From: pwu@ai.mit.edu (Peng Wu)
Newsgroups: alt.chinese.text,soc.culture.taiwan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong
Subject: Re: Chinese character simplification, is it now necessary?
Followup-To: alt.chinese.text
Date: 20 Nov 92 02:49:09
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: blackjack.ai.mit.edu
In-reply-to: kuansan@umiacs.umd.edu's message of 18 Nov 92 21:30:26 GMT

    From: kuansan@umiacs.umd.edu (Kuansan Wang)
    
    The major reasons for character simplification are
    1) it takes more effort to write traditional characters, i.e., writing
	    traditional characters is not time-efficient.
    2) traditional characters are too complex to learn.  Chinese may spend
	    more time than their western counterparts in learning their
	    written language, which may be a hindrance to advancement in
	    science and technology.
        ...
    It seems to me that, when computer technology becomes more popular, the
    above mentioned reason number 1 does not hold anymore.  And people from
    Taiwan or HongKong who use traditional characters do not seem to have
    any disadvantage in sci and tech achievement, meaning reason number 2
    may be just a myth.
    
    So is it still worth sacraficing the compatibility with the existing
    thousands of years document and use the simplified characters today?

For every day writing, most people write in "hand writing" styles, which are
almost the same for both complex and simplified characters.  In fact, many
simplified characters originated from "hand write" style.  So where is the
saving?

There are two major occasions when people write stroke by stroke, namely
learning writing and art work.  I don't think computers have much use in
either of the two occasions thus using simplified characters will save time.
Since everybody who can type can write, the use of computers does not
eliminate the learning of writing.  So (1) will be a factor even in the
computer era, especially when it counts, i.e., when one is 5-10 years old.  It
might be possible for the general population forgo writing, but I am probably
the first one who ever said it is possible and it would be a revolution
compared with introducing simplified characters.

As to the intellectual difference between T/HK and the mainland due to
character set, I do not think I am looking at a scientific comparison here.  A
controlled experiment is in order.  But I think it is indisputable that
learning simplified chars takes less time than learning complex chars.

An important factor not mentioned is budget in terms of time and money.  With
simplified characters, people can shorten their learning program to reach the
same learning level, which translates into big savings for a huge population.
With a fixed budget, people can reach higher learning level with simplified
characters.  For each individual, I think the difference between simplified
and complex characters is not very large but tangible.

On the other hand, according to some study I have heard, the children using
sound-based writing systems start learning composing much early than the
children using pictorial writing systems.  The difference was measured in
years.  Even if people will reach the same learning level eventually, the
difference is enormous, both economically and intellectually.  I don't think
the benefit from using pictorial chars is worth the few more years need to
learn them.

There are advocates for Chinese to use a sound based writing system.  I am for
such an idea.  But I bet there will be a war before a sound based writing
system is adopted, given the noise on simplified characters.

In a capsule, "Chinese character simplification, is it now necessary"?  Yes,
it is, more so than ever.  Half a step is not as good as a whole step, but is
better than standing still.  Every one is moving fast in the space age, every
minute saved is a minute earned.  Time is life, or time is money if you
prefer.

 PS:  People seem to forget growing pains easily.
PPS: "Existing thousands of years of documents" are not really compatible
      among themselves, not in the way the chars are drawn, nor in the meaning
      of the chars. 
Newsgroups: alt.chinese.text