Chinese---One language, two systems

[ChineseTime Shuai]

Chinese---One language, two systems

The New York Times recently published a couple of interesting articles
about the future development of the Chinese language. In particular,
the Times raised the question of how Taiwan's adoption of fantizi
(traditional characters) and mainland China's use of jiantizi
(simplified characters) might affect the future course of China's
written language.

This is a good question raised at the right time, when cross-strait
detente is gaining momentum. There has been a rapid thaw in relations:
Taiwan's admission ticket to the World Health Assembly and the arrival
of mainland tourists and capital are solid examples. But nothing
significant has happened in the cultural area. The language issue
raised by the Times should be a good starting point for discussion.

It may sound strange, but mainland China and Taiwan are divided by a
common language. The mainland's simplified Chinese characters was
developed by Mao Zedong in the 50s, while Taiwan keeps using the
traditional Chinese characters - the unique ideographs which are part
of China's millennia-old culture.

For quite a long time since 1949, the two systems have co-existed in a
way like “the well water doesn't bother the river water,” as the
Chinese saying goes. At the height of the cold war, mainland
publications using simplified characters were banned in Taiwan, and
vice versa. It looked as if “one language, two systems” worked.

But for how long? The advent of cyber age and increased cross-strait
contacts in the late 80s have rocked the equilibrium. The Internet
knocked down many old barriers, including censorship. But the
information flowing online can be baffling due to the “language
barrier” caused by the two systems of characters. Most Z-generation
Chinese know only one system. Those in Taiwan, for example, cannot
read jiantizi; and their mainland counterparts don't know fantizi.
Given the situation, can the integration of the two systems be far
behind?

In fact, the written Chinese language has never ceased evolving.
Qinshihuang, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC),
standardized the written Chinese language after he unified a huge and
divided country. He adopted the “seal script,” or zhuanzi,篆字 , a
progeny of the oracle bone script (jiaguwen,甲骨文), as the standard
language while abolishing various other scripts in use at that time.
In the ensuing dynasties, the written language has been simplified
over time to its current form. After 1949, Ma Zedong, an admirer of
Qinshihuang, took a giant step to simplify the Chinese characters for
the purpose of reducing illiteracy. Difficult, multi-stroke Chinese
characters were simplified to make learning easy.

In Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek refused any attempt to tinkle with the
characters. When the mainland was up in flames during the tumultuous
years under Mao, the late generalissimo proudly and rightly proclaimed
Taiwan as the last bastion of Chinese culture.

Taiwan doesn't like its traditional characters to be called fantizi, a
derogative term invented by mainland China to mean “complicated-type
character.” Taiwan prefers the term zhengtizi, meaning “regular,
original, orthodox” characters.

Is it possible to unify the two systems? It is possible if politics
and ideologies are excluded from consideration. They are, after all,
from one language. Jiantizi retains the basic structure of Chinese
characters and they are still fangkuaizi, or square words. And they
total only 2,236, out of a total of 55,000 Chinese characters.

Besides, only a very few jiantizi are novel and new to those not
inured to them, like the odd long (dragon,厂) and chang (factory,龙). It
takes only a few days to get acquainted with them. On the other hand,
a lot of fantizi bear striking resemblance to jiantizi, looking like
identical twins. Doesn't jiantizi's zhongguo (中國) look almost the same
as its fantizi version?

History tells us that the Chinese language has evolved along a path of
simplification. Jiantizi, for all its flaws, has one advantage: It is
simple. The aforementioned long (dragon) has five strokes in jiantizi,
compared to 18 in fantizi. Chang (factory) is only two strokes in
jiantizi, compared to fantizi's 14. This advantage has made jiantizi
more popular among foreign students of Chinese language, not to
mention the fact that it is recognized by the United Nations as the
official script of Chinese-language documents.

For Taiwan (and Hong Kong as well), it is time to rethink its
resistance to jiantizi. This is not to say that Taiwan should give up
fantizi right away. Rather, it should come to the realization that
jiantizi has been practiced long before 1949, and is still used here
today. In Taiwan today, who is still writing the word Taiwan in
Chinese in its genuine traditional, orthodox form? The traditional Tai
has 14 strokes. Most of us prefer to write it in simplified form,
which has five strokes. As simplification is the trend of the future,
Taiwan should face the issue of jiantizi squarely. In the early days
of the Republic, the nationalist government in Nanjing had paid
serious attention to the issue and simplified some of the complicated
characters. A committee should be set up under the Ministry of
Education to recruit scholars and linguists to study the issue and to
explore the possibility of an integration of the two systems.

Equally important is for mainland China to overhaul its deeply-flawed
jiantizi system. It is flawed structurally. It lacks a reasonable
criterion for simplification. Many very complicated characters are not
simplified, while some simple ones are oversimplified. Mainland China
needs to reform it thoroughly. Only after this is completed can there
be any possibility for the integration of the two systems.