Academics urge UN wardship for traditional script

A group of academics in Taipei on Thursday suggested that Taiwan file an application with the UN to make traditional Chinese characters a world cultural heritage entitled to special protection.

Wang Kai-fu (王開府), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University, said that although the country is not a UN member and that an application put forth by Taiwan might encounter huge difficulties at the UN headquarters, efforts to seek UN protection for traditional Chinese characters are imperative.

Wang said he was confident that traditional, full-form Chinese characters would survive and even thrive because of the medium's strong "vitality," despite political pressure from Beijing, which has made it increasingly difficult for Taiwan to promote traditional Chinese characters around the world.

The best way to prevent traditional characters from being marginalized was to list them as a UN-protected world cultural heritage, he said.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau still use the full-form characters, with the rest of the world mostly using the simplified characters developed in China, supposedly to "boost literacy."

Meanwhile, Hsu Ching-yun (許清雲), a professor at Soochow University, said that simplified characters were officially adopted by Beijing in 1949.

However, he said, the Chinese people have come to increasingly "crave" traditional characters as living standards continue to rise in China, generating a growing cultural awareness.

Hsu also suggested that Taiwan convene an international Sinology conference to raise global awareness about the importance and significance of traditional Chinese characters.

A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker, however, yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to ditch a policy proposal under which students would lose marks for using simplified Chinese characters in examinations.

KMT Legislator Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) said that the policy should not be implemented until the ministry had updated its list of commonly accepted simplified characters to serve as the basis for mark deductions.

Wang said that according to a list of standard characters published by the ministry, 57 commonly seen simplified characters are now considered standard characters.

While the policy is expected to apply to basic ability tests for junior high school students starting next month, the ministry has so far not made public the criteria for mark deductions, which has caused anxiety among students, she said.

Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) said on Tuesday that students taking the tests are prohibited from using the simplified characters created by the Chinese authorities, but are allowed to use those that have "become commonly accepted."

Under KMT rule, non-government publications were banned for using simplified script, in some cases even for using a single simplified character.