Chinese Englishes: A Sociolinguistic History by Kinsley Bolton

Translated into Chinese from English by Ouyang Yu, published by Shanghai Literature and Arts Publishing House in China, 2011.

Price: 15

Kingsley Bolton uses early word lists, satirical cartoons and data from journals and memoirs to uncover the forgotten history of English in China, from the arrival of the first English-speaking traders in the early seventeenth century to the present. Demonstrating how contemporary Hong Kong English has its historical roots in Chinese pidgin English, the book considers the changing status of English in mainland China over time, particularly recent developments since 1997.