New on my site:
[ul][li]An Outsider’s Chats about Written Language (English translation by Victor H. Mair, from the forthcoming Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture)[/li]
[li]in traditional Chinese characters and Pinyin (still needs a little work)[/li][/ul]
Very interesting … but as much as I respect Lu Xun’s writing, many of his social views, and love his short stories, I still can’t really agree with him on the writing thing. The literacy rate in Taiwan is very high, people don’t seem to have problems learning how to read and write (although the ability for young Taiwanese to write good compositions and essays is getting worse and worse, but I dont think that has to do with the characters), and heck, if us foreign devils can do it, then it can’t be that hard!
Interesting work, though, and another excellent translation by Victor Mair, a scholar who I greatly admire … and he really footnoted that bugger too!
Oh Christ, I didn’t need to hear that. Considering some of the unintelligible dross I see at work that’s supposed to pass as study plans and statements of purpose (and even theses and dissertations) for getting into Masters courses, if it gets much worse I’ll bloody shoot myself.
I too appreciated the article, even if I question the conclusions. Thanks.