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Alex Lo

If you didn’t know better, you might think one of the city’s most elite international schools is trying to commit cultural genocide.
Harrow International School has announced it will switch to teaching simplified Chinese characters in phases, from next year. This has been the trend among most international schools in the past decade.
In any case, as Harrow is a private school, its own educational decisions are entirely a matter for the school and the families of students there.
Harrow sticks to guns on switch to simplified Chinese characters only
But the yellow ribbon localist circles have exploded in anger after news sites on.cc and HK01, and the Oriental Daily News reported the planned switch. Reading their comments, they seem to think they should have a stake and a say in it.


A thread from the online forum lihkg.com is especially vitriolic. A fair number of posts are unprintable in a family newspaper. Many contain references to some parents of the school as “chee-na dogs”, a derogatory phrase for those from the mainland.
Some more reasoned comments allege the school is helping to suppress local Cantonese culture (because it uses traditional characters), or is caving to pressure from the mainland or mainland language instructors at the school.
Cantonese to stay on the tip of our tongues
Many responses in HK01 and Stand News are not any better:
“Mainlandisation, [expletives]!”
“[Expletive] Harrow. Cancel its school licence.”
“[Expletive] Simplified rubbish characters are for illiterate mainlanders. How can they pretend rubbish characters are Hong Kong people’s mother tongue? Resist, boycott [Harrow].”
“Philistines kowtowing to mainland money.”
Since the 1997 handover, all schools, including international schools and the publicly subsidised English Schools Foundation (though subsidies are being phased out), have had to address the need to teach simplified characters.
Some international schools teach both types of written characters throughout the grades; others teach traditional characters in lower grades and introduce simplified characters during senior years.
Harrow urged to requires pupil to take bus to campus to ease traffic congestion
When my two children were at an international school, a switch was made to teaching in simplified characters. Some local parents were unhappy with the decision, as is reportedly the case at Harrow now.
But there was never a policy banning traditional characters at my kids’ old school. Local Cantonese-speaking pupils brought up using traditional characters could submit their assignments written in them.
However, mainland and expatriate students generally found it much easier to learn and write in simplified characters.
Localist anti-mainland fanaticism notwithstanding, it would be negligent for schools, international or otherwise, to ignore simplified Chinese writing.


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My Take

Harrow right to take simplified approach

Harrow International School has announced it will switch to teaching simplified Chinese characters. Its own educational decisions are entirely a matter for the school and the families of students there. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Any attack on the Cantonese language will only strengthen Hong Kong identity – just look at Taiwan’s experience

Cantonese will never die as long as the people are united in their defence of the local language and culture. Illustration: Craig Stephens

This picture taken on October 20, 2017 shows a boy stamping a Chinese character during an exhibition in Taipei. Concerns in Taiwan are growing over the survival of the traditional Chinese characters used only in Taiwan and Hong Kong as the system of simplified characters created by China in the 1950s has been adopted by all other ethnic Chinese societies and become the predominant way of writing Chinese. / AFP PHOTO / SAM YEH / TO GO WITH STORY: Taiwan culture language tech China, FEATURE by Amber WANG

TAI01D:FEATURE:TAIPEI,29SEP99 - FOR RELEASE WITH STORY BC-CHINA-ANNIVERSARY-TAIWAN - Framed by images of China's 20th century arch rivals -- Communist Chairman Mao Zedong (L) and Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek -- bartender/co-owner Lin Yu-chieh shakes a cocktail in Taipei's Chairman Mao Cafe Bar Bistro. The democracy that has sprouted in Taiwan over the past decade has widened the political chasm between the Nationalist-ruled island and the Communist mainland, but also has ushered in a freewheeling, freethinking era in which old truths about Taiwanese and Chinese identities -- and the rival China's themselves -- are being shaken. The 50th anniversary of communist China's October 1, 1949, founding puts such differences in sharp focus, as such a cafe would have been unthinkable in Taiwan during the martial law era that ended only 12 years ago. Picture taken September 28,1999. jkp/Photo by Simon Kwong REUTERS

Calligraphy and paintings displayed in an exhibition to celebrate the 90th anniversary of PLA's founding (People's Liberation Army) at HK Central Library in Causeway Bay. 30AUG17 SCMP / Nora Tam

A black and white picture of Taiwan in the 1950s photographed by Yang Chih-hsin.

Mandarin may be king, but it can’t sideline Cantonese in Hong Kong

While Mandarin is the national language, Hongkongers regard Cantonese as closely tied to their identity. Photo: Pool

***PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE RE-USE*** --LOW RES. IMAGE --- This handout image shows Zoe Lam, a linguistics researcher from the University of British Columbia who teaches Cantonese to adult learners in Vancouver's Chinatown. Photo: HANDOUT [2017 FEATURES ]

General shot of the interior of "DelayNoMall" shopping mall, which recently closed down. Yee Woo Street, Causeway Bay. 21AUG09

Cantonese to stay on the tip of our tongues

Teaching more Mandarin doesn’t mean replacing Cantonese, but clearly, it is being resisted. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Opinion

Comment

Decision by top international school to switch from teaching traditional Chinese characters has made it an online target for localist circles, but it was correct to do so


International schools in Hong Kong

Education in Hong Kong

Education

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

My Take | Harrow right to take simplified approach

Decision by top international school to switch from teaching traditional Chinese characters has made it an online target for localist circles, but it was correct to do so