Mandariini
Featured essay · Law and language · September 2026
How the PRC’s Ethnic-Unity Law Became a Han-Assimilation Law in English
Four prominent English-language reports presented overlapping but not identical accounts of the People’s Republic of China’s new law on minzu unity. Between them, the law was described as requiring assimilation into Han culture, imposing “Mandarin Chinese” from “pre-kindergarten” through high school, and ending minority languages’ status as principal media of instruction.
The title concerns their relations with one another. It does not describe their conversion into one ethnicity.
From the archive
Four complete web essaysjú · mandarin orange
Character in focus
A phonosemantic character, taken apart.
semantic
phonetic
A tree that also carries information about how its name is pronounced: 木 places 橘 in a semantic field, while 矞 participates in its phonetic history. Their functions arise through combination, position and historical change.
Language
Character structure, historical phonology, classical grammar, naming, and the relation between written and spoken forms.
Culture
Ritual, family, literature, food, popular media and public discourse, examined through concrete historical and contemporary material.
History
Institutions, political language, cultural transmission, and arguments about continuity and change from early inscriptions to the present.
From the essays
When Chinese writing first emerges in the archaeological record, it already exhibits the essential characteristics of a complete writing system.
Reconceptualizing Chinese Writing, № 01
About the editor
Toni Kulmala
Doctoral researcher · University of Helsinki
Mandariini is written and edited by Toni Kulmala. His research concerns Chinese writing and the history of Sinitic languages. The essays connect close attention to sources, character structure, historical language and contemporary public claims.