Free Essay: Mainland China Should Resume the Use of Traditional Characters

China as a country is well known for its diversification of culture and the serenity of the nature of the country. China has good relations internationally with different countries all over the world. The culture of the Chinese people is always taken seriously. The Chinese are hold annual celebrations depending on what their culture dictates. Mainland China has evolved into a large city attracting thousands of people including tourists. Mainland China has become a tourist destination. The use of traditional Characters in Mainland China has slowly faded with time. Debates over whether traditional characters should be used once again have engulfed the public arena given the fact that simple characters are widely used. Thus, my thesis statement is: Retaining the use of traditional characters preserves the culture of the people in Mainland china.

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As a nation, the heritage and cultural beliefs of the people should be preserved. Therefore, it is essential that traditional characters be embraced. The traditional characters portray significance to the Chinese people. These characters were widely used in the past. The curriculum has been revised over the years and this has led to the abandonment of the traditional characters. With the revision of the syllabus in place, it means that most of the historical usage of the traditional characters will die out slowly. It is unmistakably wrong to abolish the culture of a people. Besides, many individuals all over the world love the culture of the Chinese people and their heritage (Beijing Review). The traditional characters provide diversity to the people of China as well as cognitive interactions.

Second, the use of traditional characters offers symbolic meaning to the Chinese people. There are certain symbolic figures that strongly indicate strong meanings to the Chinese people. Unlike the current use of the simplified characters, the old characters portray different meanings to the societies as a whole. Political intervention on the abolition of the simplified characters has been tabled in parliament over the years. There is an argument from both sides of the government whereby some government officers strongly support the motion about eliminating simple characters whereas there are those individuals that are against (Beijing Review).

A survey that was conducted by the media shows that around 60% of the Chinese people support the abolition of the simplified characters (Beijing Review). This debate has brought with it different views on the usage of these characters in particular. Having been introduced in 1956, the simplified characters made writing quite simple. This was as a result of reducing the number of strokes that were initially used. The creation of the simple characters happened in the 1950s and they were created roughly. This hurriedness in the creation of these characters created some gap between the old characters and the new simplified characters.

A proposal that was made by Pan Qunglin who is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference indicated that the advisory board wanted to eliminate the use of the current characters (simple) and bring back the old Chinese characters (Beijing Review). The supporting arguments was that the advent of technology has can simplify the old characters through the use of computers. This reason was given due to the fact that some individuals were complaining that the traditional Chinese characters were hard. The other supporting argument was that during the formation of the simplified characters, the process that was involved was quite shoddy. The new simplified characters were created in a hurried manner and roughly written. This mode of their creation eliminated the true meaning of the traditional characters. I also support this argument given the fact that whenever something is roughly created it only becomes a prototype that is not fully functional.

The traditional characters were created by the forefathers of the Chinese people (Kenneth 12). Eliminating them means disrespect to them. In a bid to restore our honor and respect to them we should embrace the usage of the traditional characters. Continued debate over the internet can be felt in the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. People have aired their different opinions in regard to the usage of the traditional characters and the simplified characters.

It is also important to note that the communication that was there between the Chinese and other neighboring citizens like the people in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan has subsided over the years due to the laxity in the usage of the traditional characters. In the past the communication between these neighbors was effective due to the commonality in the usage of the traditional Chinese characters (Beijing Review). It now becomes a bit of a challenge to create a strong relationship that was there in the past. The bond that existed between these neighbors was initially strengthened by the traditional characters and their absence means that the bond shall disengage. However, there is still a lot of misunderstanding among officials on whether to resume the use of traditional characters. Claims indicate that the Ministry of Education was against the abolition of simplified character, their reason being that simplified characters were used in many spheres of life especially the social aspect of life.

If the traditional characters will not be reinstated then the Chinese people will be at great loss. This is because the traditional characters also have an effect on the personality of the individual. The traditional characters bore significance to the character of the individual. The youth who use the simplified characters portray different behavior from those people who have aged. The reason is that, the traditional characters taught individuals certain values (Wu, Sue-mei 33). The present simplified characters do not teach individuals any values but rather were only created to help the individual in learning how to read and write.

Traditional characters had a positive impact in the economic development of the nation. The communication ties that existed between the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong enabled them to carry out trades which increased the GDP of their countries. Political ties also increased since the traditional characters enabled the people to speak one language. It is common that whenever individuals understand each other through the language they understand, it becomes much easier to carry out economic activities together (Beijing Review). The economy of China is stable as a result of support from neighboring countries. The moment this support diminishes, and then there will also be a decline in the economies of scale of China. Thus, it is essential to resume the using of traditional characters in order to reinstate the economic ties. The Chinese inauguration also depends greatly on the use of the traditional characters that brain storm the cultural diversity of the Chinese people. Better societies will develop the moment these traditional characters are embraced (Wu, Sue-mei 21).

In some cases some individuals argue that the simplified characters are not artistically appealing which in my opinion is very true. However complex they may appear, the traditional characters were well created and their artistic nature was very appealing to the human eye. Many individuals agree with these phenomena. The artistic impression of the simplified characters does not have any beautification added to the characters, whereas the traditional characters are very beautiful.

The Chinese language has diversified itself and many international schools have begun teaching Chinese at their schools. What does this mean? It means that the Chinese language portrays a particular significance to the international scene. Their Heritage and culture is practiced all over the world. In effect this has created good international relations to many countries. If the use of simple characters is used to teach Chinese language in international schools it means that the new characters will not embrace the culture of the Chinese civilizations. China became civilized many years ago and what they were using was the traditional characters. In the event that the Chinese people have refrained from using the traditional characters then the reality is that the Chinese civilizations will be eroded with time (Mathews 19).

It will only take a few years to eliminate the History of the Chinese people. Life will not be based on what the forefathers had in place for the Chinese but what the new system has defined for it. It is quite evident that most civilizations of different nations in the world have been lost due to the disappearance of the initial characters (Beijing Review). The initial characters define the History of nations and the moment that these characters are gone it becomes more of a challenge trying to pass the civilization history from one generation to another.

The simplified characters developed from ideographic symbols into complex forms that distort the originality of the traditional characters. This originality subsided away due to unnecessary change of the traditional characters (Mahtt 15). Once the traditional characters are distorted then what becomes of the previous meaning changes. Teaching children the new meaning of the new simplified characters poses more of a challenge. The only way to relinquish good meaning is through resuming the use of the traditional characters in particular.

In conclusion, I would recommend that the use of traditional characters be returned. The culture, civilization and growth of the people is very important. We all need to know our past since it is with the past that we can know how to deal with the future. Every civilization of a country should be recorded down in History books. The only way to record the details is through the substantial use of different characters (Mahtt 23). For instance, the Chinese civilization began a long time in History and if the traditional characters that made China a civilized country are not used then the cultural diversification will die down. It is of importance to embrace the traditional characters over the simplified characters (Mathews 15). This is because the simplified characters were only a prototype of the original traditional characters. Despite the fact that Education officers insist on the use of simplified characters, it is also important to understand that these simplified characters come with disadvantages. One such disadvantage is the rejection of Chinese culture. If there will be continued use of the simplified characters then it will be a matter of time before the Chinese History gets washed away for good.

Work Cited

Wu, Sue-mei. Character Book for Chinese Link: Zhong Wen Tian Di : Beginning Chinese. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

MatthHoenig, Alan. Traditional Chinese Characters: Learn & Remember 2,193 Character Meanings. Long Island, N.Y: EZChinesey.com, 2013. Print.ews, Alison, and Laurence

Matthews. Learning Chinese Characters. Boston, Mass: Tuttle, 2007. Print.

Kenneth S. The Chinese, Their History and Culture. New York: Macmillan, 1964. Print.

Beijing Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.