PAI-HUA

(Chinese: colloquial language), vernacular style of Chinese that was adopted as a written language in a movement to revitalize the Classical Chinese literary language and make it more accessible to the common people. Started in 1917 by the philosopher and historian Hu Shih, the pai-hua literary movement succeeded in making pai-hua the language of textbooks, periodicals, newspapers, and public documents, thus causing a definite change in Chinese cultural life.