Sun, Apr 20, 2025 page8

• Rejuvenating ‘Chinese character’

  • By Hugo Tseng 曾泰元
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  Today is UN Chinese Language Day, a celebration honoring the richness of the Chinese script. The date was chosen to coincide with guyu (“grain rain”), a traditional solar term (half-month seasonal division) starting on April 20 when ancient Chinese paid tribute to Cangjie (倉頡), the legendary figure credited with inventing Chinese characters about 5,000 years ago.

  Legend has it that when Cangjie created the characters for writing, millet grains rained from the sky and the ghosts and gods wept at night — a poetic testament to the profound cultural significance of Chinese writing.

  Yet, in English, this monumental writing system remains shackled to an inadequate term: “Chinese characters.” Unlike cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) or hieroglyphics (“sacred carvings”) — names that evoke the distinct essence of ancient scripts — “Chinese character” is vague, impersonal and oddly detached from its cultural roots. The word “character” is ambiguous in itself — it could refer to a person’s traits, a fictional role, something’s characteristics, or a symbol used in writing or printing.

  Chinese script deserves a term that reflects its uniqueness.

  I propose a linguistic reclamation: Let us adopt “hanzi” as the standard English term, casting aside the imprecise placeholder we have tolerated for too long.

  Japanese writing has its native terms — kanji (derived from hanzi, 漢字), hiragana and katakana. The Korean Hangul, although unique, was designed with hanja (hanzi) as its reference. Even cuneiform and hieroglyphics are named with reverence for their origins. Why, then, must the script that inspired them all remain obscured behind the generic veil of “Chinese character”? It is as if we insisted on calling kanji “Japanese symbols” or hieroglyphics “Egyptian letters” — a disservice to their cultural and historical significance.

  This is also a question of identity. The term hanzi is direct, authentic and resonant — just as kanji and Hangul are for their respective scripts. An alternative, sinograph (from the Greco-Latin Sino for “Chinese” and graph for “writing”), exists in academic circles, but its clinical tone renders it ill-suited for everyday use. Hanzi, by contrast, carries the warmth of tradition and the clarity of linguistic pride.

  I urge academics, translators and cultural advocates to join this call. Let “hanzi” stand as the primary term, with “sinograph” serving where academic precision is needed, and “Chinese character” fading into supplementary explanation.

  Words shape perception. Let ours, at last, do justice to one of humanity’s greatest intellectual achievements.

  Hugo Tseng has a doctorate in linguistics, and is a lexicographer and former chair of the Soochow University English Department.
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