4 A Record of the Forum on the Problems of Writing Reform |
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| Abstract: | I invite everyone to speak freely today. The government began this work after Liberation. Before the end of 1954 the Research Committee for Chinese Writing Reform was reorganized as the Committee for Chinese Writing Reform. During the past two years we have concentrated primarily on bringing order to the Chinese characters and on determining the phonetic plan. The "Plan for the Simplification of Chinese Characters" was promulgated in February 1956. It includes three tables. The "Plan for the Phonetic Spelling of Chinese is at this very time being considered by the judicial committee appointed by the State Council. Both the simplification plan and the phonetic plan were debated by the political associations, and opinions were solicited from all sectors, but the response has been insufficient. Writing reform is a major undertaking; it concerns several hundred million people; ultimately it is related to education; it has relevance for communications; telegraph, industry, and all other fields; we need opinions from all of them. We are holding this meeting today to hear the opinions of everyone. All aspects of our work, from principles to specific problems, can be discussed. There are many defects in our work, and we hope to hear criticism of all of them. If there is not enough time today, we can continue the discussion later. |
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