Джон Дефрансис: Американский китаевед и педагог

American sinologist (1911–2009)

John DeFrancis (August 31, 1911January 2, 2009) was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and professor emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

John DeFrancis was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in a family of modest Italian immigrant origins. His father, a laborer who had changed his name from DeFrancesco, died when DeFrancis was a young child. His mother was illiterate.

After graduating from Yale College in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, DeFrancis sailed to China with the intent of studying Chinese and working in business. In 1935, he accompanied H. Desmond Martin, a Canadian military historian, on a several thousand mile trip retracing the route of Genghis Khan through Mongolia and northwestern China. DeFrancis was one of the first educators outside China to use Hanyu Pinyin as an educational aid, and his textbooks are said to have had a "tremendous impact" on Chinese teaching in the West. He served as Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Oriental Society from 1950 to 1955 and the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association from 1966 to 1978.

DeFrancis retired from teaching in 1976, but remained an important figure in Chinese language pedagogy, Asian sociolinguistics, and language policy, as well as a prolific author. One of his most well known books, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (University of Hawai'i Press, 1984) attempts to debunk a number of what DeFrancis considered "widespread myths" about the language—including what he referred to as the "ideographic myth". Another influential work of his was Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems, which addressed more myths about the Chinese writing system, and has been called his magnum opus by colleague Victor H. Mair. He died on 2 January 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, at the age of 97.

John DeFrancis was the author and editor of numerous publications.