The subtitles accompanying a Mandarin TVB news program aired in Hong Kong and Macau were written in simplified Chinese characters last month, sparking outrage from viewers.
More than 10,000 Hong Kong residents wrote in to TVB expressing their disdain for the change, including Hong Kong legislative councilor Claudia Mo of the Civic Party, claiming that the decision threatens the cultural integrity of the HKSAR and represents another step in the increasing ‘mainlandization’ of the territory.
Those who take pride in the cultural continuity of the traditional script and believe it to be an integral part of the Special Administrative Regions’ heritage have long resisted the introduction of simplified Chinese characters in Macau and Hong Kong.
The resistance to the implementation of the simplified script is, however, as much a cultural issue as it is a political one. Those who seek to curtail the influence of the mainland in the two SARs are vehement that the proposed changes are a ploy by Beijing to limit the regions’ identities and, in the case of Hong Kong, suppress separatist tendencies.
Various media outlets including Liberty Times and Apple Daily have compared the cultural tiptoeing to a “boiling frog” strategy – referring to the notion that a frog placed in gradually heated water is unaware of the changing nature of its environment.
They claim that small incremental steps of ‘mainlandization’ threaten to eradicate not just Macau’s and Hong Kong’s cultural identity, but also their political autonomy.
Opponents further claim that the introduction of simplified characters and even the propagation of the use of Mandarin is part of a plan to prepare the two SARs for their eventual political integration with the mainland, in which the first step is merely the assertion of cultural standardization.
However, in Macau there is significantly less resistance to the use of both the simplified script and traditional characters, owing to the more than 30 million mainland visitors each year and the fact that gaming operators mainly just adopt simplified Chinese for their promotional activities – though this too is sometimes criticized as “a bootlicking gesture to tourists from the mainland,” as one social media commentator wrote.
Professor Xu Daming of the University of Macau thinks that there is no harm in adopting simplified Chinese characters per se, however since “the people of Macau are generally unhappy about it, for whatever reason, it is probably not worthwhile to displease the masses.”
“It’s important to remember that the characters are just a tool for communication,” Xu added. “I would play down this part as it is not as important as the spoken language.”
The linguistic issue also extends to the use of Mandarin within the two territories, which faces similar opposition when used in any formal capacity. However, as such there exist two simultaneous dialectics battling it out in cultural circles: Mandarin vs. Cantonese, and Simplified vs. Traditional.
The ideas echo themes from the recent film, “Ten Years,” which forewarns of a dystopian vision of Hong Kong in which the use of Cantonese is restricted.
Some observers pointed towards the use of other languages in Macau and Hong Kong, such as Portuguese and English, which are respectively the official languages in the two SARs alongside “Chinese,” which normally refers to Cantonese. They claim that since these are in use – and few deny that they are, or should be – there ought to be no issue accommodating Mandarin and a simplified form of Chinese characters.
“Any language, especially the mother tongue, should be encouraged to be taught,” said Professor Xu, who is a Mandarin speaker. “This is the official position of UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization].”
While many observers are not necessarily in favor of the adoption of simplified Chinese or Mandarin, they criticize the locals for their hypocrisy over the issue, accusing them of being specifically anti-mainland China.
However the difference in the case of the adoption and usage of ‘non-Chinese’ languages (Romanized scripts such as English and Portuguese) is that they do not threaten to replace traditional-form Cantonese.
In the past the introduction of simplified characters by certain institutions such as restaurant chains led to the subsequent removal of their traditional counterparts.
In 2012 McDonald’s decision to replace their signage in Macau with simplified characters triggered local outrage from Macau and Hong Kong based netizens.
One Facebook user asked, “Why do people have to make our Macau look like mainland China? I don’t want to see Simplified Chinese characters everywhere!”
The simplified form, introduced by the Communist Party in the 1950s to increase the literacy rate of the uneducated peasant classes, reduces the complexity of traditional characters by altering them or omitting strokes.
In today’s interconnected and globalized world, supporters of the simplified form add that this form is easier for non-Chinese Sinophiles to learn, thereby promoting China’s culture and influence abroad. International schools – which mainly teach simplified characters – maintain that simplification can speed up the learning and writing process.
Simplified Chinese has been in use in mainland China for decades, however attempts at further revisions of the simplification have been largely unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan have maintained the use of the traditional form of written Chinese, at least in official capacities. Daniel Beitler
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