Words from abroad in China: past, present and future

Since the half of the twentieth century and still in the first decade of the twenty-first century, a heated debate has been going on in China about borrowings in Chinese lexicon; the peaks of this debate were reached during the 1950s and in the last ten years. In order to understand the features of such long-lasting debate, the analysis of the contents of a number of articles and of monographs dealing with borrowings in Chinese academic and non-academic journals and magazines appeared in both the above-mentioned spans of time has sketched the lines of the debating parties; a brief review of relevant official acts and statements has pointed out the lines of intervention of the State. It turned out that a persistent opposition is contrasting more and more overtly language purists and language pragmatists; Chinese government is trying to mediate between the two parties, but the latest acts indicate that the full-fledged domestic language policy, implemented by the PRC, is leaning towards a standardization and the consequent reduction of the number of borrowings in Chinese lexicon.