Re: Chinese writing systems

Florian wrote:
> >And that would mean China could work with
> >other countries and their peoples better. That is in the interests of
>China
> >not just of foreigners.
>except with other asian people.
Make that East Asian. Otherwise the alphabet (including abjads and abugidas)
users in Asia seem to outnumber the logogram users with a reasonable margin.


>Yes and also note that most of them:
>north america
>south america
>australlia (hey, don't forget aborigens)
>many parts of africa
>use it to write european languages, who came at a colonial age, destroying
>all other languages and culture. I wouldn't be so proud of it, And would
>certainly not point that as a model.
>
What many parts of Africa? Even in South Africa a very large proportion of
the population speaks language of non-European descent. The Latin alphabet
is, of course, used to write a very large number of African languages.

> >It is not imperialism. It is wanting to see the world united, rather than
> >parochial and insularist.
>The asian wolrd was once united with chinese writing system.
Because the Chinese created a succession of huge empires that levelled
enourmous military and cultural pressure on the neighbours that weren't
assimilated wholesale. Pretty much any imperialism-related charge against
the Latin alphabet can be levelled against the Hanzi too.

> >>Be tolerant to diversity
> >
> >Suppose China becomes split up in the future - the present regime
>collapses.
>it does not collapse, actualy. And even so, the end of a regime is not the
>end of a country.
China has split many times in the past - what says it can't do in the
future? I have little idea to what extent Chinese people identify themselves
as "Chinese" as opposed to local identities, but prolonged political
disunity tend to strengthen local identities; it's hardly _impossible_ that
in a thousand years time Shanghainese, Cantonese and Whatelsenese consider
themselves to be separate nationalities, is it?

> >Suppose there is no more China, and people no longer feel Chinese. They
>feel
> >Pekinese, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Fukienese etc. Their leaders, wanting
>to
> >preserve their own power in their own area, encourage people to support
>the
> >new regional reality rather than the older united past, and see their
> >regional state as their nation, distinct from other 'Chinese' nations...
>
>Something like hong kong, taiwan, macao, singapore being separated
>countries? well you know, it has allready happened. And they still write
>Hanzi
>
Still, after a few decades? That's REALLY impressive y'know.

Sorry to be sarcastic, but the three first haven't been out of mainland
control for very long, and therefore really don't prove much. As for
Singapore, I assume we're talking about the ethnic Chinese part of the
population? Well, that'd be a better example, altho' having a united
"homeland" to identify with surely helps against seeing oneself as a
separate ethnicity.



Andreas

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