To Abolish the Chinese Language: On a Century of Reformist Rhetoric
I&#x27;m reminded of this passage from the delightful article &quot;Why Chinese is so Damn Hard&quot;:<p>&#x27;I was once at a luncheon with three Ph.D. students in the Chinese Department at Peking University, all native Chinese (one from Hong Kong). I happened to have a cold that day, and was trying to write a brief note to a friend canceling an appointment that day. I found that I couldn&#x27;t remember how to write the character 嚔, as in da penti 打喷嚔 &quot;to sneeze&quot;. I asked my three friends how to write the character, and to my surprise, all three of them simply shrugged in sheepish embarrassment. Not one of them could correctly produce the character. Now, Peking University is usually considered the &quot;Harvard of China&quot;. Can you imagine three Ph.D. students in English at Harvard forgetting how to write the English word &quot;sneeze&quot;?? Yet this state of affairs is by no means uncommon in China.&#x27;<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pinyin.info&#x2F;readings&#x2F;texts&#x2F;moser.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pinyin.info&#x2F;readings&#x2F;texts&#x2F;moser.html</a><p>Book looks very interesting, just ordered a copy.