If Only It Were That Simple…
People will tell you many things about the way HK has changed since the handover. I’m not really an expert on the subject because I wasn’t living here (but came a few times pre-97 for extended holidays visiting friends) but HK definitely has a more Chinese – as in Mainland – feel to it. The reasons are many but one of the issues that crops up every so often is the use of Simplified Chinese in local shops signs/menus/adverts etc.
Now, not being literate in Chinese means much of this goes over my head – most of the time. However, I was walking through Shatin (oops, sorry I mean Xia Tian) the other day and spotted something I thought would raise the ire of many a HKer, but perhaps this one has slipped under the radar?
Of course perhaps my Chinese isn’t as good as I though it was, so please feel free to bombard me with comments telling me how much of a dunce I am.
Here are the (Traditional) Chinese characters for Sha Tin Park: 沙田公園
and here is a street sign that says the same.
But when you look at the nicely-shaped shrubbery, styled into the same Chinese name for the park, you may notice something different. Here they are (reading r-l this time).
Can you spot it yet? Here’s a closer look at just the words for (public) park.
That’s right. The character for park (on the left) is the simplified version. Whereas the street sign uses the traditional form of 園, the bushes have been shaped into 园. It’s the same word of course but is a standard Chinese written form (i.e. simplified).
Okay, I realise that there are probably some technical and practical difficulties involved in shaping a legible 園 instead of a 园, but given the amount of anti-Mainland feeling there is at the moment, I’m surprised no one has gone down there, doused the offending character with petrol and set fire to it.
I suspect this was done for practical reasons but the fact that Shatin is currently one of the biggest destinations for cross-border shoppers at the moment makes it all the more curious.
December 9, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Hi Phil
Like a lot of HKers, I still prefer reading traditional to simplified script. But we need to move on to a simplified script and adopt pinyin transliteration. Those old characters are horrendously complicated. Look at this example: 節日的憂鬱(T), 节日的忧郁(S). Imagine the poor gardener has to sculpture the fifth character or a child has to learn to write it. I think Mao’s reform in the Chinese language has to be applauded and HK should adopt it ASAP. Chinese book publishing is like a dog’s breakfast at the moment: Taiwan books – turn pages from L-R, read characters from top to bottom, HK books – some still follow the old format like Taiwan, gradually more are using Mainland China format – pages from R-L, read char. from L-R. Feeling dizzy after all this? Mainland China follows the Western way of turning pages from R-L. I hope I got this correct.
Thank you for this interesting topic.
Jennie.
December 9, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Hi Jennie
It is indeed a very touchy subject. On the one side (and this is me as an illiterate gwailo speaking) I can see the benefits of simplifying the written script. It makes characters much quicker to write, easier to remember etc. But then there is a side of me that feels the value of traditional characters are greatly underestimated. When you see a traditional character it embodies a lot more than just a more complex form – there is history and readable meaning within them and as such I feel they are an important part of the culture and heritage of China as a whole.
It will be a sad day when no one can appreciate them anymore, save for a few academics.
Cheers
Phil
December 10, 2012 at 4:16 am
Tradition can mean different things to different people. For a woman like me who has grown up in a very traditional Chinese family (polygamous father, illiterate peasant mother, misogynistic relatives, traditional medicine etc.) which is also part of an ancient clan (800? year old), tradition is just pain. The most painful part is that women are denied the right to share the land sale proceeds, even for my mother who had worked on these lands. This arcane male centric practice is unfortunately still endorsed by the Basic laws (Customary laws). Chinese history is full of horrific backward traditions. I am not addressing Chinese writing here … but tradition / heritage in relation to my family.
Jennie
December 12, 2012 at 10:52 am
Hi Jennie – yeah, I hear you. One thing I would like to see is the abolition of the Small House Policy. Although only introduced in the 1970s (72/73?) many in the NT community already see it as a traditional land right and even then very few actually build a house – most sell their options to developers for whacking great sums of money. And of course it still completely excludes women!!
Anyway, that aside, I feel that Traditional writing forms are a different kettle of fish and one worth looking after.
Cheers
Phil
December 23, 2012 at 6:10 am
I’d also like to add that the Heung Yee Kuk are basically a bunch of reactionary feudal lords who wield a lot of disproportionate political power. They need to get their guaranteed representation dissolved and have to gain political support the old fashioned way.
December 24, 2012 at 6:22 am
Wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Thank you for sharing your walks, trips, pictures and messages with me, some also bring back good / sad memories. Also congratulations to your kids and other HK primary schools kids for achieving No 1 ranking for PIRLS. I am really proud of them. I hope Taipo Primary was also a participant. Old Taipo Primary had some bright kids. In my grade 6 year, 2 boys obtained a 5-year scholarship to top high schools.
silverfox was spot-on about Heung Yee Kuk. They are the untouchables which were created by the hands-off policy of the British, may well be as a result of the 6-day-war. One last thing: Not only the living has land-rights, even the dead enjoy that privilege too. But the ultimate winner has to be the feng-shui master cum grave builder who charges thousands for a grave. Silly Tangs just have to stick to traditions.
Jennie.
December 24, 2012 at 8:16 am
Same to you Jennie. I had to look up PIRLS because I have never heard of it. My kids are in the local DSS system and have their work cut out reading/writing Chinese, most of their friends seem to spend their lives outside school at private tutors. It’s never ending – but maybe that is a discussion for another day
The Heung Yee Crooks just make me sick. Best not to go there at Xmas hehe
Cheers
Phil
December 6, 2012 at 1:28 am
As you point out, the full-form characters on the sign are written left-right, but the simplified shrubbery is written right-left. Which is more “traditional”?
What makes me curious is why Shatin attracts so many mainland shoppers? Is it because it’s cheaper to stay here than downtown? Or because, being closer to the border, the train ride doesn’t cost as much?
December 6, 2012 at 7:42 am
i think it is proximity to the border, it’s the largest *cough* upscale mall this side of the Kowloon hills. They’re trying to do something similar with the Tai Po Mega Mall as we speak.
December 5, 2012 at 2:39 pm
On a lighter note, if I were the park’s gardener charged with shaping shrubs into Chinese characters, I’d vote for simplified every time.
December 5, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Scrub that. Realize you’ve already made that point. Now I’ll be on the look out for more examples. Interesting.
December 5, 2012 at 6:34 pm
I’m surprised some enterprising local hasn’t adopted the usual method of eradicating unwanted foliage: turning up in the middle of the night with a chainsaw or a bucket of highly potent herbicide.
December 4, 2012 at 11:29 pm
This kinda bums me out
I haven’t lived in HK in a decade and it’s really not the place I grew up in anymore. All these small changes are subtle but they add up!
December 4, 2012 at 11:52 pm
Hi Iris. Indeed. It’s like the drip of a tap: slowly but surely filling up the sink until whatever was there has gone. In a way HKs written heritage is as much at risk as its built one. Cheers, phil
December 5, 2012 at 9:45 am
Well you keep up what you do here Mr. Phil to keep us aware of these nuances so we can get our petrol-cans ready… hahahah
December 5, 2012 at 1:22 pm
as a Westerner in HK I have to tread carefully in case I suddenly get accused of being one of the ‘forces’ behind the sowing of local discontent. LOL. As if HK ever needed ‘foreign’ help to stir up discontent, all they needed was a non-democratically elected slippery eel of a CE with more illegal structures than the whole of Yuen Long. Oh well, at least he hasn’t blamed his wife…yet
December 5, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Well, that would be his last resort I think… who knows? He might surprise us with further innovative Blame My [insert innocent victim] tactics!