An exploratory study on national language policy and family language planning in the Chinese context

National language planning and family language planning may converge or diverge. As 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the new China, we examined language planning at both the national level and the family level in China. We first revisited language policy and planning in China over the last seventy years through a policy document analysis method, and then explored family language planning among16 families through questionnaires and interviews. We compared and contrasted national language planning and family language planning in Mandarin, English, and dialects. We found that China has already undergone three language planning stages including importing, localizing, and integrating language theories over the last seven decades. It strives for multilingualism, which, however, is embodied through a language hierarchy but primarily promoting Mandarin’s status. The language hierarchy does exist but varies from national language planning to family language planning, which causes the primary tension between the two language planning systems. In other words, while Mandarin is greatly promoted at the national level, English is still dominant in family language planning among the surveyed families. The primary tension in language hierarchy further drives the two language planning systems to differ in their language ideologies and language practices and management, which forms further tensions within and between different generations. We argued national language management or language policy implementation may take time to inform family language planning and also discussed how political and economic factors may inform these tensions.