Taiwan seeks World Heritage status for traditional Chinese characters

President Ma Ying-jeou announced on December 26 that he has asked the Executive Yuan to begin the application process for placing traditional Chinese characters on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Speaking at the Ninth International Conference on Chinese Language Teaching organized by the World Chinese Language Association, the president referred to traditional Chinese as the oldest and most beautiful written language in the world.

As the culture with the longest history, richest content and widest influence, Chinese culture has been able to survive and thrive for thousands of years mainly because of its use of a beautiful writing system to pass down traditions, Ma said. In recent times, growing economic and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and mainland China as well as the shifting balance of power in the world economy have sparked an enormous interest in Chinese-language learning. Increasing numbers of people around the world are studying Chinese in order to better understand the culture.

As President Ma emphasized, language determines culture and culture determines people’s identity. For instance, mainland China has also seen a social shift over the past decades, departing from Marxism-Leninism and returning to Chinese culture. Although this shift has been largely limited to linguistics, it still signifies an important development.

More than 1.3 billion people throughout the world today use simplified Chinese characters, while only about 40 million people use the traditional form, mostly in Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas communities. This represents a margin of one to 33 users of the simplified system. However, as Taiwan accounts for more than half of the 40 million users, it occupies a critical position in the development of traditional Chinese characters. Therefore, President Ma urged the people of Taiwan not to discount themselves or overlook this great responsibility of preserving Chinese culture.

What a wonderful thing to have done!
Bravo!

Preserving Chinese characters means preserving
one of the world's oldest languages and
it's literature. There will now be a link with
the cultural past and a foot stamp of the present.

This is something worth celebrating. A celebration
of where China has been and a guide for where it's
going.

As the author Bryce Courtenay pointed out:

" Man's greatest inheritance is the gift of speech.
The gift of words is the gift of imagination.
Each of us has been designed for one of two immortal
functions, either as a storyteller or as a cross-legged
listener to tales of wonder, love and daring.
When we cease to tell or listen, then
we no longer exist as a people.
Dead men tell no tales."

Not a bad idea at all, in my opinion. I'm not sure what heritage status will do for the preservation of the characters, though. People are unlikely to start using them again because they are protected, are they? I don't know. But at least Taiwan has recognised that these beautiful characters are at risk of slipping away, and is taking steps to solve the problem. If this does nothing but raise awareness, then at least it has raised awareness of the issue.