Yanji’s Public Words: Signs, Books and New Terms

Yanbian’s Korean Language and Writing System Regulation was revised in 2023. Article 13 treats a public sign as more than decoration: it groups plaques, notices, certificates, banners, advertisements, symbols and road signs among the texts used by government bodies, businesses, associations and individual merchants. Those texts are to appear in both Korean and China’s national common language, Chinese. Prefecture and county-level translation offices check the wording, and Korean text is to follow the standardized forms approved by the Korean-language standardization committee.

The rule connects a short street text to a chain of drafting, translation and review. In Yanji, where the prefectural publishing house is based, those same written systems continue into books and reference works. The sign is the briefest form: its words have to identify a business or direct someone along a road.

At a 2022 anniversary exhibition, Yanbian Education Press displayed Korean-language school textbooks, education periodicals and dictionaries. Each printed form does a different job. A textbook arranges lessons for a class; a periodical carries writing into educators’ work; a dictionary gives students and editors a place to check usage. Unlike a street sign read while moving, these books can be opened repeatedly as people learn, teach or revise a text.

The exhibition brought together materials used in classrooms and reference works used by readers and editors. The press, based in Yanji, thus works across school publishing and language reference: one printed page teaches a lesson, another helps a writer choose a word.

Modern vocabulary requires more than adding a word to a list. A 2026 report from Yanbian describes 106 new terms reviewed in 2025 and turned into short videos explaining their meanings, usage settings and standard Korean translations. On 13 July 2026, a further review approved Korean renderings for 177 newer terms. The sequence links terminology work to teaching and media: a specialist decision is turned into an explanation for people who may use a term in a lesson, public service or business.

The report also notes an everyday Chinese–Korean translation handbook prepared by the prefectural commission and intended for use in different settings. A sign, a dictionary entry, a textbook and a short video preserve words in different ways; each places language where a particular reader or speaker needs it.

The same 2026 account gives examples of language work beyond school and publishing. It describes shopkeepers along the border rehearsing bilingual service during the tourist season, and rural women learning Putonghua while using livestream sales to bring local products to wider markets. These are named as organized projects, where practice follows a concrete task: greeting a customer or explaining a product on camera.

Yanji’s public writing therefore belongs to several settings at once. The regulation defines how certain signs are prepared; books support longer study; reviewed terms and training connect language to newer work. The form changes from a shop plaque to a dictionary or livestream, while translation and editing make each text legible for its intended use.