John DeFrancis
Encyclopedia
John DeFrancis was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language
textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus
of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa
.
in a family of modest Italian immigrant origins. His father, a laborer (who changed his name from DeFrancesco), died when DeFrancis was a young child. His mother was illiterate.
After graduation from Yale University
with a BA in Economics in 1933, he sailed to China with the intent of studying Chinese and working in business. In 1935, he accompanied H. Desmond Martin, a Canadian military historian, on a several-thousand-mile trip retracing the route of Genghis Khan
through Mongolia and northwestern China. His book In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan (University of Hawai'i Press, 1993) describes this journey riding camels across the Gobi Desert
, visiting the ruins of Khara-Khoto
and rafting down the Yellow River
. Along the way, he met the Chinese Muslim Ma Clique
warlords Ma Buqing
and Ma Bukang. DeFrancis returned to the United States and began graduate studies in Chinese, first at Yale with George A. Kennedy and then at Columbia University
, where he received a MA in 1941 and PhD in 1948.
DeFrancis began his academic career teaching Chinese language at Johns Hopkins University
during the period of McCarthyism
and the Red Scare
, but was blacklisted for defending his colleague Owen Lattimore from unsubstantiated allegations of being a "Russian spy." DeFrancis eventually returned to teaching, notably at Seton Hall University
from 1947 to 1954, and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa from 1966 to 1976. In the 1960s, he wrote a 12-volume series
of Mandarin Chinese textbooks and readers published by Yale University Press
(popularly known as the "DeFrancis series"), which were widely used in Chinese as a foreign language
classes for decades; DeFrancis was one of the first educators outside China to use pinyin as an educational aid, and his textbooks are said to have had a "tremendous impact" on Chinese teaching in the West. He served Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Oriental Society from 1950 to 1955 and the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association from 1966 to 1978.
For three decades after retiring from teaching in 1976, DeFrancis remained an important figure and prolific author in Chinese language pedagogy
, Asian sociolinguistics
, and language policy
. One of his most well-known books, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy
(University of Hawai'i Press, 1984) debunks a number of "widespread myths" about the language—for instance, erroneously calling Chinese characters "ideograms" instead of "logograms." Another influential work of his was Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1989), which addressed more myths about the Chinese writing system, and has been called his "magnum opus
" by colleague Victor H. Mair
. DeFrancis spent his final years diligently working as Editor in Chief of the "ABC (Alphabetically Based Computerized) series" of Chinese dictionaries, which feature innovative collation
by the pinyin romanization system.
DeFrancis died on 2 January 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the age of 97.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa
University of Hawaii at Manoa
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...
.
Biography
John DeFrancis was born in Bridgeport, ConnecticutBridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
in a family of modest Italian immigrant origins. His father, a laborer (who changed his name from DeFrancesco), died when DeFrancis was a young child. His mother was illiterate.
After graduation from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
with a BA in Economics in 1933, he sailed to China with the intent of studying Chinese and working in business. In 1935, he accompanied H. Desmond Martin, a Canadian military historian, on a several-thousand-mile trip retracing the route of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
through Mongolia and northwestern China. His book In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan (University of Hawai'i Press, 1993) describes this journey riding camels across the Gobi Desert
Gobi Desert
The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the...
, visiting the ruins of Khara-Khoto
Khara-Khoto
Khara-Khoto was a Tangut city in the Ejin khoshuu of Alxa League, in western Inner Mongolia, near the former Gashun Lake. It has been identified as the city of Etzina, which appears in The Travels of Marco Polo.-History:...
and rafting down the Yellow River
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...
. Along the way, he met the Chinese Muslim Ma Clique
Ma clique
The Ma clique or Ma family warlords is a collective name for a group of Muslim warlords in Northwestern China who ruled the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia from the 1910s until 1949. There were 3 families in the Ma clique , each of them respectively controlled 3 areas, Gansu,...
warlords Ma Buqing
Ma Buqing
Ma Buqing was a prominent Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, controlling armies in the northwestern province of Qinghai.-Life:...
and Ma Bukang. DeFrancis returned to the United States and began graduate studies in Chinese, first at Yale with George A. Kennedy and then at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he received a MA in 1941 and PhD in 1948.
DeFrancis began his academic career teaching Chinese language at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
during the period of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
and the Red Scare
Red Scare
Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
, but was blacklisted for defending his colleague Owen Lattimore from unsubstantiated allegations of being a "Russian spy." DeFrancis eventually returned to teaching, notably at Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University is a private Roman Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan university in the United States. Seton Hall is also the oldest and largest Catholic university in the...
from 1947 to 1954, and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa from 1966 to 1976. In the 1960s, he wrote a 12-volume series
Book series
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher....
of Mandarin Chinese textbooks and readers published by Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
(popularly known as the "DeFrancis series"), which were widely used in Chinese as a foreign language
Chinese as a foreign language
Chinese as a foreign or second language is the study of the Chinese languages by non-native speakers. Increased interest in China from those outside has led to a corresponding interest in the study of Standard Chinese as a foreign language, the official languages of mainland China and Taiwan....
classes for decades; DeFrancis was one of the first educators outside China to use pinyin as an educational aid, and his textbooks are said to have had a "tremendous impact" on Chinese teaching in the West. He served Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Oriental Society from 1950 to 1955 and the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association from 1966 to 1978.
For three decades after retiring from teaching in 1976, DeFrancis remained an important figure and prolific author in Chinese language pedagogy
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
, Asian sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, and language policy
Language policy
Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular language or set of languages. Although nations historically have used language policies most often to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries now have policies designed to...
. One of his most well-known books, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy
The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy
The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy is a book written by John DeFrancis, published in 1984 by University of Hawaii Press. The book describes some of the concepts underlying the Chinese language and writing system, and gives the author's position on a number of ideas about the language.-Main...
(University of Hawai'i Press, 1984) debunks a number of "widespread myths" about the language—for instance, erroneously calling Chinese characters "ideograms" instead of "logograms." Another influential work of his was Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1989), which addressed more myths about the Chinese writing system, and has been called his "magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
" by colleague Victor H. Mair
Victor H. Mair
Victor Henry Mair is a Philologist specializing in Sinitic and Indo-European languages, and holds the position of Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States...
. DeFrancis spent his final years diligently working as Editor in Chief of the "ABC (Alphabetically Based Computerized) series" of Chinese dictionaries, which feature innovative collation
Collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...
by the pinyin romanization system.
DeFrancis died on 2 January 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the age of 97.
Works
John DeFrancis was the author and editor of numerous publications. See Mair 1991 (pages vii-ix) for a partial list.The "DeFrancis series"
Textbooks (Yale Language Series, Yale University Press):- Beginning Chinese (1963). 2nd revised edition, 1976. ISBN 0300020589.
- Character Text for Beginning Chinese (1964). 2nd edition, 1976. ISBN 0300020597.
- Beginning Chinese Reader (Parts I and II) (1966) ISBN 0300020600.
- Intermediate Chinese (1964) ISBN 0300000642.
- Character Text for Intermediate Chinese (1965) ISBN 0300000626.
- Intermediate Chinese Reader (Parts I and II) (1967) Part 1: ISBN 0300000650. Part 2: ISBN 0300000669.
- Advanced Chinese (1966) ISBN 0300000561.
- Character Text for Advanced Chinese (1966) ISBN 0300000634.
- Advanced Chinese Reader (1968) ISBN 0300010834.
- Index Volume (1968)
- Annotated Quotations from Chairman Mao (1975) ISBN 0300018703.
Supplementary series
Accompanying Supplementary Readers for the Intermediate Chinese Reader, (Yale University Press, 1976):- Volume I: The White Haired GirlThe White Haired GirlThe White-Haired Girl is a Chinese opera, ballet, by Yan Jinxuan to a Chinese libretto. The first opera performance was in 1945, with Wang Kun playing the lead role. The film was made in 1950. The first Beijing opera performance was in 1958. The first ballet performance was by Shanghai Dance...
by Chi-Yu Ho. ISBN 088710116X. - Volume II: The Red Detachment of Women by Chi-Yu Ho. ISBN 0887101178.
- Volume III: Episodes From the Dream of the Red ChamberDream of the Red ChamberDream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of...
by Louise H. Li. ISBN 0887101186. - Volume IV: Sun Yat-senSun Yat-senSun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
by Yung Teng Chia-Yee. ISBN 0887101194. - Volume V: Wu SongWu SongWu Song, nicknamed "Pilgrim", is a fictional character in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 14th of the 36 Heavenly Spirits of the 108 Liangshan heroes. Wu Song also appears in the novel Jin Ping Mei, a spin-off of Water Margin...
Kills a Tiger by Yung Teng Chia-Yee. ISBN 0887101208.
Books and monographs
- "The Prospects for Chinese Writing Reform", Sino-Platonic Papers No. 171, 2006 (PDF)
- In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan (University of Hawaii Press, 1993) ISBN 0824814932, ISBN 9780824814939.
- Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems (University of Hawaii Press, 1989) ISBN 0824812077.
- The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (University of Hawaii Press, 1984) ISBN 0824810686.
- Colonialism and Language Policy in Vietnam (Contributions to the Sociology of Language, Nr. 19, Mouton, 1977) ISBN 9027976430.
- Things Japanese in Hawaii (University of Hawaii Press, 1973) ISBN 0824802330.
- Chinese-English Glossary of the Mathematical Sciences (American Mathematical Society, 1964)
- Chinese Social History, by E-tu Zen and John DeFrancis (American Council of Learned Societies, 1956)
- Bibliography on Chinese Social History, by E-tu Zen and John DeFrancis (Yale University, Far Eastern Publications, 1952)
- Talks on Chinese History (with Elizabeth Jen Young) (Far Eastern Publications, 1952)
- Report of the Second Round Table Meeting on Linguistics, Language Teaching Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics, No. 1 (Georgetown University Press, 1951)
- Nationalism and Language Reform in China (Princeton University Press, 1950; reprinted Octagon Books, 1975) ISBN 0374920958.
- Chinese Agent in Mongolia, translated from the Chinese of Ma Ho-t'ien (Johns Hopkins Press, 1949)
Dictionaries
Editor of bilingual Chinese dictionaries (University of Hawai'i Press), which are used as databases for software such as Wenlin:- ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (1996, pocket edition 1999) ISBN 0700711902.
- ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003) ISBN 082482766X.
- ABC Chinese-English/English-Chinese Dictionary (forthcoming)
Further reading
- Mair, Victor H., ed. Schriftfestschrift: Essays on Writing and Language in Honor of John DeFrancis on His Eightieth Birthday, Sino-Platonic Papers #27, August 1991. (PDF)
External links
- John DeFrancis biography, Wenlin Institute
- Contents and excerpt from The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, Pinyin.info
- John DeFrancis page, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
- John DeFrancis Memorial 1911-2009
- Andrew Leonard: A name China scholars will remember Salon, Jan. 8, 2009.
- Remembering John DeFrancis The China Beat (blog). 1/21/2009.