Modern Lexicon, Formation

The formation of modern Chinese lexicon was a process of renovation and enrichment the Chinese language underwent from the second half of the 19th century in order to face the challenge of a modern world. Many neologisms entered the Chinese vocabulary in order to render western concepts hitherto unknown in China. Some of them had already been created by western missionaries in the 16th century; others were lexical borrowings from Japan. Therefore, the encounter with the West and with Japan just showed the way Modern Chinese lexicon could follow on its own in the following centuries.