The ethnopolitics of National Language in China

Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM), the official language of the People's Republic of China, is designated in four different ways, depending upon the country in which these terms are used:

Guóyǔ 国语 / 國語 ("National Language")

Huáyǔ 华语 / 華語 ("Florescent / 'Chinese' Language")

Hànyǔ 汉语 / 漢語 ("Sinitic Language") Pǔtōnghuà 普通话 / 普通話 ("Common Language")

Although these four designations convey distinct, yet subtle, nuances, linguistically they basically refer to the same language with only minor variations.

In recent years here on Language Log, we have had numerous vigorous debates over the relationship between topolects and "minority" languages on the one hand and MSM on the other hand.  These debates have to do with ethnic identity, language preservation, and national unity.  By chance, I received from Max Oidtmann an extraordinarily detailed report setting forth his observations made on a recent (late May-early June) study trip to Xinjiang.  These included his incisive remarks on the terminology pertaining to MSM in Xinjiang:

I was struck by the ubiquitous use of the term “Guoyu 国语”, not "Hanyu 汉语", to refer to MSM by both Han and Uyghurs in Xinjiang. I was told by an official from the Kasghar foreign affairs office that Xi Jinping had mandated the use of the label Guoyu in order to demonstrate that Chinese was the national language of the Zhonghua minzu [VHM:  Chinese people / nationality / ethnicity], not the unique possession of the Han, underlying the notion that the government is promoting “Chinafication” and the Zhonghua minzu consciousness, not Sinification or Hanhua. Although there is a vast difference between Homo sovieticus and the Zhonghua minzu paradigm, my prediction is that Xinjiang in ten years will—ideologically speaking—much more closely resemble Soviet Uzbekistan in the 1980s, where society had been profoundly secularized and there was considerable indigenous identification with and loyalty towards the national project.

Indeed, I was really surprised by the ubiquitous and careful use of the name "Guoyu" for MSM, especially since this language hearkened back to the Republic of China (ROC) and Taiwanese usage. Although no one I asked about this would cite Chiang Kai-shek's China's Destiny, it was clear that the current scholarly and official elite were definitely thinking along these lines and wished to return to the ROC era's clear emphasis on a single guozu — national race.

Max's perceptive comments offer much food for thought on the relationship between the official language of the nation vis-à-vis the many languages of the various peoples and locales that come together to constitute the nation as a whole, whether they be Uyghur, Tibetan, Cantonese, Taiwanese, or Singlish.