From: cw@orion.uucp (C.W. Chung)
Subject: Re: Traditional vs Simplified Characters
Organization: Objectivity Inc.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 03:30:14 GMT

Here is some background (from my poor memory :-) on this topic:

The movement to simplify the Chinese characters dated back to
the language reform movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Scholars
from the right and the left were involved in the reform movement. 
We all know about the movement to use BeiHuaWen (pardon my PinYin)
in stead of GuWen (ancient writing).  The other pillars of the movement
are: simplify the Chinese character, popularize(standardize) PuTungHua, 
and romanize Chinese.

The objective of the movement was to make the Chinese language more
accessible to the average folks: easier to learn, easier to remember,
easier to write, and an effective means of communications.  

Recall that the illiteracy rate was 80 or 90+% then, so the goal
is to reduce the illiteracy rate, especially in the rural areas .
The BeiHuaWen movement attempt to track the written language close
to the spoken language.  However, these scholars found that it took
something like 8 to 10 years for an average person to master the basic 
working set of Chinese characters.  Part of the problem is the difficulty
in remembering the strokes of many frequently-used but complicated 
characters.  Spending 8 to 10 years in schools is not a problem for kids,
but it would be out of question for the great majority of the illiterate
adults.  Simplified characters were a way to reduce the length of time
to learn and write the characters.  

So the movement predate the founding of PRC.  A committee was set up
by CG to tackle the Language reform to reduce the illiteracy.
For simplified characters, the guiding principle of the
selections was to adopt those characters which were already quite popular 
in use, and not to invent new one.  Some complex characters were reverted
to their simpler, more ancient form.  Some adopt a simpler radical with
the same pronounciation.  About 50 radicals and a few hundreds
of characters were identified to be candidates to be simplified.  
The first two set of simplified characters were released in the 50s.
The simplified characters were adopted to be used by the schools, by
the newspaper and in the official document. The complex chars are to
be 'retired' but not 'destroyed' (i.e. not actively used, but the use
is not forbidden, especially in calligraphy.  Even Mao wrote the poems
in complex characters all the time). 

They also have factored in other considerations:
- simplify the written char but not the printed one: rejected on
  the ground that one will end up having to learn both sets, thus
  defeating the purpose.
- the complex char would be 'lost' and people would not be able to
  read the 'ancient writing'. It is a valid concern, and the idea
  was to publish the 'ancient writing' in simplified char, as well
  as carefully preserving the complex char and be studied by advanced
  students in the same way as GuWen.

The first two releases of simplified characters were quite well
received in the mainland.  The third set was release in the late 60s(?)
and was a big flop - the simplification was way too much and 
too arbitrary, and was more an invention than an adoption of what is
popular in use.  Eventually, (I believe) the third set was withdrawn.

Outside of mainland, Singapore has adopted the simplified char.
I believe in Taiwan, simplified chars were not allowed to be
used until late 70s(?).  Hong Kong basically still stick to
the complex char. IMO, it is easier to pick up simplified char
if one knows complex chars. I basically picked it up after reading
a couple of novels.  The scanning rate is still much slower for me 
though since I don't read the simplified char often enough.

The simplified char is taken as not as beautiful as the complex one, 
but that was not the original intent of simplifying the chars. 
It is a practical solution to solve a practical problem.  Beauty
may be important to the netter who have the opportunity to attend
college, but is a tertiary issue for the mass.  As I mention
earlier, complex char would continued to be used in calligraph,
just like Japanese use the -gana in everyday use but stick to
kanji when it comes to calligraph where beauty is of paramount 
concern.  (Well, actually, many of the simplified chars come
from the calligraph style called grass-book (ChaoShu?) and 
running-book(HengShu?) )

So much for today.
 -cw-
_____________________________________________________________________________
C.W.Chung       Objectivity Inc.      Object DBMS (ODBMS)   Tel: 415/688-8023
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