Should schools start teaching traditional characters again?

[Edison Chen]

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), stressed on the cultural importance of traditional Chinese characters and suggested schools should teach those that reflect the wisdom of our ancestors.

"The meaning of learning Chinese characters lies in planting beautiful seeds in our children," said Feng at a session on Wednesday.

Feng cited two examples.

"Take the characters 亲 (qin, here referring to the meaning to be close to someone) and 爱 (ai, love) for example. The traditional character for 亲 is 親. On the left is 亲, and on the right is 見 (jian, the traditional character for 见 or to see). The traditional character for 爱 is 愛, there is a 心 (xin, heart) in it.

Put more simply, (the traditional Chinese characters are telling us that) to be close to someone, you have to meet them, and to love someone, you have to have a heart."

The Chinese language has been written in its traditional form for a long time since its birth. In 1935, China's Ministry of Education issued the first batch of simplified characters, 324 of them in total, but widespread use of them were delayed until the 1950s'.

Feng suggested the revival of 50 to 200 most meaningful traditional characters in the textbooks. This way, it will not pressure the children too much, and at the same time allow them to feel the essence of Chinese culture.

Many members agreed with Feng's proposal. Most of them said the key lies not in replacing simplified Chinese characters with traditional ones, but in passing on the cultural heritage of China to the next generation.

Famed author, painter and heritage protection activist Feng Jicai said cultural significance should not be lost against time.

"The evolution of characters is closely related to the speed of information flow (referring to fewer strokes in simplified characters versus traditional ones, hence less time it takes to write). We can pursue speed, but at the same time, we cannot lose tradition. We should at least let our children realize how the characters came to be as they are today."

"We can pick say 100 traditional characters and teach our kids how they were simplified to today's form and traditional meanings behind them," Feng Jicai added.

"We have lost too much traditional culture in the past. I hope we can find some back," CPPCC member and actor Zhang Guoli added.

Cross-talk artist Jiang Kun believes otherwise.

"I want to remind you all that 90 percent of simplified characters we use today were also used in the past. They themselves have carried on the culture," said Jiang.

Chinese singer Yu Junjian said he has already proposed this issue several times in the past, but his request was denied by the Ministry of Education.

"According to Scheme of Simplification of Chinese Characters, it is against regulations to revive the use of traditional characters," said Yu.

"I want our children to learn more about them, it's that simple. I'm not saying we have to restore the use of traditional characters as a whole," Yu added.

Social media responses

Internet user Unclemong said: "Why do we have to choose between the two? Our teachers can teach them both in the classrooms, and let people decide what they want to use when they write Chinese."

Internet user crycee: "If traditional characters are revived, the ultimate victims will be students and children in the Chinese mainland, where school work load is very heavy. I also think traditional characters are crystallized essence of Chinese history that carry rich cultural heritage. Those interested in them can learn themselves, but there is no need to revive them as a whole."

Should schools start teaching traditional characters again?[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn

 

[Lux de Veritas]

China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam should sit down and form a standard Chinese character committee and adopt a standardize character.

Traditional character is the only script that all parties can agree on.

Today with computer, writing Chinese character is no longer an issue.

 

[Aepsilons]

Of course this is a great idea. Revert back to the Traditional character system.

 

[Jlaw]

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), stressed on the cultural importance of traditional Chinese characters and suggested schools should teach those that reflect the wisdom of our ancestors.

"The meaning of learning Chinese characters lies in planting beautiful seeds in our children," said Feng at a session on Wednesday.

Feng cited two examples.

View attachment 207033

"Take the characters 亲 (qin, here referring to the meaning to be close to someone) and 爱 (ai, love) for example. The traditional character for 亲 is 親. On the left is 亲, and on the right is 見 (jian, the traditional character for 见 or to see). The traditional character for 爱 is 愛, there is a 心 (xin, heart) in it.

Put more simply, (the traditional Chinese characters are telling us that) to be close to someone, you have to meet them, and to love someone, you have to have a heart."

The Chinese language has been written in its traditional form for a long time since its birth. In 1935, China's Ministry of Education issued the first batch of simplified characters, 324 of them in total, but widespread use of them were delayed until the 1950s'.

Feng suggested the revival of 50 to 200 most meaningful traditional characters in the textbooks. This way, it will not pressure the children too much, and at the same time allow them to feel the essence of Chinese culture.

Many members agreed with Feng's proposal. Most of them said the key lies not in replacing simplified Chinese characters with traditional ones, but in passing on the cultural heritage of China to the next generation.

Famed author, painter and heritage protection activist Feng Jicai said cultural significance should not be lost against time.

"The evolution of characters is closely related to the speed of information flow (referring to fewer strokes in simplified characters versus traditional ones, hence less time it takes to write). We can pursue speed, but at the same time, we cannot lose tradition. We should at least let our children realize how the characters came to be as they are today."

"We can pick say 100 traditional characters and teach our kids how they were simplified to today's form and traditional meanings behind them," Feng Jicai added.

"We have lost too much traditional culture in the past. I hope we can find some back," CPPCC member and actor Zhang Guoli added.

Cross-talk artist Jiang Kun believes otherwise.

"I want to remind you all that 90 percent of simplified characters we use today were also used in the past. They themselves have carried on the culture," said Jiang.

Chinese singer Yu Junjian said he has already proposed this issue several times in the past, but his request was denied by the Ministry of Education.

"According to Scheme of Simplification of Chinese Characters, it is against regulations to revive the use of traditional characters," said Yu.

"I want our children to learn more about them, it's that simple. I'm not saying we have to restore the use of traditional characters as a whole," Yu added.

Social media responses

Internet user Unclemong said: "Why do we have to choose between the two? Our teachers can teach them both in the classrooms, and let people decide what they want to use when they write Chinese."

Internet user crycee: "If traditional characters are revived, the ultimate victims will be students and children in the Chinese mainland, where school work load is very heavy. I also think traditional characters are crystallized essence of Chinese history that carry rich cultural heritage. Those interested in them can learn themselves, but there is no need to revive them as a whole."

Should schools start teaching traditional characters again?[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn

At my local college the Chinese courses require students to read/write traditional and simplified Chinese. If westernized Chinese like me can learn both methods of reading/writing, this should be a walk in the park for local Chinese.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Traditional characters are too complicated. Beauty in simplicity.

It is not what characters look like, it is how they are used. Seriously, just read papers, novels, etc. from mainland, then compare to HK/Taiwan, and note the grammar, sentence complexity, complexity of ideas, etc. It is akin to a person with neat but simple writing at the college level, vs. the most beautiful calligraphy writing about gossip in middle school language. If I ever see “棒” used in a paper in mainland as an adjective, then I'll be convinced of how better traditional is. Until then, sit the **** down son and learn how to use the language in an artful way because I'm fully convinced in the superiority of simplified allowing people to take their fixation off the characters, and focus on how to use those characters to optimize communication.

Also I'd like to add that some simplified characters actually derive from Han, Tang or Song dynasty, while the traditional characters were mostly codified in Ming/Qing.

 

[Aepsilons]

Traditional characters are too complicated. Beauty in simplicity.

It is not what characters look like, it is how they are used. Seriously, just read papers, novels, etc. from mainland, then compare to HK/Taiwan, and note the grammar, sentence complexity, complexity of ideas, etc. It is akin to a person with neat but simple writing at the college level, vs. the most beautiful calligraphy writing about gossip in middle school language. If I ever see “棒” used in a paper in mainland as an adjective, then I'll be convinced of how better traditional is. Until then, sit the **** down son and learn how to use the language in an artful way because I'm fully convinced in the superiority of simplified allowing people to take their fixation off the characters, and focus on how to use those characters to optimize communication.

Also I'd like to add that some simplified characters actually derive from Han, Tang or Song dynasty, while the traditional characters were mostly codified in Ming/Qing.

Spoken like an engineer. lol.

 

[xenon54 out]

Is the modernized script easier to write than Traditional one, what are the differences?

 

[Aepsilons]

China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam should sit down and form a standard Chinese character committee and adopt a standardize character.

Traditional character is the only script that all parties can agree on.

Today with computer, writing Chinese character is no longer an issue.

Koreans, too, should reinstate academic study of the Hanja writing system in their own school systems. If they can master Hangul and Latin, then Hanja should be accessed early on.

In Japan, we learn not just Kanji, but katakana, hiragana, romanji as well. Recently mandatory learning of Latin script and English language has started as early as kindergarten. And in many school systems, Mandarin is becoming the norm as a mandatory foreign language . Korean should follow suit.

 

[Yizhi]

aesthetically i prefer traditional ones.

China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam should sit down and form a standard Chinese character committee and adopt a standardize character.

Traditional character is the only script that all parties can agree on.

Today with computer, writing Chinese character is no longer an issue.

Forum proposes 800 common Chinese characters :: Korea.net : The official website of the Republic of Korea

Renowned scholars and former high-profile politicians from Korea, China, and Japan announced a list of 800 Chinese characters for common use.

A list was compiled of 800 Chinese characters in common use, proposed by scholars and politicians from Korea, China, and Japan.

The selection of 800 characters, announced on July 8, was led by former Korean Culture Minister Lee Eo-ryeong, the Renmin University of China, and Japan’s Kyoto University. To finalize the list, they narrowed down 800 characters by comparing 2,500 characters commonly used by Chinese with 1,006 characters used in Japanese education and 900 basic characters Koreans learn at school.

--------------------------
it looks promising for China, Japan, Korea. not so sure about Vietnam though.

 

[TaiShang]

Is the modernized script easier to write than Traditional one, what are the differences?

I guess it is not the issue of one being being harder than the other. Both systems are historical forms.

There are two standard systems of characters in current use: traditional and simplified. Simplified characters are official characters used in Mainland and Singapore. Traditional characters are used mainly in Taiwan and other Chinese speaking parts of the world. Besides, most characters in both systems are identical. In the simplified system, many frequently used characters have been simplified from their traditional more complex form.

Matter of fact is that a simplified way of writing characters has existed for hundreds of years. Simplified were used in informal documents and in some forms of calligraphy before they were adopted in the Mainland as the official form. Hence, today you may encounter simplified characters in use in Taiwan and traditional ones used in the Mainland.

 

[Aepsilons]

Is the modernized script easier to write than Traditional one, what are the differences?

It depends on who you ask. To those who learn Traditional Kanji as early as 5 or 6 years old , writing in it is almost 2nd nature. For me, I can write it easily and quickly , the same context would apply for those who were brought up using simplified form.

aesthetically i prefer traditional ones.


Forum proposes 800 common Chinese characters :: Korea.net : The official website of the Republic of Korea

Renowned scholars and former high-profile politicians from Korea, China, and Japan announced a list of 800 Chinese characters for common use.

A list was compiled of 800 Chinese characters in common use, proposed by scholars and politicians from Korea, China, and Japan.

The selection of 800 characters, announced on July 8, was led by former Korean Culture Minister Lee Eo-ryeong, the Renmin University of China, and Japan’s Kyoto University. To finalize the list, they narrowed down 800 characters by comparing 2,500 characters commonly used by Chinese with 1,006 characters used in Japanese education and 900 basic characters Koreans learn at school.

--------------------------
it looks promising for China, Japan, Korea. not so sure about Vietnam though.

Nice.

I guess it is not the issue of one being being harder than the other. Both systems are historical forms.

There are two standard systems of characters in current use: traditional and simplified. Simplified characters are official characters used in Mainland and Singapore. Traditional characters are used mainly in Taiwan and other Chinese speaking parts of the world. Besides, most characters in both systems are identical. In the simplified system, many frequently used characters have been simplified from their traditional more complex form.

Matter of fact is that a simplified way of writing characters has existed for hundreds of years. Simplified were used in informal documents and in some forms of calligraphy before they were adopted in the Mainland as the official form. Hence, today you may encounter simplified characters in use in Taiwan and traditional ones used in the Mainland.

hehehe, don't forget HK! They also use traditional characters, too.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Spoken like an engineer. lol.

I'm not just a scientist, I'm also a reader and writer. Science is just my job, but one of my loves is literature. It is disgusting to see literature be degraded to who has better looking writing, rather than who has better ideas. If you have read 近似无限透明的蓝色 (限りなく透明に近いブルー) by 村上龙 it is not how great the characters look that made it a deep story, it is how writing about Japanese youth struggle with Western influences made it a deep story.

 

[kankan326]

龜，when I saw this, I lost my courage to write traditional characters.

 

[yusheng]

should US and UK, and all english speaking countries sit down to discuss out an standard english?

tell me which one is more traditional?

 

[Aepsilons]

I'm not just a scientist, I'm also a reader and writer. Science is just my job, but one of my loves is literature. It is disgusting to see literature be degraded to who has better looking writing, rather than who has better ideas. If you have read 近似无限透明的蓝色 (限りなく透明に近いブルー) by 村上龙 it is not how great the characters look that made it a deep story, it is how writing about Japanese youth struggle with Western influences made it a deep story.

hahaha, i know buddy, i was just joking with you. From reading your posts for a while now, you come across a very learned individual , just that i have quite a few engineer friends , and they have a very confident attitude, much like yours. Also, you know about the jokes about engineer / physicist nature right? LOL. (please don't take it personally, just for laughs)....


this is how an engineer flirts with a girl...

bro @cnleio --- i know you're like this...hahahahaha!