On May 11, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) visited Tsinghua University in Beijing and delivered a speech in the school's Main Building. During Soong's Tsinghua visit, university president Gu Binglin (顧秉林) suffered the embarrassment of being unable to finish reading a poem that was written in "seal" Chinese script (篆體詩).
Gu is a well-known Chinese scholar, but he is no different from most ordinary Taiwanese in finding it difficult to read Chinese seal script. For most middle-aged and young Chinese, reading traditional Chinese characters has also become a problem. In an environment where Chinese language learning is on the increase, Taiwan's continued use of traditional script can only be considered an advantage.
China is rising, and it is using its growing national power to fully and strategically promote Chinese language to the global community. For example, China's formulation of a test of Chinese as a foreign language and its establishment of the Confucius Institute are some important factors stimulating the fad for learning Chinese in the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and other countries. We must admit that China's decision to seize a business opportunity to promote Chinese language has had good results.
This has given rise to concerns that all this study of Chinese is being conducted using simplified rather than traditional Chinese characters. If foreigners only learn to write in simplified Chinese and visit China to study Chinese, not only will Taiwan miss out on a business opportunity, but the popularity of traditional Chinese may also decline as a result
I believe that if we look at the issue strategically, considering the issue from a profit-driven perspective, we may find ways of arresting the decline of traditional Chinese.
In business, when faced with vigorous market competition smaller companies may choose to strengthen their core abilities and relations with their strongest markets to counter larger competitors. There is no country better placed than Taiwan in terms of learning traditional Chinese. Hong Kong ranks a poor second place in this regard. Therefore, Taiwan should strengthen this core ability of teaching Chinese with traditional characters.
Besides, given the moderate size and potential of the traditional Chinese market, it can be regarded as a "blue chip" and growth stock. Written language is like a bridge linking people to the world's different cultures. For example, being able to write in simplified Chinese will provide access to the Chinese community for academic, business, or cultural purposes.
But, simplified Chinese only has a 50-year history; therefore, knowing how to write in simplified Chinese only allows people to understand China over the past 50 years rather than China's 5,000 years of history. Foreigners who learn simplified Chinese -- as well as Chinese people in general -- encounter an "entry barrier" to comprehending traditional Chinese texts regardless of which field of study they enter. It is bizarre that this "entry barrier" was in fact created by China's invention of a new writing system that is different from traditional Chinese.
On the other hand, those who know traditional Chinese script not only do not suffer from such an "entry barrier," but also have the advantage of being able to absorb knowledge from Chinese classics and the teachings of ancient sages dating back 5,000 years, ranging from texts in "official script," or Li Shu (隸書), developed in the Qin Dynasty by Cheng Miao (程邈) -- who felt that "seal" writing was not convenient to write -- to works by modern authors such as Lu Xun (魯迅), the father of modern Chinese literature, and Hu Shih (胡適). They can even read the official histories from Japan and South Korea.
Because of Taiwanese people's knowledge of traditional Chinese, we can transcend spatial obstacles as well as temporal barriers in history, roaming freely in the Chinese-speaking world. We cannot deny that traditional Chinese has a relatively small market, but this market is definitely worth our investment to help its growth.
In fact, following the emerging achievements of middle-aged and young people in China, the embarrassment of not being able to read ancient Chinese script, such as Gu experienced, will not be the end of the story. Chinese scholar Mao Yushi's (
We can expect that in the future, the population using simplified Chinese will be far larger than that using traditional Chinese. We, however, do not have to worry too much about China's promotion of simplified Chinese because this is not a zero-sum game. Instead, Taiwan can profit from China's campaign for Chinese language since, from a marketing perspective, it is a good opportunity for Taiwan to reach out to its potential markets, as long as this Chinese-learning wave continues to thrive. By doing so, Taiwan can take care of its share, and China may one day accept traditional Chinese after taking a good hard look at the issue. Taiwan will then be in an enviable situation.
Chou En-hua is a doctoral student in the department of management science at National Chiao Tung University.
TRANSLATED BY LIN YA-TI
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