History of Beijing Street and Lane Names

Author: Zhang Qingchang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-30
Features: In his later years, the author's interest shifted to the exploration of sociolinguistics, taking the hutongs of Beijing as his research subject. He published several papers on the topic, which were later compiled into the book Hutongs and Other Explorations in Sociolinguistics (Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 1993), sparking widespread response from various sectors of society. First, he argued that "hutong" is a Mongolian loanword with the original meaning of "well," refuting the claim that "hutong" is an inherent term in Chinese. This viewpoint has been accepted by the linguistic community. The book was awarded the Second Prize of the China Book Award. In 1997, Beijing Language and Culture University Press published his monograph The History of Beijing Street Names: Further Explorations in Sociolinguistics, which pays special attention to using Beijing street names as material to explore issues within the Chinese language itself, studying the relationship between language and history, geography, ethnicity, culture, and other aspects, in order to promote in-depth research in sociolinguistics.