baihua

English

Etymology

From Mandarin 白話／白话 (báihuà).

Noun

baihua (uncountable)

1. Vernacular Chinese, as opposed to Classical Chinese
   • 2004, Michael Lackner, Natascha Vittinghoff, Mapping Meanings: The Field of New Learning in Late Qing China, BRILL, →ISBN, page 280:

     The first baihua-journals until about 1901 contained mainly articles and news, which had been originally written in wenyan and were now translated into the vernacular language.