International Law

Bad Idea

By Stan

OK, this proposal is not going to get any traction. However, just the thought of any linguistic change is enough to get me thinking of leaving the country:

One of the proposals being presented before the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference is a plan to "restore, resume, resurrect, or return" to traditional characters.

The whole "traditional vs. simplified" debate might seem inconsequential, but is in fact a heated topic that has its stakes in political and cultural identities.

As the name implies, simplified characters are, well, simpler–they require less strokes to write and are easier to read when written in smaller type. Mainland China moved towards simplified characters as a way to increase literacy in the vastly illiterate 1950s.

However, Chinese in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and various overseas communities still use traditional characters, which have been around in their current form since more or less the 5th Century.

Hmm. Somehow I don’t think that anyone is going to get too excited about changing current PRC practice to confirm with Taiwan and Hong Kong. I’m just saying.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 10, 2009 (boomark / email).