Thu, Jan 22, 2026 page8

• EDITORIAL: Promote traditional writing

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  The government cooperates with local education bureaus to help new immigrants adapt to using traditional Chinese characters, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said on Monday.

  Cheng was responding to media reports about a complaint posted online by a Chinese woman married to a Taiwanese man. The woman described writing traditional Chinese characters as “bothersome,” and expressed the hope that Taiwan would be “reunified” with China and would use simplified Chinese.

  The National Immigration Agency later said her residency permit was revoked after she repeatedly posted pro-China content that threatened national security, and she was required to leave Taiwan.

  Setting aside the impropriety of immigrating to Taiwan only to publicly call for its annexation — and for the replacement of its writing system — the incident points to a broader issue: Taiwan’s need to be a strong and proactive advocate of the preservation of traditional Chinese writing worldwide.

  As China’s economic and political influence has grown, interest in learning Mandarin has surged over the past few decades. However, most Mandarin courses rely on teaching materials produced in China and teach simplified Chinese.

  China’s state-led push to institutionalize simplified characters began modestly in the 1930s under the Republic of China government as part of literacy reforms. However, it was under Mao Zedong (毛澤東) that simplification became compulsory nationwide. Mao viewed complex characters as an obstacle to mass literacy.

  After the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, simplified Chinese became closely associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In contrast, the KMT framed itself as the guardian of “orthodox Chinese culture” (正統中華文化) and retained the traditional Chinese writing system.

  Hong Kong did the same for a period, but it was less a nationalist project than the result of institutional entrenchment in education and the deliberate non-adoption of PRC standards. Since the 1997 handover, the use of simplified Chinese has increased.

  Elsewhere, countries such as Singapore and Malaysia also adopted simplified characters and even embraced China’s Hanyu pinyin (漢語拼音) system for romanization.

  Against this backdrop, Taiwan’s role in preserving traditional Chinese writing has become increasingly important — and the reasons for doing so are substantial.

  Knowledge of traditional characters is fundamental to research in East Asian studies, including literature, linguistics, history and anthropology. The earliest written records of the region — including those of what are now Japan, the Koreas and Vietnam — were produced using Chinese characters.

  Even the study of modern Chinese often requires tracing the etymology of characters or the origins of idioms, which necessitates consulting classical sources such as the Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典), the Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) and the Yupian (玉篇).

  Simplified characters frequently strip away structural elements that convey meaning or pronunciation. The traditional character for “love” (愛), for example, contains the character for “heart” (心), a key semantic component that is omitted in the simplified form (?). Likewise, the traditional character for “100 million” (億) incorporates the character 意, which shares its pronunciation. The simplified form replaces this with a single stroke, removing an important phonetic cue.

  Proponents of simplification argue that it improves literacy, but in doing so it also diminishes much of the language’s substance. It is akin to subsisting on military rations: Hunger might be alleviated, but at the cost of depth and nourishment.

  For learners of Mandarin as a second language, traditional characters could even facilitate literacy, as many retain clearer semantic and phonetic clues. Learners trained in traditional characters also tend to adapt more easily to simplified forms when necessary, while the reverse is far more difficult.

  This distinction matters for cultural continuity. Members of the Chinese diaspora can relate to the history and meaning embedded in traditional characters, while finding simplified forms alienating.

  Finally, Chinese calligraphy remains widely practiced in global art and media. In visual genres such as cyberpunk or tech-noir, Chinese writing is frequently used for aesthetic effect — and there is little dispute that traditional characters offer greater visual richness and expressive power.

  Traditional Chinese writing carries profound historical, cultural and aesthetic value. As its global use continues to shrink, Taiwan has become its last major stronghold. The government should promote the teaching and use of traditional Chinese characters in Mandarin education worldwide, ensuring that this heritage is not relegated to history books.
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