China: Return to Traditional Chinese Characters

[Harold Schiffman]

 Return to Traditional Chinese Characters   By Xin Fei
The Epoch Times
Dec 13, 2007
 [image: The cover story of Issue 46 of New Epoch Weekly discusses
traditional characters (New Epoch Weekly)]
The cover story of Issue 46 of New Epoch Weekly discusses traditional
characters (New Epoch Weekly)

 At the Eighth International Chinese Character Symposium (ICCS), held on
October 30 to 31 in Beijing, scholars from Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea,
and Japan agreed that Chinese characters should be standardized, and more
importantly, traditional characters should be maintained. During an
interview with The Epoch Times on November 6, several scholars said that
traditional characters are the essence of ancient Chinese civilization and
can truly reflect the depth and richness of the Chinese
culture<http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-13/62897.html#>.
The symposium also signified that although the CCP has tried since 1949 to
eradicate traditional characters—and thereby cut off the connection to
traditional culture—their efforts have been in vain.

Traditional Characters Considered for Standard Writing

According to Korean Daily, based on the understanding reached at the
symposium, experts will regard the traditional writing forms as the
standard. However, simplified versions of individual characters may remain
in use. The symposium was hosted by the Institute of Applied Linguistics
under the Ministry of Education and the Office of Chinese Language Council
International. Participants decided to create a "Comparative Research
Dictionary" for China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan in order to gradually unify
the characters used in various countries. The next symposium, scheduled for
2008, will be held in Seoul, Korea. In future years, experts from Vietnam,
Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macao will also be invited to better
represent other Chinese-speaking countries.

WHO to Use Traditional Characters for Chinese Medicine

The ICCS has long been active in the international community. Prior to the
decision to unify Chinese characters, there had been an increase in the
number of countries using traditional characters. According to an October
17, 2007 article, the World
Health<http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-13/62897.html#>Organization
(WHO) established that translations of traditional Chinese
medicine texts should be written in traditional Chinese characters. It has
been reported that China has accepted the WHO translation standards. The
international community has exerted significant pressure to bring back
traditional Chinese characters. Both President Hu
Jintao<http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-13/62897.html#>and Premier
Wen Jiabao have used traditional characters in their calligraphy
works presented to expatriate Chinese and students in Hong Kong.

Policy Change from the Communist
Party's<http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-13/62897.html#>Language and
Culture?

Chief Editor Xu Shuiliang of Internet Digest said that although this
symposium was hosted by government organizations, most of the participants
were experts and scholars from grassroots organizations. On the whole, the
majority of people favored restoration of traditional Chinese culture. This
indicates the failure of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) policies on
language and culture. The CCP will be forced to change its approach.

Xu said, "Under the current conditions, with the CCP policies on language
and culture still in effect, reaching an agreement on the co-existence of
traditional and simplified characters is a breakthrough. In the future,
traditional characters will be used more broadly."

The CCP implemented character simplification even before it took power in
1949. In 1956, the CCP announced its "Proposal to Simplify Chinese
Characters." In 1964, it published "Summary List of Simplified Characters."
However, in 1977, its "Second Proposal on Character Simplification" failed
to pass and was rescinded. Now there are only several hundred simplified
characters and radicals left. Mao Zedong was a strong proponent of
abolishing Chinese characters and replacing them with pinyin (phonetic
spelling of sounds).

Simplified Characters Impede Passing On Of Cultural Heritage

Taiwan-based editor Zhang Fuzhang of "Today in Prophecies" said that Chinese
characters have rich inner meanings and reflect the laws of nature, a view
of life and the universe, as well as a respect for and fear of, gods. The
five elements and yin-yang harmony are applicable to human behavior, as well
as thoughts and feelings. In the past 5,000 years, Chinese characters have
represented the depth of the Chinese culture.

Zhang said that the CCP's policies to simplify traditional characters were
designed to sever the connection to traditional culture, thereby diminishing
our heritage. Although simplified characters are easier to write, they have
destroyed the rules of radicals and the inner meanings of the language. Some
characters now have meanings that are opposite to what they meant
originally. As a result, students who learn simplified characters have
difficulty understanding ancient texts. This has created a gap in Chinese
culture, and the very essence of Chinese culture is being threatened.

He said that in the process of promoting Chinese characters, people also
found that simplified characters cannot replace traditional characters. The
trend will be to return to traditional characters as the language
unification progresses.

Attendees at the symposium included President Huang Dekuan of Anhui
University, Professors Su Peicheng and Li Dasui of Peking University, and
Director Xu Xueren of the Chinese Language Association, among others.



http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-13/62897.html

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