Language, Culture, and Negotiation
A Case-Study in two parts. Part I: Chinese Language and the Alphabet
Imagine a time when the telegraph was at the cutting edge of communication technology. How did Morse code (or similar) work with non-alphabetic languages?
In the early 20th century, the international telegraph system favored the Western alphabetic languages, leaving China struggling to fit into the existing framework.
It was during this time that Wang Jingchun (王景春), a Chinese diplomat, used his skills of diplomacy and negotiation to advocate for the recognition of China's needs in the international telegraphy system.
This two-part article will explore the relationship between language systems and technology, the importance of understanding cultural differences, and how we can apply these lessons to modern challenges.
The article developed from notes taken while reading Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu.1 The purpose of this two-part article is to expand on the negotiation theme: the quest to make the telegraphic system equitable for non-alphabetic languages is a rich case-study for negotiation across languages and cultures in the context of adapting to new technology.
The first part of the article reviews the background history of developing alphabetic systems to represent written Chinese. The second part will then present the case-study.
Please let me know any errors, mistakes, ways of improving this article!
Background: Converting Chinese Characters to the Alphabetic System
Efforts to convert Chinese characters into an alphabetic system predate the telegraph era and continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. These endeavors aimed to simplify the Chinese writing system and make it compatible with Western alphabetic systems, which would allow for smoother communication and information exchange.
Callery and the Qieyinzi
In 1841, Joseph-Marie Callery (郎世宁), a French missionary, initiated a project to create a phonetic alphabet called the "Qieyinzi" (切音字). The Qieyinzi was designed to represent the sounds of the Chinese language using Latin letters. However, the tonal nature of the Chinese language posed challenges, leading Callery to develop a system of diacritical marks to indicate the tones. Despite its ingenuity, the added complexity limited the Qieyinzi's practicality.
Viguier's Adaptation
Later, in 1867, Jean-Baptiste Viguier (魏阿光), a French naval officer, adapted Callery's Qieyinzi by refining the system to better accommodate the tonal aspects of the Chinese language. Viguier's work built upon Callery's foundation, but his adaptation did not entirely resolve the issues with Chinese compatibility in international telegraphy.
Wade-Giles System
In the mid-19th century, British diplomats and sinologists Thomas Wade (威妥玛) and Herbert Giles (翟理斯) developed the Wade-Giles system, which aimed to romanize Chinese characters using Latin letters. The Wade-Giles system became one of the most widely used systems for transliterating Chinese into English, but it did not entirely resolve the difficulties China faced with international telegraphy.
Wang Zhao's Phonetic Alphabet
In 1900, Wang Zhao (王照), a Chinese scholar and phonologist, published his phonetic alphabet known as "Zhao's Phonetic Alphabet" or "Zhuyin Alphabet" (赵氏注音字母). Wang Zhao's work was based on the earlier Qieyinzi system, and he made several improvements to simplify it further. His system used Latin letters and unique symbols to represent the sounds of the Chinese language, making it easier for speakers of Western languages to learn and understand Chinese.
Song Shu's Contributions
Another key figure in the efforts to convert Chinese characters into an alphabetic system was Song Shu (宋恕), a Chinese linguist and educator. Song Shu's work focused on the development of a romanization system that took into account the regional dialects of China. His efforts led to the creation of a phonetic system that accurately represented the sounds of various Chinese dialects, thus broadening the scope of previous romanization attempts.
Language systems and the telegraph
Despite these advancements, the telegraph system remained ill-suited to accommodate the complexities of the Chinese script, leading to increased costs and slower communication for China. Wang Jingchun's2 negotiation efforts at the Sorbonne conference in Paris aimed to address these challenges by advocating for the recognition of China's unique linguistic needs. Through his perseverance and diplomatic skills, Wang secured a more equitable solution for China within the international telegraph system, ultimately contributing to greater global understanding and cooperation.
The next article will examine these efforts in detail, continuation here:
Picture Source: Viguier’s Chinese telegraph codes from 0001 to 0200 (Viguier 1872). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_telegraph_code#/media/File:Obsolete_chinese_telegraph_code.jpg
Writing this article…
I began working on writing an article on this topic on 4 April 2022 after reading Jing Tsu’s book. I wrote out bullet point notes and some early drafts. These remained incomplete. I used ChatGPT 4.0 to develop this full version of the article. A full version of this article is include in a book that explores “How how ChatGPT can change your life,” an impudent variation of the classic “How Proust can change your life” by Alain de Botton. See https://leanpub.com/howgptcanchangeyourlife.
Thank you Akeel Alleyne for finding/identifying the Chinese characters for Wang Jingchun: 王景春. Initial ChatGPT assisted guess was 王静春.
Kingdom of Characters was a game changer for me. Such a great and digestible read, although the timeline was difficult to keep straight in my head. Do you listen to the Sinica podcast?
As for WJC, I believe the characters are 王景春, the picture in the link below matches Jing Tsu's description of the person and those are the characters used for his name underneath the picture.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wang_Jingchun.jpg