Survey Says Decline in Standard Chinese Usage

Based on a recent online poll, 80 percent of the people surveyed in China said to believe that there was a decline in standard Chinese usage.

China Daily reported that the survey was conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Investigation Center through websites such as sina.com. A total of 1,770 people participated in the survey. 45 percent said that there was a “huge decline,” 73 percent that the decline in Chinese writing standards was due to frequent computer use, and 67 percent said that the diversified language of Chinese online had influenced people to practice irregular Chinese usage.

Some people are unhappy with the decline in Chinese profiency.

“I once taught calligraphy in class but quite a lot of my students failed to handle the writingbrush not to mention appreciating different styles of calligraphy,” said Yang Guoha, who lectures at Guangzhou Modern Information Engineering Vocational and Technical College, in the China Daily article.

Others deny that there is a decline in Chinese, and that only certain dialects or old Chinese are changing.

“Computer use and cyber-language have enriched Chinese language. Language diversity leads to culture diversity,” commented Wan Jianzhong, who teaches at Beijing Normal University, to the China Daily.

To find out more about this issue, feel free to read the original China Daily article here.