Chinese internet users are taking issue with a recent announcement that the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and Ministry of Education are trying to standardize online speech by cracking down on the use of “irregular and...
“It’s as if the words ‘layoffs’ and ‘unemployment’ are somehow disgraceful, so instead people insist on using euphemisms such as ‘flexible employment,’ ‘[workforce] optimization,’ ‘slow employment’ (also ‘delayed employment’),...
As China’s Lunar New Year holiday continues throughout this week, CDT Chinese editors have collected and republished over a dozen essays, articles, and other content reflecting the zeitgeist of the transition from 2023’s Year of...
At FT Magazine, Isabel Berwick introduces Chineasy, a visual-based learning system invented by ShaoLan Hsueh that uses simple illustrations to help people recognize and interpret Chinese characters. “In a nutshell, I take...
As Beijing splutters under a combined smog blanket and sandstorm, China Daily reports a new initiative to choose a Chinese name for PM2.5 (sub-2.5 micrometer) pollutant particles: Because PM 2.5 uses the Latin alphabet, the...
More than 100 scholars have protested the inclusion of 239 English words and abbreviations including NBA and PM2.5 in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. From Global Times: In the letter, experts point out that including such...
The Los Angeles Times looks that the ways technology is usurping the written Chinese language: Almost any Chinese person you meet will confess to a lapse of memory, almost like a senior moment. The hand clutching the pen or...
From Xinhua: A proposal of the Education Ministry to readjust the font of 44 Chinese characters has triggered controversy in the country on whether the traditional way of writing should be altered. After eight years of efforts,...
From AFP: President Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday suggested that Taiwan adopt the simplified character set used in writing in China, in yet another indication of the island’s moving closer to its former arch-rival. “We...
Scholars at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences will soon release a set of revised simplified Chinese characters for adoption. From Xinhua: For the first time in nearly 20 years, China will issue a modified list of simplified...
A proposal to re-popularize complex or traditional Chinese characters at the recently-ended National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has drawn criticism from...
Taiwan hopes to preserve traditional Chinese characters by applying for UNESCO’s world heritage status. From Monsters & Critic: Taiwan plans to set up a task force in February to prepare for making the application to...
From Danwei blog: Exhortations to “write standard characters” appear on banners and billboards throughout Beijing. This full-page spread in The Beijing News on Tuesday announces itself as a “public service advertisement,” (ÂÖ¨ÁõäÂπøÂëä), only the composer has mistakenly replaced “public welfare” (ÂÖ¨Áõä) with the homophone “justice” (ÂÖ¨‰πâ). The copy (click the image for the full thing) […]
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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