This book, volume two of the study "A Myth Become Reality - History and Development of
the Miao Written Language", contains historical descriptions and graphonomic analyses of
the Miao writing systems devised in China after 1949 and a discussion about the
mythologization of one of the missionary writing systems for Miao - the Pollard script.
The first volume contains an introduction and parts I and II out of four parts. In the
introduction the author discusses the notion ‘Miao’, the Miao dialects and presents their
phonological systems. Part I deals with the Miao myth about a prehistoric writing system
and part II is concerned with the efforts of various missionaries, mainly British and
American, to devise writing systems for Miao. The present volume deals with the Miao
writing systems devised within the language programs sponsored by the Chinese state,
particularly in the 1950s and how these writing systems have subsequendy been propagated.
There are substantial differences in the success of propagating Miao writing in different
Miao groups and the reasons for this are to be sought both in the reinterpretation of the
writing systems in accordance with the myth about the loss of writing, and in the
differences in bilingual competence, economic development etc. In the last part the
author describes how the Pollard script has been reinterpreted within the framework of
the Miao myth about a lost writing system, and how it has subsequently also been
integrated into the state efforts to create a Miao writing which represents the Miao
language both on a phonemic level and on an etymological level, especially regarding
the tone marking system. Finally, the author discusses the importance of dissimilarity in
connection with the strikingly different degrees of success for the various writing systems.