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Shanghaiist reported earlier about the Shanghai authorities' attempts to set the language house in order -- less internet slang in schools and other public places, more Mandarin and less Shanghainese, no English signs unless there is Chinese as well, and, to our surprise, restricted use of complex or traditional Chinese characters. This law is in effect as of March 1, and has spurred bit of controversy.
We found this article (in Chinese) that explains many of the new internet slang words. Someone put out an internet slang dictionary, just as the official guardians of the Chinese language declared that no new slang words would be included in their new Chinese dictionary editions. Apparently, all this touches a nerve among those who worry that the Chinese language is being Europeanized or Anglicized or circumcised or something. We don't see what the fuss is about. Consider the Chinese word for "society" -- 社会 or she hui -- great word, we think, useful in many everyday situations. Chinese word, right? Wrong. Japanese. Chinese has borrowed words from other languages.
Of course, China isn't the only country doing this. France recently got rid of the term "e-mail" and replaced it with "courriel". Shanghaiist has to say that one of the things we like about English is that fact that is a mongrel of a language -- Latin, Greek, French, Germanic languages, and heck, even our favorite, Yiddish. "Nebbish" and "kvetching" are among the greatest words on the planet, in any language. The other cent in our two cents worth: why bother insisting on the purity of the language when the entire lifestyle and culture are becoming more globalized and homogenous? You tell kids not to use "-ing" after Chinese words to express the present progressive tense in websites, but then you tell them to learn English from the time they're three years old because otherwise they can't get into good universities or get good jobs and talk to foreigners with good manners.
None of this excuses a person from learning their language to a high level of proficiency, but somehow we don't feel all the knee-jerk cultural conservatism is warranted. That's just so BC! (See second link). We like our internet slang, 3Q very much!
Heping out![1]
[1] OK, that's not Chinese internet slang. Our friend Kevin made that one up.
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Pointing out a small thing in your article: you say that France got rid of the term "e-mail" and replaced it with "courriel". Well, right and wrong. In France there are a bunch of really old writers (and at least one ancient ex-president) who are tasked with revising constantly the country's official French dictionary. And they (being old and ancient and not very web-fluent) decided last year on the "courriel" tag. The only problem for them is that nobody listens to them, not even the government.
Everybody in France refers to an "e-mail" as, well, an "e-mail" or a "mail" (the word in French for the English term "mail" is "courrier"). And in government documents, the approved term is "Mél." (which -- surprise, surprise -- is pronounced almost exactly like "mail" but is meant to be short for "messagerie éléctronique"). Have a look:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/dglf/mel.htm
Thank you for your comments, you're right, i remember thinking that it would incorrect to state that they "got rid" of email, since the article itself stated that this was but an attempt and we know that certain habits die harder that governments would like to believe.
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Consider the Chinese word for "society" -- 社会 or she hui -- great word, we think, useful in many everyday situations. Chinese word, right? Wrong. Japanese.
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I would like to comment on this.
You should know it was Japanese borrowed Chinese charaters(汉字 or in traditional chinese:漢字.In Japanese it is pronounced as [kan ji],while in Chinese it is pronounced as [han zi],familiar? right?yes,they borrowed the pronuciations too) and a huge chinese vocabullary in first place.Yes,it was Japanese who firstly used 社会 to translate "society"，but what you might not know is that the word was actualy from Chinese classic works originally,Japanese just "picked" it to express the new concept of "society".Another example is 经济 (economy)，it is just a short for 经国济民,which was firtly used by 王通(or 文中子) more than 1000 years ago.
to who knows the "era name"(年号) which is still used in Japan. 2006 is Japan's year Heisei 18(平成18年), the word Heisei(平成) is also from Chinese:内平外成,you can find it in 史记,which is written by 司马迁 2000 years ago.
thanks for your comments. The point is not that "she hui" was made of Chinese characters, but the modern use of the word still represents a linguistic innovation that came from without China. The reason why i picked "she hui" as an example is because the modern idea of society was something that became necessary as China began to tackle its own modernization--in other words, the word came about in part because it was necessary to have that word. My point is was to wonder aloud why some people care to become the custodians of a language, why they care about the introduction of new words or else what they perceive is the general trends affecting the language. I wonder if anyone can actually believe that they are "protecting" something that needs protection and that they are doing someone a service. Languages are constantly changing and evolving, and almost every language, esp. major languages spoken by many people such as Chinese, has "foreign elements", has appropriated things here and there. So why protect is as if the state of the language right now is so sacrosanct? As i said before, literacy is important, of course, but there's no point in getting on a high horse about something over which you have little control and whose direction you cannot steer. In the long run we're all dead, i don't see what the point of these new laws are--protecting the environment or protecting the languages of small groups that are perhaps at risk of "extinction" should definitely be priority, but these little tinkerings in Shanghai seem to me fairly inessential in the large scheme of things, why waste the breath and paper and resources?
Well,my previous comment is just about some "technical" details,I agree that try to "protect" language by employing such laws is unreasonable.In the Western,the law is the law,but as you know,in China the law is only law,it barely can prevent ppl from borrowing,using or creating new vocabularies in their daily life,so what actually a live language is?the one ppl speak everyday or the one approved to be printed on papers?
Speaking "almost" freely is one of the few freedoms
left for Chinese,they have been watching us on what to say,but no way for trying to tell us how to say.