AskHistorians Podcast 027 - Language Policy in Modern East Asia

Keyilan takes on the topic of official language policy in China (both PRC and Taiwan), North and South Korea, and Japan. Dispelling some myths about languages in East Asia, he goes on to cover efforts at character simplification; efforts to promulgate "proper" language; modern linguistic differences stemming from political divisions; and why Taiwan spoke Japanese for a while, among much more. One of our longer single episodes, China takes up most of the show, with Korea being covered around minute 56 and the section on Japan around 1 hour 20 minutes in.