Which Chinese nationalist diplomat and scholar helped establish the vernacular baihua as China's official written language in 1922?

• A. Hu Shi
• B. Sun Yat-sen
• C. Mao Zedong
• D. Deng Xiaoping

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is language reform in modern China—the move from Classical Chinese (wenyan) to the vernacular written form (baihua) that aligns with how people actually speak. Hu Shi, a prominent nationalist diplomat and scholar, was a leading advocate for this shift. He argued that writing should reflect everyday speech to improve literacy and education, and he helped push baihua into literature, schools, journalism, and official communications. Through his influence and the broader May Fourth Movement, his ideas gained traction, and by the early 1920s baihua became the standard for modern writing and was increasingly used in official contexts. While Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping played crucial roles in China’s politics and other reforms, Hu Shi is the figure most closely linked with making vernacular Chinese the official written language during that period.