Orientalismo y occidentalismo : dos fuerzas subyacentes en la imagen y la construcción de la lengua china

This article identifies the principal myths and misconceptions surrounding the Chinese language and, by means of discourse analysis, shows how they have been expressed and become entrenched in the academic world, both in China and in the West, despite the evidence which undermines the premises on which these myths are founded, creating an ambivalent image of Chinese that inspires both admiration and rejection. We also show how these views originated from applying a Western linguistic model to descriptions and reforms of the Chinese language, thus reinforcing the orientalist discourse on Chinese that still persists.