Sinoxenic writing and Chinese minority literature

Abstract

Drawing on examples from a range of ethnic minority literatures across south China (Achang, Hani, Bai, and Naxi), this article attempts to show how the writing of minority languages in contemporary Chinese literature may have evolved from the old Sinoxenic writing (writing that uses a borrowed and/or modified Chinese character script) of manuscript sources. I argue that all of China’s minority authors engage in Sinoxenic writing (albeit in limited forms) when they write their native languages using Chinese graphs. That is, minority authors in today’s China who write works of “minority literature” in Chinese often do not just write Mandarin Chinese, but also their native languages using borrowed sinographs. This is a literary tradition that, while having identifiable roots in the “old” Sinoxenic scripts of previous centuries, has resulted in “new” forms of syllabic writing comprised entirely of phonetic borrowings.