacular sources

Feb. 10-15: Organize final outline

Feb. 17-22: Write the introduction and background information sections

Feb. 24-Mar. 1: Write the Qin-Tang Section

Mar. 3-8: Write the Hong Kong section

Mar. 10-15: Write the comparison and future sections

Mar. 17-22: Edit and format essay

Mar. 24-29: Emergency work week