Why are Chinese characters still used?

From the perspective of Koreans, in other words, if I were a native Korean, I would also attack hanja’s superiority so as to praise hangul subjectively. Sejong Daewang, the inventor of hangul, is an idol among most Koreans, maybe just anything like we Chinese usually regard Hànwǔdì, Tángtàizōng, or Kǒngzǐ, Lǎozǐ as our national idols. The grammatical structure of Korean and Japanese seems different from Chinese, but both Korea and Japan have borrowed too much Chinese vocabularies from ancient China, furthermore, the Sino-Xenic culture has made a far-reaching influences on Korean language, and it would be almost impossible for Koreans to reduce or remove those which have already been deeply rooted in everything of Korea during the past 2000 years. Have you ever heard about the story of Mr.Gija (기자／箕子)?

From 1937 to 1945, China was invaded by Japanese militarists, about 30 millions of Chinese people were massacred, and Japanese was stipulated as the only national language in China. Some aged Chinese hate Japanese, and some Japanese don’t like Chinese, either. When it comes to the topic of Japan, actually I found it very close to China, especially ancient China, for example, traditional culture, Chinese kanji (hanja), verticle typeset layout, architecture, Kimono (similar to Chinese hànfú), and so on. Yes, some Japanese had ever wanted to abolish kanjis, but time and again, they failed to come up with any practical and effective solutions, without kanji’s system, neither hiragana nor katakana can replace kanji’s function, in fact, both hiragana and katakana were derived from parts of Chinese characters, that is to say, to a large extent, hiragana and katakana belong to kanji’s system, too. It was really gratifying that, Japanese government finally gave up stupid idea of Romanization, and then, they just created a few Japanese self-made kanjis which haven’t yet been simplified in Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau.

Vietnam was ever reduced to a colony of France, and the current Latin system of Vietnamese was invented by a French priest “Alexandre de Rhodes” , what if it would happen in China, Korea, or anywhere else, I guess that they must have abolished the offspring of colonial culture in Vietnam. On the contrary, North Vietnam government, a Communist party, abolished Chữ Nôm completely, and turned to use ugly French-made Latin alphabet, while in South Vietnam, the status was very different and friendly. Now, some foolish Chinese are still agitating blindly for the Romanization of Chinese writing system, mainly because they haven’t known that monosyllabic single characters, instead of polysyllabic long words, are the real soul of Chinese language, not only ancient poetry and Wenyan, but also modern literature or scientific articles, cannot be simply written in Latin or other alphabet, it would be idle and stupid for those who’re not good at Chinese language (even if they’re native Chinese) to talk empty things, don’t forget “actions speak louder than words”.

I prefer the Uighur script:


قاچاندىن باشلاپ يېزىق بىلەن خاتىرىلىنىشكە باشلىغانلىقى تەتقىقاتچىلار تەرىپىدىن بىرلىككە كەلگىنى يوق . ئۆزبەكىستان ۋە قازاقىستان قاتارلىق تېرىتورىيىلەردە سىلاۋيان يېزىقىدا،تۈركىيە ۋە ياۋرۇپا ئەللىرىدە تۈرك يېزىقىدا، جوڭو/چىن مەملىكىتىدە ئەرەپ يېزىقى،لاتىن يېزىقى ۋە خەنسو/چىنچە يېزىقلاردا خاتىرىلىنىدۇ. تىلشۇناسلار كۆپىنچە ئەرەپ يېزىقى ئاساسىدىكى ئۇيغۇر يېزىقى بىلەن ئۆزبەكىستان دۆلەت تىلى بولغان ئۆزبەك سىلاۋيان ۋە لاتىن يېزىقلىرىدا خاتىرىلەيدۇ. مەسىلەن:

ئۇيغۇرتىلى بولسا تۈركىي تىللارنىڭ ئىچىدىكى تەرەققىي قىلغان باي تىللارنىڭ بىرىدۇر. ئۇ ئالتاي تىل سىستېمىسىغا تەئەللۇق بولۇپ ھازىر دۇنيادا 10مىليوندىن ئارتۇق ئۇيغۇر مۇشۇ تىلنى ئىشلىتىدۇ.ئۇندىن باشقا يەنە 20مىليوندىن ئارتۇق ئۆزبېك كىشىلىرى ئۆزبېك تىلى دېگەن نام بىلەن بۇ تىلنى قوللىنىپ كېلىۋاتىدۇ.ماھىيەتتە ئۇيغۇرتىلى بىلەن ئۆزبېك تىلى بىر تىلدۇر.
چوڭ جەھەتتىن ئۆزبەك ۋە ئۇيغۇر دەپ ئىككى شىۋىسى بار ، ئۆزبەك شىۋىسىنىڭ شىمال ۋە جەنۇپ دەپ ئىككى ۋارىيانتى ، ئۇيغۇر شىۋىسىنىڭ تۇپان ،قەشقەر،خوتەن ۋە شىمال دەپ ئۈش ۋارىيانتى بار. ھەرقايسى شىۋىلەر ئوتتۇرىسىدىكى پەرق بەك چوڭ ئەمەس بولۇپ ، ئاساسەن ئۆز ئارا چۈشىنىشكىلى بولىدۇ

Much more efficient than those ugly block monsters.

I know neither Turkish nor Chinese but I can easily tell that:
The Uighur script and Turkish are as ugly as a turkey
while Chinese script is as elegant as a peacock.

I hate fucking East Turkistan Terrorists, and I love friendly Uygur people.

Allah will sooner or later punish those East Turkistan Terrorists who beat or killed innocent people, robbed or burned shops and cars, and destroyed the development and steadibility. Just wait and see! Please remember we love Uyghur friendly people!

Tionghoa, Gaa1Gaa1 Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:20 am GMT

From the perspective of Koreans, in other words, if I were a native Korean, I would also attack hanja’s superiority so as to praise hangul subjectively. Sejong Daewang, the inventor of hangul, is an idol among most Koreans, maybe just anything like we Chinese usually regard Hànwǔdì, Tángtàizōng, or Kǒngzǐ, Lǎozǐ as our national idols. The grammatical structure of Korean and Japanese seems different from Chinese, but both Korea and Japan have borrowed too much Chinese vocabularies from ancient China, furthermore, the Sino-Xenic culture has made a far-reaching influences on Korean language, and it would be almost impossible for Koreans to reduce or remove those which have already been deeply rooted in everything of Korea during the past 2000 years. Have you ever heard about the story of Mr.Gija (기자／箕子)?

From 1937 to 1945, China was invaded by Japanese militarists, about 30 millions of Chinese people were massacred, and Japanese was stipulated as the only national language in China. Some aged Chinese hate Japanese, and some Japanese don’t like Chinese, either. When it comes to the topic of Japan, actually I found it very close to China, especially ancient China, for example, traditional culture, Chinese kanji (hanja), verticle typeset layout, architecture, Kimono (similar to Chinese hànfú), and so on. Yes, some Japanese had ever wanted to abolish kanjis, but time and again, they failed to come up with any practical and effective solutions, without kanji’s system, neither hiragana nor katakana can replace kanji’s function, in fact, both hiragana and katakana were derived from parts of Chinese characters, that is to say, to a large extent, hiragana and katakana belong to kanji’s system, too. It was really gratifying that, Japanese government finally gave up stupid idea of Romanization, and then, they just created a few Japanese self-made kanjis which haven’t yet been simplified in Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau.

Vietnam was ever reduced to a colony of France, and the current Latin system of Vietnamese was invented by a French priest “Alexandre de Rhodes” , what if it would happen in China, Korea, or anywhere else, I guess that they must have abolished the offspring of colonial culture in Vietnam. On the contrary, North Vietnam government, a Communist party, abolished Chữ Nôm completely, and turned to use ugly French-made Latin alphabet, while in South Vietnam, the status was very different and friendly. Now, some foolish Chinese are still agitating blindly for the Romanization of Chinese writing system, mainly because they haven’t known that monosyllabic single characters, instead of polysyllabic long words, are the real soul of Chinese language, not only ancient poetry and Wenyan, but also modern literature or scientific articles, cannot be simply written in Latin or other alphabet, it would be idle and stupid for those who’re not good at Chinese language (even if they’re native Chinese) to talk empty things, don’t forget “actions speak louder than words”.

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I agree with you!

Why is Arabic alphabet still used as Persian (Farsi) writing system in Iran?

<<Allah will sooner or later punish those East Turkistan Terrorists who beat or>>

Ho ho Chinese communists are doomed to fall like teh Soviet Union.


<< killed innocent people, robbed or burned shops and cars, and destroyed the development and steadibility. Just wait and see! >>

It was about time too!


<<Please remember we love Uyghur friendly people! >>

Nobody likes any Chinese, friendly or not friendly.

To: East Turkistan Terrorists

How can you make people care about what evil terrorists said? No, Never.

yan, but also modern literature or scientific articles, cannot be simply written in Latin or other alphabets
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If it is so [sic] impossible to write Chinese using a different alphabet, then how do people understand spoken Chinese varieties?

That would be like saying that English would be impossible to write without a pictographic script, because then it would be highly ambiguous because of all the homophones. English does just fine by using an alphabetical system and varying the spelling: like very vs. vary; night vs. knight, etc. The same could be done for Chinese. Sure it wouldn't be as easy to learn how to spell as if you used Pinyin, or some other phonetic alphabet, but it would take 1/10 of the time it takes to be able read and write characters. The best of both worlds.

Dude, just... Eliminating Hanzi is out of the question. If every change possible was made to every languages for the sake of convenience we would have eliminated the grammatical genders in French a long time ago, as well as all the irregular verbs in English and such. It's a vital part of our tradition. We're not going to eliminate it for a foreign learner's sake, just like English-speaking people never have tried to make English any easier for others.

To: P
Please see below characters, they have the very same pronunciation. It's only one of thousands of examples in Chinese language. Please don't forget any more, Chinese is Neither English Nor other Latin languages. And daily colloquial conversation is not all the same with Written form in China.

他（tā）：he（for male human）

她（tā）：she（for female human）

它（tā）：it（for inorganic "No Life", or abstractive things）

牠（tā）：only for all kinds of animals

祂（tā）：only for god（Jesus, Allah, or other Lord）

That's not very impressive. English is exactly the same. For example the word "set" has 44+ meanings.

How is that different?

「"Do you mind if I ask which languages you have studied so far? ", as follows: Mandarin (native), Cantonese (a little), English (a little), Japanese & Korean (a little), French &Italian (a little), the language what I've wanted to learn (but no chance), might be Persian (Farsi). OK, thank you very much again. And wish you all the best. BTW, I've been using Ubuntu OS for a few months, would you like to have a try in future?」

@Tionghua: Thanks for your reply and I can see you're an international person. I'm sure you'll have no problem at all traveling anywhere. Why would Persian be difficult? Are you afraid of learning the Arabic alphabet? Other than that it couldn't be difficult since it's an indo-european language.

As for Ubuntu, I have already considered using it since I'm an anti-windows person and started using Macintosh in 2004. Can Ubuntu be used in any language like the mac-OS? Also, does it have fonts for writing in all languages? (My mac is set up to write in Chinese |traditional and simplified|, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Greek, Spanish and Russian) without having to go to all the trouble downloading fonts and learning keyboard positions (I write in Korean and Russian using a romanized system).

请多关照！