White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1920-04-18

Great Drawback 20 the Develop
mont o. National Spirit 10 Overcome
-oid System Had 1000 Character.
OF the barriers to national self-con-
s~ciousness In China, not the least for
uadabae u the barrier Of the Chinese
written language. We can readily IN
derstand from phenomena daily OBJ
served IN our midst how great . handi-
cap to the development q q national
spirit In China are the poor communi-
cations, the Decentralization Of the
functions Of lts government and the
deep-rootedness Of Its localisms. But
In China, in addition to the poor COM
munication between its component
provinces and a relatively weak cen
tral government, there has -existed
from time immemorial. to work
against the spirit Of nationalism, the
handicap Of q written language that is
symbolical instead Of alphabetical.
The extent to which the symbolism
of Its written language has hindered
the a~rousing Of a Chinese national
spirit Is revealed by a Chinese writer
In q recent Issue of the Far Eastern
Republic. rays the Boston Transcript.
Western civilization early developed q
written language cot the type known
as alphabetical: China, in common
with India and other Asiatic nations.
developed her language along symbol
zeal lines. Symbolical written Ian
guage permits the creation of a great
literature.
OF The Chinese Mastsrpisess.
IN perfection Of style. In power Of
dsaleato ~exprsssten. IN artistic charm
the symbelical language used IN ~
Chinese masterpieces yields In no ~
spect to the alphabetical languaou
uoe0 n the lttssatuse Of the weeteN
peoples. from the days Of the classic
models Of Greece and Rome. The es-
sence Of the Chinese written language
II the radical" or root symbol. For
example, geological objects POSSESS q
geological character rs their key sym
boil: botanical objects a botanical
character. etc. By this arrangement
shades of meaning INFINITE in number
become possible, together with the
creation Of a literature extraordinarily
plastic. The Chinese system, however,
has produced an extraordinarily large
vocabulary. For ordinary purposes a
knowledge Is necessary Of some 5000
characters. To learn these requires at
least eight years Of study.
The symbolic character Of Its writ
ten language has brought with It a
vast quantity of provincial dialects.
The language OF a man In Picking may
be utterly unintelligible to his com
patriot in Canton. Even the most
widely used dialect is understood In
but Is provinces.
New System for China.
The peculiar nature of the written
language makes impossible the use OF
a telephone directory. as no alphabet
ical arrangement of words Is possible.
II puts herculean difficulties In the
way Of the use of the printing press.
1t makes the sending of kilograms a
labor of hours, as each character Il,
numbered from one to 1900: q tea
gram must be deciphered like a Jde.
A typewriter is ~hopelessly out Of the
question.
OF the handicaps of the write, Ian.
guage of China. the leaders Of the New
China have for some time been X ,nlv
aware. And the handicap is In All
way OF being overcome. A new k,s.
TEN of writing the Chinese langu, To
has been developed and its use Is b
ing strongly advocated by the Pekir1
government. The new system Is Chi
nese. but the way In which the Chi.
nese characters are used Is tremen-
dously simplled. The new system has
80 letters In all-24 initials, three
medals and II finals. The new sys-
TEN. taught In the government schools,
Is meeting with notable success. II
was taught to the Chinese labor bat.
talions IN France with equally happy
results.