Topic Reading-Vol.1883-6/7/2017

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Will smartphones kill the art of Chinese handwriting?

Have you ever thought how Chinese people text messages in their language?

Traditional Chinese characters appeared during the Han Dynasty and become consistent in the 5^th century. Even they were simplified to improve literacy in the last century, there still are over 8,000 standard characters in mainland China. Now, thanks to the modern technology and convenient devices, such as PCs and mobile phones, very few handwrite those still-complicated characters on paper these days. And there is no such keyboard that has thousands of keys. How do they form text messages?

Also, though students learn to read and write those characters in school, they no longer use them in practice outside their classrooms as they all chat on their smartphones. Will the handwriting culture disappear? Does it matter in the first place?

Enjoy watching the video to learn how Chinese characters appear on their mobile phones.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170602-will-smartphones-kill-the-art-of-chinese-handwriting