On Asian writing and the future

Perusing through chapters 1-4 of Meggs' History of Graphic Design enlightened me into realizing how much I take being able to read and write for granted. Literacy has been a major part of my life since I was very little, I cannot imagine not being able to read or write. Alongside, Asian writing has always fascinated me, so the chapter on “The Asian Contribution” was the one I found to be the most exciting. I’ve personally always thought Hanja, Korean writing, was highly distinctive and unique although I never understood why the writing had so many circular forms. Learning about the abstract representations of the mouth and tongue gave me a further appreciation for Korean writing.  

The chapters on ancient societies such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, China showed us how writing is constantly evolving and it probably will not stop changing until the end of time. I am curious to know if the authors of Meggs’ Graphic Design will continue to talk about the evolution of Asian writing in future editions, particularly with modern issues such as attempts of abolishing the logoform system in favor of Romanization such as pinyin and romaji, as well the effects on the usage of simplifying characters in modern/mainland Chinese writing. 

Chinese writing has history of thousands of years behind it and has also influenced the writing systems of neighboring nations such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Since it's inception with the bone-and-shell script, then to the standardization in the Qin Dynansty, Chinese writing has always never been a static form. In the 1950s, the Communist Party of China undertook a campaign to modernize the Chinese writing system. Characters with overly complicated strokes were simplified - that is the number of strokes decreased and the character became more simplistic. The intent was to promote literacy and create a more efficient means of communication.

Decades later, the reforming of the Chinese writing system by simplifying the age old traditional characters is still a very controversial topic today. It is cumbersome to memorize 5,000 to 10,000 characters in order to be literate in the Chinese writing language. Therefore, simplified characters have allowed a greater number of the population to enjoy the benefits of being literate. Reading and writing is a powerful tool, and it can only benefit society if more people are able to cultivate their intellect.

Yet sacrificing aesthetics and history for greater literacy… do the means justify the ends? Traditional characters have not fallen out of favor at all, and there is a strong preference for it in regions such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. Simplified characters do not have the elegance of their traditional counterparts, creates a loss of cultural identity, and prevent future generations from being able to read ancient texts written in traditional characters.

References:

Editors, The. The Chinese Language, Ever Evolving. NY Times, Web. <http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/chinese-language-ever-evolving/>.
 
Linotype.com. Chinese Fonts Explained. Web. <http://www.linotype.com/5623/chinesefontsexplained.html>.