Written Vernacular Chinese and Elementary Reading Materials in Late Qing

Written vernacular Chinese and elementary reading materials are part of the mass education in late Qing and important tools with which to transform elite knowledge into common sense.This book selects five essays, all of which are products of Professor Xia Xiaohong's study of written vernacular Chinese and elementary reading materials in late Qing.There is no shortage of novel insights:The book first demonstrates the important role government resources played in the written vernacular Chinese movement, as well as the complex interaction between Mandarin and dialects in the development of vernacular Chinese writing; then it explores the cultural adaptation under the influence of Western culture through Western recipes, elementary textbooks and biographical dictionaries, among other elementary reading materials.