3 ms·

>>>So, in an effort to boost literacy, the People's Republic of China attempted to make learning characters easier through a series of simplification rounds tha

>>>So, in an effort to boost literacy, the People's Republic of China attempted to make learning characters easier through a series of simplification rounds that took place between the 1950s and 1970s<<< The fact is that people in Hong Kong and Taiwan have a much higher literacy rate than those in mainland China, yet they use Traditional Chinese. Mainlanders' low literacy rate is mainly a sign of lacking education, not Traditional Chinese being a barrier to literacy. Moreover, in a digital world, they make no difference in input speed. What Hong-Kongers and Taiwanese are opposing to is not the communist simplifying Chinese Characters, but simplifying them in an ugly fashion. In most cases, it breaks the consistency in word formation as seen in Traditional Chinese. In other cases, it's not aesthetic and even absurd. There is a joke saying that the word factory(廠)in simplified Chinese (厂) explains why factories in mainland China are subject to collapse. Speaking of economics, simplified Chinese indeed appeals to larger potential customers. However, PRC put lots of restrictions on foreign corporations. That's why even Google and Facebook failed to (and will continue to) dominate in China. On the other side, Hong Kong and Taiwan have the goodies of free markets.

est 16y ago
> Moreover, in a digital world, they make no difference in input speed. On the other hand, traditional Chinese on a <4 inch screen always PITA to read because every fucking single character looks like a black block, for example 龍, it's very hard to see the exact strokes which cause an obstacle for reading. (yeah, like 赢羸蠃嬴 are totally 4 different characters.) Traditional Chinese under 12px is simply un-readable on LCD screens. The retina display on iPhone4 is good news for traditional Chinese.
- Open-Juicer 16y ago
  Chinese words being displayed incorrectly is based on a false assumption. On Twitter, 140 Characters mean a lot in Chinese! why? In Chinese, almost every character is a word; In English, every character is just an alphabet, not a word, with minor exceptions of course. Chinese words are square blocks whereas English ones rectangle blocks. They shouldn't be of the same height. I would argue that Chinese words convey more meaning per cm square. The same square space occupied by 5 rectangle capital alphabets is more than enough to display any Chinese character correctly. BTW, you don't need to recognize every stroke to be able to identify a Chinese word. You can tell by its pictorial pattern, such as negative spaces.
  - jhugg 16y ago
    I've always been super jealous at how much Chinese speakers can say in Chinese on Twitter.

est 16y ago

> Moreover, in a digital world, they make no difference in input speed. On the other hand, traditional Chinese on a <4 inch screen always PITA to read because every fucking single character looks like a black block, for example 龍, it's very hard to see the exact strokes which cause an obstacle for reading. (yeah, like 赢羸蠃嬴 are totally 4 different characters.) Traditional Chinese under 12px is simply un-readable on LCD screens. The retina display on iPhone4 is good news for traditional Chinese.

Open-Juicer 16y ago
Chinese words being displayed incorrectly is based on a false assumption. On Twitter, 140 Characters mean a lot in Chinese! why? In Chinese, almost every character is a word; In English, every character is just an alphabet, not a word, with minor exceptions of course. Chinese words are square blocks whereas English ones rectangle blocks. They shouldn't be of the same height. I would argue that Chinese words convey more meaning per cm square. The same square space occupied by 5 rectangle capital alphabets is more than enough to display any Chinese character correctly. BTW, you don't need to recognize every stroke to be able to identify a Chinese word. You can tell by its pictorial pattern, such as negative spaces.
- jhugg 16y ago
  I've always been super jealous at how much Chinese speakers can say in Chinese on Twitter.