Category Archives: China

Hebei’s rules on the use of pinyin

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I stumbled across this earlier.
source

Notice on transmitting the people’s government of Hebei about standardizing and using Chinese Pin Yin to spell the standard place name further of Ministry of Civil Affairs

(release on May 26, 2003)

The 102nd of letters of the people (2003) May 26, 2003

Every Bureau of Civil Affairs of province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government (office), the place name administrative department in charge in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai:

To spell, translate and write the place name according to relevant national regulation is the request of masses of the people, it meets the desirability of urbanization, informationization, and globalization. It is the duties of the people’s governments at all levels to strengthen the work of management and service of the place name, and to improve the standardization of the name of the place. People’s government in Hebei province attaches importance to the work of standardization of name, issued the notice on standardizing and using Chinese Phonetic Alphabet to spell the standard place name further recently, has made the clear regulation in the way of writing, spelling the standard place name, the range of standard name included and the request of standard name using. Publicize here for reference.

After joining WTO, in order to meet the needs of internationalization, our country has improved the speed of stepping in line with international standards in such fields as economy, etc. The place name, which is taken as a media in people’s society’s association and economic activity, has been closely related to various kinds of economic activities and the people’s daily life. Especially in the modern society, with the development of market economy and quickening of the economic globalization process, place name, as an indispensable propagation information carrier, the frequency of its utilization is higher and higher, and the voice to make it keep up with international standards is stronger and stronger. So the demand of standardization, formalization and informationization becomes more and more urgent.

The spelling of the Roman alphabet of Chinese place name is regarded as Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet which announced by the country as the norm of unifying. It is proposed by our country, passed through discussion in “The Third Meeting of the Standardized Place Name” in the United Nations, accepted and used extensively in many countries including main country of American-European area in the world as an international standard. Some country’s relevant laws and regulations as NATIONAL LAW OF SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGES IN COMMON USE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. RULES OF PLACENAME MANAGEMENT, etc. have done the clear provisions with this. Hope all parts carry out laws and regulations and policies of the national relevant place name conscientiously, and do a good job of standardization of the place name of our country.

Notice on standardizing and using Chinese Phonetic Alphabet to spell the standard place name further of the people’s government of Hebei province.

The 35th of policy letter of Ji (2003)
April 17th, 2003
Each municipal government which set up administrative sanction, each department in provincial government:

According to the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet which was passed in the “The Third Meeting of the Standardized Place Names” in the United Nations as the international standard spelling of the Roman alphabet of Chinese place name, and the State Council regulations “Use the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet to Spell the Standard Place Name of Our Country”, now notify the problems on further standardizing Chinese phonetic alphabet and using it to spell the standard place name as follows:

  1. The writing and spelling of standard place name

    1. Writing the place name with Chinese characters, should use national standard Chinese characters confirmed.
    2. Spelling Chinese name with the Chinese phonetic alphabet, must spell according to THANSLITERATION RULES FOR CHINA’S PLACE NAMES INTO CHINESE PHONETIC ALPHABETS (chapters of Chinese place names).
    3. Translating and writing of Chinese characters of the place name of ethnic minority according to relevant regulations; Its spelling method is carried out according to THANSLITERATION MEASURES FOR PLACE NAMES FROM MINORITY LANGUAGES INTO CHINESE PHONETIC ALPHABETS
    4. Cannot use English and other foreign languages to spell the place name.
  2. The standard place name includes

    1. Such administrative division names as the province and city, county (including the county-level city , district ), township (town ) ,etc., such names as the villagers’ committee, natural village, subdistrict office, residents committee, etc.;
    2. Names of Street, road, path, lane, small lane, Li, Nong;
    3. Development zone, industrial area, trade and business district, residential block, biotope and such names as the number (unit plate, room plate) ,etc.
    4. Such entity’s names of physical geography as mountain, river, lake, sea, shallow lake, bay, mud flat, island and reef, etc.;
    5. The names of platform, stand, port, field, railway, road, bridge, floodgate containing, reservoir, channel, scenic spot, scenic spots and historical sites, commemorative site, excursion center, buildings (group) , cultural stadium , enterprises and institutions, etc., which have meanings.
  3. Must use the standard place name in the following activities and items:

    1. The agreement that signed in foreign language with foreign countries;
    2. The document, announcement, and certificate which are issued by the organ, army, public organization , enterprises and institutions;
    3. All kinds of newspapers and periodicals, the map or relevant books and broadcast, movie ,TV , etc.;
    4. All kinds of trade mark, board, advertisement, official seal, etc.;
    5. The street (way) lane (small lane) sign , floor (institute) number (unit plate, room plate), scenic spot direction sign , traffic sign , public transport station board;
    6. Effective certificate, business license and household registration for Postal service, communication, and domicile.
  4. Relevant regulations issued before, if not in accordance with a content of announcement ones, subject to this notice. If not go with the notice, correct it immediately.

typical example of the confusion about Chinese characters

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When I first heard about a new book, Mr. China: A Memoir, by Tim Clissold, it sounded like a much-needed debunking of pie-in-the-sky Western investments in China. Unfortunately, however, Clissold’s book spends several pages reinforcing myths about the Chinese languages and Chinese characters.

Chinese characters are central to the language. They provide a link with the past quite unlike that provided by European languages. The characters represent complete ideas rather than just sounds, like liters, so they are different from alphabetical spellings in that they resist changes over the years or between regions. Pronunciation of Chinese words might change over the centuries, but the written character remains constant. The character ? may be pronounced xiang, heung, or hong, but it always means “fragrant.” Separate from the sound and recognizable across thousands of years, the characters keep history alive. When China’s earliest philosophers recorded their ideas on bamboo spills as far back as the sixth century B.C., they used characters, many of which are still in daily use. It’s as if, with a little effort from the reader, the words of Plato or Aristotle leaped from the page in the orginal.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. These are myths.

Later, the author relates the shi shi shi story. Like almost everyone else, he completely misunderstands the piece and reaches entirely wrong conclusions.

The book has many such errors.

Mao tried to simplify the language by modifying the characters.

This statement is a good example of the confusion of language and script that Clissold displays more than once.

Really, this is all quite sad — and typical!

fonts and sinograph limitations

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A reminder that right now there are many thousands of Chinese characters that are not included in font sets and that fonts with Chinese characters will always have to play catch-up:

政协委员：电脑字库该强制更新
http://www.sina.com.cn 2005年03月14日18:17 金羊网-羊城晚报

　　本报北京专电　特派记者周敏、蒋铮、余颖、张演钦、李宜航报道：常会出现电脑“不识字”(打不出来)的状况，不是“脑子笨”，而是字库旧。全国政协委员李德毅建议坚决强制更新使用新型汉字字库标准，令6000万中国人不再遭遇无名尴尬。

　　李德毅讲了个故事：学生杜餻在银行的存款到期了。银行遗憾地通知他，无法再为他办理续存业务，因为电脑里打不出“餻”。以前这个字用同音字“义”代替，实行实名制 后行不通了。由于姓名用字比较生僻，杜餻们的姓名被使用时，要么被“杜益鸟”之类代替，要么用同音字或者拼音代替，要么干脆用三角或者星号代替。在一些地方，遇到电脑打不出的生僻字，户籍管理部门甚至会要求改名后再上户口。在换发二代身份证的过程中，就经常出现人名中的生僻字无法输入的问题。

　　出现这种情况，是电脑中安装和执行的字库标准仍然是国家标准总局1981年5月颁布的GB2312-1998《信息交换用汉字编码字符集———基本集》，该标准仅收录了6763个汉字。为了解决汉字字库编码陈旧，不适合信息技术发展和社会需求的问题，国家标准总局2000年推出了GB18030-2000新标准，含2.7万多个汉字，强制执行，过渡期到2001年8月1日为止。但实际中，还有不少系统在使用旧字库，没有更新。

　　据不完全统计，中国人姓名中使用GB2312规定的6763汉字之外的字，大约占4.5%；使用GB18030-2000新标准的2.7万个汉字之外的字，大约占0.5%。(本报北京专电)

street-sign woes in Nanjing

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Even more InTerCaPiTaLiZaTion — the horror!

新街口地下通道路标乱套了 给市民出行带来不便
sina.com.cn 2005年03月15日09:10 龙虎网

【龙虎网讯】路名标志不全；该标箭头的不标；违反民政部规定，路牌上用英文拼写地名；同一路牌上，有的路名用汉语拼音，有的却用英文……这些怪现象都出现在新街口。昨天，南京市政协委员薛正毅与快报记者一起，给这个南京市最繁华地段的路标挑刺。薛正毅感叹，如此混乱路标给群众出行带来不便，是南京创建文明城市的不和谐音。

　　地下用英文，地上是拼音

　　新街口广场地下过街通道刚启用不久，地下所有指路牌清一色标注英文。如中山东路路牌下加一行EastZhongShanRoad；洪武路路牌下加一行HongWuRoad；王府大街路牌下加一行WangFuAv-enue。但一出地下通道，迎面新百门前的中山东路路牌标注的却是汉语拼音ZhongShanDongLu。

　　淮海路地下过街通道内的路标同样较乱。从中央商场门前下去，迎面就看到一块大路牌，上面标有带箭头的两个地名，其中大洋百货用的是英文GrandOcean；三元巷用的却是汉语拼音SanYuanXiang。不远处另一块路牌上，中央商场用的是英文CentralEmporum；淮海路又用的是汉语拼音HuaiHaiLu。

　　公共场所路牌到底该用英文还是汉语拼音？薛正毅委员当场用手机打电话给南京市地名办咨询。一位邱姓女士答复说，地下通道路牌应该用拼音，国家民政部明确规定，标准地名必须一律用汉语拼音拼写，不得使用英文及其他外文拼写地名。她特地引用 2003年5月26日民政部颁布的文件规定：“设置街（路）巷（胡同）标志、楼（院）门牌（单元牌、户牌）、景点指示标志、交通指示标志、公共交通站牌等；标准地名是指街、路、道、巷、胡同、里、弄等名称”必须用拼音。薛正毅不客气地说，新街口出现这么多加注英文的路牌，其实是赶时髦的念头在作怪。店名、产品名称都爱起个洋名，路牌加注英文似乎就能与国际化接轨了。

　　地下通道少了“四号”标志

　　站在新街口广场地下通道中心，四周有4个大出口，分别标有5、6、7、8等四个黄底白字的大号字，十分醒目。在5号出口处，左侧墙壁写着“4号，中山南路、东方商城”；右侧墙壁写着“5号，汉中路、王府大街、金鹰国际商城”。这两处路牌字较小，走近才能看清。薛正毅指出，5号出口处应在左侧加上一个黄底白字的大号4字，那样就方便了。

　　在这一通道的8号出口处，路牌标注的是中山东路，但走进这一出口却有左右两处通向地面，向左是中山东路，向右则通向中山南路。薛正毅说，前天晚上，他本想经此出口到中山东路，上去才发现走到了中山南路。他说，该通道4个出口地面都在新街口广场拐角上，地下灯箱指路牌应严格与地面路名相一致，并画出指路箭头。他是南京本地人，都分不清，要是外地游客，更不方便了。

　　新街口地下通道路标乱套了 给市民出行带来不便

　　作者：赵诚

（来源：现代快报）

book sales in China

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“The World’s Biggest Book Market”, a piece in the New York Times about book sales in China:

They’re poring over cartoons — translations of ”Calvin and Hobbes” and of Japanese manga — and the locally drawn ”Legend of Nezha” books, which held 10 of the top 11 places on a Chinese best-seller list last year. Others turn the pages of a Garfield English-Chinese dictionary, which contains no entry for lasagna, but one for tofu.

Although the author is talking about children at this point, the best-seller list isn’t given as specifically children’s books. So think about it: 10 of the 11 best-selling books in China last year were comic books. I have nothing against comic books, but, under such conditions, figures of high book sales don’t really work to support the idea of a high state of literacy.

The situation isn’t much better in Japan.

But translations into Chinese make up only 6 percent of the 190,000 books printed in China in 2003. Instead, the world’s fastest-growing book market — adding an estimated $300 million in sales annually — is fueled by textbooks, which account for nearly half of all purchases. (This is according to China’s statistical yearbook and a definitive book on publishing, which offer the most reliable figures available on the Wild West atmosphere of the Chinese book market.)

So textbooks — which are required purchases — make up half of sales.

Moreover, I wonder what the percentage of books is in languages other than Mandarin? And of those textbooks, what percent are in or about English?

Chinese currency and English

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The story below is about a proposal to use “yuan” rather than “renminbi” (which I think is odd, because as far as I know the official name of the PRC currency is and has always been “yuan”).

政协委员：人民币应更名为中国元
http://www.sina.com.cn 2005年03月10日11:56 南方都市报

本报讯　已沿用57年的“人民币”能不能更名为“中国元”？在正在召开的全国政协十届三次会议上，全国政协委员伍龙章提出这一建议，引起关注。他认为，这一更名可以进一步提高人民币在全球的知名度和认可度。

The interesting part, from the standpoint of this site, is the final paragraph:

　　据不完全统计，现在世界各国货币名称有50多种，货币名称大多与本国的特有特征有关。我国自1948年12月1日起开始发行新中国统一货币后，货币名称一直使用“人民币”。

这一名称与“中国人民银行”行名紧密联系。1948年12月1日，中国人民银行正式成立，并在中国人民银行所在地石家庄发行了新中国统一货币，因为由中国人民银行发行，是新中国人民的货币，所以定名为“人民币”。

　　伍龙章建议将“人民币”更名为“中国元”出于五个方面理由：

　　体现中国唯一合法政府地位

　　伍龙章提出，香港地区本币单位名称为香港元、澳门地区为澳门元、台湾地区为新台币，均是以地区名称命名。所以，“中国元”这一货币名称更能反映出中华人民共和国是唯一合法政府，为台湾回归祖国在货币称谓方面协调统一作好铺垫。

　　强化我国中央银行地位

　　“中国人民银行仅为中国大陆区域的‘中央银行’，对香港、澳门和台湾地区尚不能行使中央银行的职能。”伍龙章说，更名“中国元”之后，可以逐渐脱离与“中国人民银行”相联系的狭隘概念，扩大中国本位货币概念的涵盖范围，增强中国本位货币对香港、澳门和台湾地区的影响。

　　增强中国本币货币名称特征

　　伍龙章认为，我国一直使用的“人民币”是按照“中国人民银行”行名延续而来，但作为本币货币名称，在去掉“中国”两字以后，在“币”字前面剩下的“人民”两个字就成为了一个大概念了。他解释说，“‘人民’一词不只是代表中国人民，在全世界范围内都可以通用，很难反映中国特色，而‘中国’两字则是特定名词，具有专用性，从而增强了我国本币货币名称特征。”

　　提高中国货币在全球知名度

　　“人民币”还是建国前期的产物，随着中国改革开放的深入，中国经济金融对亚洲乃至全球经济具有举足轻重的影响力。随着人民币在周边邻近国家和地区流出量的逐年增加，中国的本位货币对香港、澳门和台湾地区、整个亚洲乃至世界经济体系和货币系都产生了重大影响。基于这一考虑，伍龙章认为，更名为“中国元”后可以提高中国货币在全球的知名度，给中国货币一个全新的概念，为最终实现人民币成为自由兑换货币目标奠定良好基础。

增强中国货币世界认可度

目前人民币(RenMinBi　Yuan)简写为RMB￥，其简写用的是人民币汉语拼音开头字母组合，标准货币符号为CNY。而香港元(HongKong　Dollar)简写为HK＄，标准货币符号为HKD；澳门元(Macao　 Pataca)简写为Pat或P，标准货币符号为MOP；新台币(New　TaiWan　Dollar)简写为(NT＄)，标准货币TWD。但是因为汉语拼音在世界范围内影响力较小，不利于中国货币走向世界、成为自由兑换币为世人所认识。为此，如将“人民币元”改为“中国元”，就可以与香港、澳门和台湾货币相衔接，采用“CHINA　Dollar”简写为“CN＄”，与国际货币简写标识接轨，其简写正好与我国货币在国际金融市场上现行的标准货币符号 “CNY”相接近。

English rules all, it seems.

Note also the annoying and counterproductive InTerCaPiTaLiZaTion in “RenMinBi” and even “TaiWan”! It pains me to see that China also seems to have taken up this awful, awful practice.

deaf education in China

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This story is interesting on its own. But it might be worthwhile to consider how this might reflect on long-ingrained attitudes, such as those toward Chinese characters vs. romanization.

In a sunlit classroom, down a dusty hutong in Tianjin, China’s third largest city, a lively argument is raging. Eight-year-old Zhang Licheng and six-year-old Zhao Anrong are debating who would make the better teacher….

It’s a scene familiar in any school anywhere, except that both these children are deaf and are communicating entirely in Chinese sign language.

What makes this unique is that for the past 50 years, sign language has been actively discouraged, and in some cases banned, from classrooms in China. Despite evidence showing that deaf children are visual learners, and that those who learn sign language perform better in school, educators have insisted they learn to speak so they can blend in with their hearing classmates at public school.

Since the 1980s, nearly 1,500 pre-school “hearing rehabilitation” centers, run by the quasi-governmental China Disabled People’s Federation (CDPF), have fuelled many a parent’s dream that hours spent mimicking words will eventually unlock their child’s linguistic talent, and release the family from the shadow of disability.

Yet, according to statistics compiled by the CDPF, fewer than 10 percent of China’s 800,000 deaf preschoolers will reach the age of compulsory education – seven years old – with an adequate grasp of the spoken language to join a public school.

Those who do benefit from the oral-only approach, and there are some success stories, are usually children with residual hearing, or who lost their hearing after they learned how to speak, or who can afford cochlear operations and special language training.

“It’s so difficult for the children to learn to speak,” says Hu Aixin, who has been teaching deaf children at Tianjin Number One School for the Deaf for the past 20 years.

“They need 45 minutes just to learn one syllable. For vowel sounds, it is easier – they can see the shape of the mouth. But for the sounds they can’t see – each shape can have different meanings depending on the tone. It takes a lot of time.”

Hu says that up to 70 percent of lesson time is spent teaching children how to say basic words such as mother and father. Math, science, literature and even playtime all take a back seat to oral drills. It means, she says, that children are missing out, not only on a quality education, but also on crucial life and communication skills.

As a result, most deaf children are expected to leave school with an education level at least three grades below their hearing peers, and with few job prospects beyond factory work.

“It’s not that deaf children aren’t as smart as the hearing students, they’ve just never been given a chance,” Hu says.

That this oral-only policy has contributed to the creation of a poorly educated and marginalized community of some 22 million people seems to have escaped the attention of the government – until now.

Over the past few years, local authorities in Tianjin City, and Jiangsu, Yunnan and Anhui provinces, in cooperation with groups such as UNICEF, Save the Children UK and the Amity Foundation, have been charting a new course for deaf education.

Using what is called in the West the bilingual and bicultural – or bi-bi – method, children gain a language they can communicate fluently in while also being given lessons in deaf culture and an identity they can be proud of.

Four years ago, Tianjin Number One School for the Deaf eschewed the oral-only method and adopted sign language as the main method of communication, employing deaf teachers to teach the language and culture of the deaf – both radical departures from the norm.

At first, the new approach was limited to just two preschool classes, but in September 2004, Zhao and Zhang joined a handful of deaf children in the country’s first bi-bi primary school class….

News of the experimental class is spreading. Deaf schools across the country are asking for more information and training in the approach. Local TV and media have run stories about the children, and in January the Hong Kong education ministry paid a working visit.

Yet, with such tangible and notable results, why is it that only a handful – just 33 children – have enrolled in the bi-bi class at Tianjin Number One School for the Deaf in the past four years?

Parents are the program’s biggest resource, say school officials, but also its biggest obstacle.

“Parents’ attitudes are hard to change,” says Professor Zhao Mingzhi, an ear, nose and throat doctor and director of the Tianjin Rehabilitation Centre for Hearing Disability. “Many still believe that sign language is a bad influence. Their only hope is that their child will be able to speak.”

For the profoundly deaf, he says, the oral-only approach “is unfair.” They may be able to utter a few basic words, but this is not true communication. “It is just for the parents. They convince themselves that because their child can say a few lines of a Tsang Dynasty poem that they can communicate,” he says.

People also convince themselves that because children memorize some poems in Classical Chinese and are taught what they mean, the children can read Classical Chinese, which is not at all the case.

When I was in junior high, the members of a high school German club visited one of my classes and taught us a German song. We learned to pronounce the words (i.e. mimic our teachers) and were taught the song’s meaning. But no one would conclude from this that we knew German.

Many parents spend tens of thousands of yuan on Chinese medicine, acupuncture, rehabilitation centers and hearing aids. The upshot is that when all options are exhausted and their child still can’t hear or speak, they may finally turn to sign language; but at that stage, children are well past the optimum time for language development, professor Zhao says.

source: Seen and not heard. The Standard of Hong Kong, February 26-27, 2005.