Debate over Chinese characters is sensitive issue for Hongkongers
An Education Bureau goal for primary school pupils to be able to read simplified characters is courting controversy
Joseph Stalin reputedly said any standard language is no more than a dialect with an army and a navy.
If that’s the case, perhaps we can say simplified Chinese scripts, enforced across the mainland, are backed up by the full might of the People’s Liberation Army. However, traditional Chinese characters, used mainly in Taiwan, are being defended by the renegade island’s military forces.
Hong Kong is, embarrassingly, caught in the middle. We have no army or navy, but by the good grace of Beijing, are allowed to continue teaching and writing in traditional characters. We do, however, have to concede that Cantonese, our dominant native tongue, is a “dialect”, despite its full grammatical sophistications. This precarious situation raises questions about how long it can last. And so we have become super-sensitive any time officials even hint at introducing simplified characters into local school curriculums.
Still reeling from the furore over the city-wide TSA tests, the Education Bureau is courting fresh controversy by citing as an educational goal that primary school students should be able to read simplified Chinese characters so that they will have a wider reading range.
The issue is raised in a document for public consultation on the renewal of the Chinese language education curriculum for primary schools. Released in December, the consultation will end on February 15. Some parent groups are already up in arms. But the bureau is quick to stress that the issue of simplified-character teaching is not part of the consultation.
In any case, promoting character simplification has been the goal since at least 2002, for pupils to “recognise and read simplified Chinese characters” as a basic part of curriculum planning.
Some leftist schools and almost all major international schools have adopted simplified-character teaching. But most mainstream local schools still use traditional characters.
I will not repeat the pros and cons of teaching one or the other style of writing; the debate has been well-rehearsed but inconclusive. But, like any language, Cantonese and traditional writing are very personal. Given the current political climate, Hongkongers will not hesitate to defend them.
That’s why the issue has become a bit like Article 23 security legislation. It’s always on the government’s to-do list, but it dares not openly advocate it.
