Actively Promoting the Naxi Script to Raise Naxi Culture
Jiang Zhuyi reports on the trial promotion of the Latin-alphabet-based Naxi Script Scheme, created in 1957 and revived for pilot testing in Lijiang County from 1981 onward, including teacher-training classes, literacy campaigns (2,236 people achieving literacy of 5,799 participants, 1984-88), and bilingual primary-school experiments. Based on field surveys across multiple Lijiang villages, the author argues that script policy should vary by locality: in economically developed, historically Sinicized areas like Dayan Town, where the population is already bilingual, direct Chinese-medium education should continue; but in remote, Naxi-concentrated mountain villages lacking a Chinese-language environment, the Naxi script should be promoted, since bilingual instruction produced significantly better exam results than direct Chinese-only instruction in comparative trials. The article recommends that promotion be paused, for now, in Eastern-dialect Naxi areas, since the script is based on the Western dialect and does not serve as a unifying standard across both dialects.
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