Can you understand my "language"? Photo courtesy of vision china
In-depth study and implementation of the spirit monograph and education article of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth CPC Central Committee
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Resolution on the Great Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s Hundred Years’ Struggle adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Resolution) summarizes the great achievements made by the Party and the state in the new era from 13 aspects, and points out in the part of "social construction" that "the education and teaching of the national common language and characters should be fully implemented". The important conclusion of the Resolution fully shows that the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core attaches great importance to language and writing education. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has made many important instructions on strengthening the national common language, which has pointed out the direction and provided fundamental follow-up for the high-quality popularization of the national common language in the new era.
Why popularize the national common language with high quality?
It is of great historical, practical and strategic significance to popularize the national common language with high quality.
It is of historical significance to popularize the national common language with high quality. In 2021, it is the intersection of two hundred-year goals. In the first century, the Communist Party of China (CPC), as an advocate, promoter, leader and practitioner of the development of language and writing, promoted profound changes in China’s language and writing life and led the great changes in China’s language and writing in the past century. During the period of new-democratic revolution, our party actively launched education and literacy campaigns in revolutionary base areas and liberated areas, and at the same time proposed to learn languages from the people. These efforts ended the history of the separation of spoken and written languages in China for more than 2,000 years, broke down the class barriers of spoken and written languages, played a great role in publicizing and educating the masses and uniting the masses, and made extensive and in-depth exploration and accumulation for the policies and practices of spoken and written languages of the Party after the founding of New China. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the CPC Central Committee grasped China’s basic national conditions, language situation and the needs of economic and social development, and deployed and promoted three major tasks: simplifying Chinese characters, popularizing Putonghua, and formulating and implementing the Chinese Pinyin scheme, which improved the scientific and cultural quality of hundreds of millions of people and eliminated language communication obstacles, laying a solid foundation for promoting economic and social development. In the new era of reform, opening up and socialist modernization, our party has promoted the development of language and writing with the times, pioneering and innovating around the goal of promoting the standardization, informationization and legalization of language and writing. The state promotes the inclusion of Putonghua, which is commonly used in the whole country, in the Constitution, the promulgation and implementation of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Characters, and vigorously promotes the information construction of language and characters, etc.It has played a role in boosting and safeguarding the reform, opening up and socialist modernization. During this period, the work of popularizing the national common language was mainly based on quantity, and it was also a process of gradually improving quality. Since Socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has attached great importance to the work of language and writing, unswervingly popularized the national common language and writing, and achieved the historic goal of basically popularizing the national common language and writing throughout the country. During this period, the focus of popularizing the national common language changed from quantity to both quantity and quality. In the second century, in order to achieve the grand goal of building a socialist modern power in an all-round way, we must take high-quality popularization as the primary and core task at present on the basis of consolidating the number of popularization.
It is of practical significance to popularize the national common language with high quality. At present, we are faced with "two spaces", namely, real space and virtual space composed of information technologies such as network, artificial intelligence and network digitalization. In the real world, the basic popularization of the national common language has been realized in the first hundred years. However, in the virtual (network) space, the popularization of national common language is still unbalanced and insufficient, especially the innovation of language information technology can not fully meet the needs of information development, which directly affects the efficiency and effect of human-computer interaction. Therefore, only by popularizing the national common language with high quality can we adapt to the arrival of the intelligent age, the needs and development of the intelligent society.
It is of strategic significance to popularize the national common language with high quality. Language and writing work should serve both domestic and international situations. Only by popularizing the national common language and writing with high quality can we better build the consciousness of the Chinese nation community; Popularizing Putonghua with high quality and standardizing Chinese characters can lay a solid foundation for teenagers to grow into talents and button their first buttons in life. At the same time, to build a community of human destiny, we need to deepen cultural exchanges and cooperation with other countries and have a high level of national common language and writing.
How to do a good job in popularizing the national common language with high quality
To do a good job in popularizing the national common language and writing with high quality, we must adhere to the guidance of the supreme leader Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, take the new development concept as the guide, and always run through the theme of high-quality development to create a new pattern of popularizing the national common language and writing with high quality.
Carry out the concept of innovation and development. Innovation is the inexhaustible motive force and source of high-quality development, and the national common language and writing work also needs continuous innovation to achieve high-quality development. Many innovations can be seen in the Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Language and Writing Work in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions) issued by the General Office of the State Council. For example, the Opinions firmly established the dominant position of the national common language and provided policy support for the popularization of the national common language in ethnic areas; Innovation puts forward the policy of popularizing in the new era, "focusing on key points, popularizing in an all-round way, consolidating and improving"; Put forward to study and formulate the national language development plan, and make unified planning and deployment of the national common language and writing work; Clearly put forward to promote the innovation and development of language information technology, and broaden the field for high-quality popularization of national common language.
In addition, innovation and development have also opened up a new situation in the work of national common language and writing. For example, by popularizing Putonghua and standardizing Chinese characters with high quality, the level and quality of language services for rural revitalization strategy, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, free trade pilot zone and "One Belt, One Road" initiative will be improved.
Carry out the concept of coordinated development. High-quality development itself is the result of coordinated development. At present, the popularization of the national common language is still unbalanced and insufficient, and it is urgent to coordinate the development of all ethnic groups, regions, fields and industries and popularize the national common language with high quality. To coordinate the development of all ethnic groups and regions, it is necessary to increase the promotion of the national common language and characters in ethnic areas and comprehensively strengthen the education and teaching of the national common language and characters in schools at all levels and in ethnic areas. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the popularization level of the national common language in rural areas, consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, and implement the plan of popularizing and helping rural revitalization. It is also necessary to strengthen assistance and support to areas with low Putonghua popularization rate and weak popularization foundation.
The coordinated development of the national common language is also a manifestation of high-quality development. In the process of coordination, all parties will learn from each other’s nutrition, so as to promote the popularization and development of Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters with vitality and vitality, and promote the continuous and high-quality development of the national common language and writing cause.
Implement the concept of green development. The civilization and health of language ecology is the pursuit of high-quality development. To popularize the national common language with high quality, it is necessary to create a good language ecological environment and make it develop in a harmonious, civilized, safe and healthy way. It is necessary to strengthen the publicity and interpretation of the legal system and norms of the national common language and writing, strengthen the supervision and management of the use of language and writing, and resolutely curb the vulgar and violent spread of online language to create a clear cyberspace.
At the same time, green development should consolidate the rule of law foundation of language and writing work. It is necessary to guide local governments to improve relevant local laws and regulations according to the provisions of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Characters, and incorporate the standardization requirements of language and characters into relevant industry regulations, rules and standards.
Carry out the concept of open development. Serving the national strategy and persisting in open development put forward high-quality requirements for the popularization of the national common language. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that language is the best key to understanding a country. We should open up to history, actively promote the inheritance and development of Chinese excellent language and culture, and inherit and carry forward Chinese excellent traditional culture with language as the carrier. Open to different regions and deepen language and cultural exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Open to the international community, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with language and writing institutions of relevant countries and international organizations, strengthen international Chinese education, and strengthen brand building such as international Chinese proficiency test, international Chinese teacher scholarship, Chinese Bridge and new Sinology.
Implement the concept of shared development. Let the people share the fruits of development is the purpose of high-quality development. The national common language is the basis and condition for the broad masses of people to share information and the achievements of national reform and development. To popularize the national common language with high quality, we must implement and embody the people-centered development thought and meet the diverse language needs of the people.
Shared development requires us to speed up the standardization and informatization construction of sign language and Braille, so that people with disabilities can share the fruits of high-quality development of the national common language. Shared development requires us to inherit and carry forward the excellent Chinese culture with the language as the carrier, and provide high-quality national common language works of art for the people. In addition, shared development also requires us to provide better language services for international friends coming to China.
How to ensure high quality and popularize the national common language and characters?
To popularize the national common language with high quality, we must uphold the leadership of the Party, the supremacy of the people, strengthen the construction of the rule of law, take schools as the basic position of education, and persist in consolidating, improving and developing in an all-round way.
We must uphold the leadership of the party. By improving the management system of "Party Committee leadership, government leading, Language Committee overall planning, departmental support and social participation", we will compact the main responsibilities of governments at all levels, strengthen the overall management responsibilities of language and writing departments at all levels, give play to the responsibilities of language Committee members in this field, and innovate the participation mechanism of social forces. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the language and writing work team.
We must uphold the people first. Adhering to the people-centered principle and making the achievements of popularization benefit the people is the fundamental purpose of popularizing the national common language with high quality. When implementing the new development concept, we should fully consider the actual needs of the people. It is necessary to focus on ethnic areas and rural areas, popularize the national common language with high quality, and meet the language and cultural needs of the people.
It is necessary to strengthen the rule of law. The purpose of the construction of the rule of law is to make the national language work have laws to follow, to protect citizens’ right to learn and use the national common language, to promote the standardization, standardization and healthy development of the national common language, and to ensure the main position of the national common language. The construction of the rule of law also includes the construction of the system and mechanism of the national common language and writing work, and the modernization of the language and writing work governance system and governance capacity. To lay a solid foundation for the rule of law in language and writing work, it is necessary to implement the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Writing. Promote the improvement of the legal system of language and writing, formulate relevant supporting regulations, and strengthen management according to law.
We should persist in taking the school as the basic position of education. It is necessary to strengthen the work of language and writing in schools, and regard the full implementation of the national common language and writing as the legal requirement for the use of words as the basic language of education and teaching. It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen the education and teaching of the national common language in schools of all levels and types in ethnic minority areas, strengthen the training of the national common language for rural primary and secondary school teachers and migrant workers, and strengthen the international Chinese education and teaching.
We must persist in consolidating, improving and developing in an all-round way. Based on China’s basic national conditions, language situation and the new development stage of language and writing, we should not only grasp the main industries, but also grasp the weak links; We should not only ensure quantity, but also pay attention to quality; It is necessary to highlight the key points and fill in the shortcomings. We must persist in striving for progress in stability, improving quality and increasing efficiency, and ensure high-quality popularization of the national common language.
Entering the new journey of the second century of struggle, the development of national language and writing work has entered a new stage. We must adhere to the guidance of the Supreme Leader Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, unswervingly implement the new development concept, take the promotion of the high-quality development of the national common language as the theme, and take the high-quality popularization of the national common language as the core task, so as to comprehensively improve the popularization level and quality of the national common language and provide strong support for building a socialist modern power in an all-round way.
(The author is an advisory member of the State Language Committee)