Do Chinese characters need ‘comestic surgery’?

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has begun soliciting public opinion regarding a new list of simplified Chinese characters. One of its proposals – to alter theform of 44 characters – resurrectd a debate about whether Chinese script should be revised or left alone.

Further standardization

After eight years of work, the MOE unveiled two weeks ago a list of 8,300 “standardize” characters, in the hope of further regulating the Chinese language’s written form.

Ministry officials and experts said the revisions would only target 44 characters printed in the Song typeface on publications; meaning, the revised characters would only appear on computers and printing machines.

Experts made the changes after taking into consideration the traditional Chinese script,  still in use in Taiwan.

“The readjustment wasmade against the backdrop of the information age and for the sake of facilitating information storage, management and exchange,” Li Yuming, deputy director of the State Language Work Committee, said.

“Slight amendmentswill not affect the lives of ordinary people, and it will bode well for the standardization of printing,” he said. But disputes immediately arose when the public saw that some of the characters looked different from the original. Since many of the 44 characters are used frequently, people complained that the changes would hamper their ease of reading and writing, and would involve getting rid of old habits and learning new ones.

There were also strong objections to the huge cost of the revisions.

An online survey conducted by leading Internet portal Sina.com showed 95 percent of more than 368,000 respondents opposed the revisions as of yesterday, while only 5 percent voted for them.

But data released by the ministry’s Language and Words Information Management Division says the contrary. The feedback it received from the public through email, fax and traditional mail showd that 67 percent of respondents supported the revisions while 6 percent voted against them, it said.

“Minute changes would not affect people’seading habits,” said Wang Ning, vice director of the Institute of Lingustics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who is among the experts who worked on the revisions. “The 44 characters account for no more than six per thousand of the total on the list, so it would not forcethe public to learn all the Chinese characters again.”

“Whether or not to make a readjustment of a character does not depend on the votes, but on whether it is reasonable to do so,” she said. “Of course, we are not anst the public.

We are sincerely listening to the public.”The solicitation of opinion will end Monday.

Expert’s view

A character is only a symbol used for communication and cognition. It can function well as long as people agree on its meaning and it can help express their thoughts.

The revision of the 44 characters would lead to amendments in books, dictionaries, signboards, company names, IDs, the input method in computers and other machines. That will not only cost lots of money and time, but also goes against the stability and continuity of the Chinese character’s usage and development.

So the government should fully consider the public’s opinion before making revisions. After all, Chinese characters are the legcy of all Chinese people.

– Xiao Huanrong, professor at the International Communication College, Communication University of China

Background: Tradition vs simplified

As a syllabic and ideographic writing, the Chinese script has a history of 3,400 years. It is one of the oldest writing systems in the world.

Today, there are two ways to write Chinese characters. One is traditional Chinese, which usually contains many strokes and is still used in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and by some overseas Chinese communities; the other is simplified Chinese, which has been used on the Chinese mainland since the founding of the People’s Republic.

The mainland introduced simplified characters in 1956. They were created by decreasing the number of strokes from the traditional version to make writing easier.

In 1986, the State Language Commission revised the list of  7,000 simplified characters; this revision remains in use today.

The latest list contains 1,330 new characters. They are mainly people’s family names and given names, geographical names and scientific and technical terminologies.

“Life changes so fast andso does the use of language, so we made the changes to regulate the use of characters for the convenience of work and life,” Wang Ning said.

The new list includes three traditional characters, bringing the grand total to six, said Li of the State Language Work Committee.

Both Wang and Li said the latest modifications had nothing to do with restoring traditional characters.

Some people on the mainland have called for the restoration of traditional characters for the sake of “cultural preservation.” But Wang does not see the wisdom in this. “I don’t think there is aeed to switch back to traditional Chinese characters, nor to make the current ones even simpler. Our top priority is to improve and standardize the simplified Chinese characters,” she said.

“Switching back to traditiona Chinese characters means more than a billion of Chinese people would have to relearn their mother language,” she said.

Voices

Chinese comment

Will bring more confusion

The change may only be one stroke per character, but if a pupil asks me which versions of the same character is written correctly, I wouldn’t know how to reply. There will be much confusion, especially for children, if different ways of writing the same character exists. So I think it is needless tomake such changes. The written method needs to remain stable for a long period of time.

– An Li, Chinese language teacherA significant move

The move has significance on the standardization of Chinese characters. In following the general trend of development, of society progressing, Chinese characters also need to evolve, so I think the adjustments are acceptable.

– Li Xin, government employee, Dongcheng District

Monkey business

To do “cosmetic surgery” on Chinese characters is monkey business. In my eyes, their revision is like making a cripple of a healthy person. What the committee members altered was not the Chinese characters but their lonelins.

– Zhang Jun, netizen

Foreigners’say

While local Chinese are divided over the pros and cons, foreigners living and working in Beijing see more of trouble with the MOE’s move. “It will surely create more trouble for Westerners learning Mandarin,” one said.

Troublesome for Westerners

Chinese characters are an important symbol of Chinese civilization. It is reasonable that the government add to them. I think it would be easy for Korean and Japanese students to identify those 44 new characters, but it would be troublesome for Westerners to remember those slight changes.

–  Kim Hee Kyung, South Korean student at the Beijing Language and Culture University

Create more trouble

Although I haven’t seen the list, my first reaction when I heard this news was, “Oh no!It’s very difficult for foreigners to learn the Chinese characters. The changes in those 44 frequently used characters will probably create a lot of trouble for beginners like me.

– Dominic Swire, journalist

Respect people’s will

There’s nothing left for us foreigners to say about the change, because it is the Chinese people who mainly use the characters. But any change in the characters should respect the people’s will.

– Jurriaan Meyer, managing director at an IT company