Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) last week proposed abolishing the classical Chinese-language part of the civil service entrance exam, sparking a vehement backlash from lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who slammed the proposal as ideological and said it was the DPP’s latest move to garner votes from young Taiwanese.
As civil servants need to write and read official documents in Chinese, the exam assesses applicants’ command of the language, with classical Chinese being one of the exam’s focus areas. Classical Chinese had been in use from ancient times to the early 20th century. Chinese-speakers in today’s Taiwan use modern Chinese: speaking classical Chinese today would be like using Shakespearian English.
Classical Chinese would not be used by the applicants after passing the exam, so it is a waste of time and effort to study it, Cheng said, adding that then-minister without portfolio Lin Yu-ti (林玉体) and others proposed a similar motion in 2008.
Lin at the time said: “Abolishing the Chinese exam has nothing to do with Taiwanese independence or politics. Young people should not waste their time studying classical Chinese.”
Cheng’s proposal highlights the complexity of the issue, in terms of practicality and diversity.
As Taiwan’s civil service exams are notoriously difficult, examinees spend a lot of time preparing for them, usually studying classical Chinese with a “chew-pour-pass-forget” mindset, as they do not expect to use it on the job. While many consider classical Chinese an important metric for gauging Chinese proficiency, it is arguable whether civil servants need such a specialized, high-level knowledge of the language to perform their duties. As any concept ancient or modern can be expressed in modern Chinese, why is there a need for classical Chinese?
If an applicant is taking the exam to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Council of Indigenous Peoples, they will probably be using more English or indigenous languages on the job than classical Chinese. The Four Books and Five Classics are great works of literature, but studying such texts remains largely an academic endeavor. Even though it is important to preserve history and cultural heritage, civil service exams are no suitable means to that end.
As part of the “108 curriculum” educational reform, the Ministry of Education has reduced the share of classical texts in high-school curricula, aiming to give more room to literature in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and indigenous languages. It would contradict the reform’s purpose to continue testing civil service applicants’ knowledge of classical Chinese.
While the KMT regards the “abolishment” of classical Chinese — in education or exams — as a move to de-Sinicize Taiwan and a prelude to dumbing down the Chinese-language ability of Taiwanese, it has failed to take into account the damage the then-KMT government inflicted on languages native to Taiwan, especially indigenous languages, when it retreated to Taiwan from China. By banning non-Chinese languages, Taiwanese were forced to lay aside their mother tongues and assimilate the KMT’s version of Chinese culture.
As educators helped pave the way to cultural diversity, and Taiwanese have changed their perception of national identity, the government should take into account this trend and abolish the anachronistic classical Chinese part of the civil service exam.
Confucius’ (孔子) ruminations about benevolent government might well be beautifully articulated, but not knowing how to repeat his exact phrases would certainly not interfere with a civil servant’s ability to perform their job, and insisting that they have to have this skill might impede Taiwan’s quest for its national identity.
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS