Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters

for the twenty-first century1

SU PEICHENG2

Abstract

This paper ®rst outlines the evolution of phonetically based annotation

systems for Chinese as well as the history of policies of monographia and
digraphia in China since 1892. Section 2 outlines the nature of Chinese
characters, while section 3 presents a history and assessment of the last
one hundred years of debate on the advantages and disadvantages of
Chinese characters. Section 4 describes the history and evolution of the now
standard Hanyu Pinyin Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, especially in the light of
recent technological developments. Section 5 presents our conclusion that
some form of digraphia between Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin
romanization is ``imperative'' for China's success in the twenty-®rst century.

The challenge facing ancient Chinese characters

In old China, Chinese characters were the only writing system for
recording the Chinese language, which in practice amounted to a system
of monographia. After the ®rst Sino-Japanese war of 1894 ±1895, China
was in danger of dismemberment, and saving the country became a
matter of top priority. Many forward-looking people realized that the
Chinese language was backward, a hindrance to social development in
great need of reform, and that the Chinese characters were the ®rst
thing that should be reformed. In 1892 the late Qing dynasty writer Lu
Zhuangzhang said, ``Chinese characters are perhaps the most dicult
present-day writing system'' (Lu Zhuangzhang 1958: 2). In 1908 Lao
Naixuan wrote, ``If we want to save China today, we must popularize
education, and to popularize education we must have easily learned
characters. To have such characters, we must have a [phonetic] spelling
system'' (Lao Naixuan 1958: 80). From this kind of realization, many
Chinese language reformers began to develop phonetic writing systems

0165±2516/01/0150±0109 Int'l. J. Soc. Lang. 150 (2001), pp. 109±124

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110 Su Peicheng
for Chinese, a movement that lasted for more than twenty years, until
after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911.
Although these language reformers did advocate phonetically based
spelling, they did not advocate abandoning Chinese characters. Rather
they advocated using both, that is digraphia between phonetic spelling
and Chinese characters. For example, one reformer, Wang Zhao, said,
``I created these phonetic symbols just for the large number of illiterates
and children, not for reading books and essays'' (Wang Zhao 1958: 21).
Wang also wrote, ``For those who have the energy and time, it is better
for them to spend ten years learning Chinese characters. It is no good
to ignore Chinese characters for this short-cut method'' (Wang Zhao
1957: 18). Lao Naixuan, quoted above, also stated, ``The six categories of
Chinese Characters [liu shu] are broad and deep; they will last forever.
Simpli®ed writing can only be used for some unimportant purposes; for
important meanings, Chinese characters must be used. Simpli®ed writing
must help but not harm Chinese characters'' (Lao Naixuan 1958: 81).
This view that Chinese characters are exalted and elegant and that
phonetic spelling is shallow and crude reveals the limitations of these
reformers advocating phonetic spelling systems at the end of the
nineteenth century.
After the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, the Chinese
character reform movement declined for a while. At the Conference
on the Uni®cation of Chinese Pronunciation held in 1913, those earlier
attempts at phonetic spelling were completely ignored, while the delegates
concentrated on attempting to ®x a standard pronunciation for the
national [Mandarin] language they were trying to de®ne. The conference
created a syllabic phonetic annotation system (zhuyin zimu)3 for the pur-
pose of helping to popularize standard Mandarin as the national
language, and as a tool to help in learning Chinese characters. This
system, later known as Zhuyin Fuhao [Phonetic Annotation Symbols]4 or
colloquially as ``bo-po-mo-fo'' (the ®rst four symbols for syllable-initial
consonants in the system), was ocially promulgated by the government
and was used in China until after the retreat of the Nationalist
government to [the island of ] Taiwan [in 1949], where it continues to
be used, as it always has been, only as an aid to learning Chinese
characters, and not as an independent writing system on its own.
A new tide of language reform took place in China with the May
Fourth Movement after World War I. In 1919 Fu Sinian published the
®rst article to call for a revolution in the Chinese language as a whole,
``A Preliminary Discussion on the Necessity of Using a Phonetically
based Spelling System for the Chinese Language'' (Fu Sinian 1919).
In 1923, Qian Xuantong followed with his article ``A Revolution for

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 111
Chinese Characters'' (Qian Xuantong 1999: 76 ±77), in which he advocat-
ed abandoning Chinese characters and changing to phonetic letters.
His reasons stress two points: ®rst, Chinese characters are ``dicult to
read and dicult to write, and hinder the popularization of education
and the spread of knowledge.'' Second, ``Chinese characters cannot ®t
in with the patterns of culture in the modern world''; ``the diculties of
typesetting and the making of typewriters [for Chinese characters] are
sucient proof that this venerable oldster is out of date and cannot ®t
in with the new life in the scienti®c twentieth century.'' This type of
radical progressive opinion, advocating a change from monographia
with Chinese characters to monographia with phonetic spelling, was not
accepted by the Nationalist government at that time, which continued to
carry out the old monographic policy of Chinese characters only. For
example, in 1928 the Nationalist (Daxue Yuan, equivalent to the Ministry
of Education) promulgated the Rules for Chinese Romanized Spelling
(Guoyu Luomazi Pinyin Fashi),5 which was characterized as the ``Second
Scheme for Annotating Chinese Characters'' (Guoyu Zhuyin Zimu Di'er
Shi), to distinguish it from the original syllabic phonetic annotation
system (zhuyin fuhao) described above.
In 1931 the Soviet Union created the so-called ``New Latinized Writing
for Northern Speech'' (Beifanghua Ladinghua Xin Wenzi), hereafter
referred to as ``NL'' for short. This NL was a phonetic spelling [employing
the Roman] alphabet, [which was] used by the Soviet government to
eliminate illiteracy among their Chinese workers, creating for them a
phonetic-spelling monographia. In 1933 this NL was introduced in
Shanghai and welcomed by left-wing intellectual circles. The Communist
Chinese Party's government later used this system to eliminate illiteracy
in the border areas that they controlled during the period of the second
Sino-Japanese War of Resistance (1937±1945). On November 7, 1940
the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area New Writing Association was
established in the Communist headquarters in Yan'an. The Chairman
of the Border Area, Lin Boqu, announced at this meeting that the
Border Area government had given legal status to this New [NL] Writing
and that use of the New Writing would have the same legal status as
using Chinese characters. He also proclaimed that from that day forth, all
of the Border Areas governmental documents would be written in both
writing systems, both in the New [NL] Writing and in Chinese characters,
and that the Border Area had decided to use the New [NL] Writing to
eliminate illiteracy in the Border Areas (Lin Boqu, in Fei Jinchang 1997:
87). Thus what the Border Area government practiced was a policy of
digraphia between Chinese characters and phonetic spelling: those who
knew Chinese characters used Chinese characters and those who knew

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112 Su Peicheng
phonetic spelling used phonetic spelling. At this time in the Border Areas
the two systems had the same legal standing. But outside the Border
Areas, this phonetic spelling was almost useless. Could phonetic spelling
replace Chinese characters? After the founding of the People's Republic
of China by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, in summing up this
earlier stage of the work in his speech at the founding of the Committee
for Research on the Reform of the Chinese Language in 1952, Wu
Yuzhang said, ``This kind of New Writing is very easy to learn; one can
pick it up within two or three months. But to popularize it among the
society at large is very dicult.'' ``Chinese characters already have such
a long history and such a deep foundation in Chinese cultural life that
their reform must be carried out gradually, not roughly or rapidly''
(Wu Yuzhang 1978: 89).
In 1951 Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong stated that
``[Chinese] writing must be reformed; it should follow the common
direction in the world of phonetic spelling'' (Mao Zedong, in Wu
Yuzhang 1978: 101). Mao also noted that the phoneticization of Chinese
characters needs a great deal of preparatory work, and that before
carrying out phoneticization, the Chinese characters must be simpli®ed
in order to satisfy immediate needs, while at the same time the various
preparations should be pursued actively. In 1958 Premier Zhou Enlai
declared that the three tasks of language reform at that time were (1) to
simplify the Chinese characters, (2) to popularize standard [Mandarin]
Chinese (Putonghua), and (3) to ®x and popularize a scheme for the
[romanized] phonetic spelling of Chinese [Hanyu Pinyin] (Zhou Enlai, in
Wang Jun 1995: 562). This clearly shows that phoneticization (romaniza-
tion) was [considered to be] a [future] direction, a long-term goal, while
what was being practiced was monographia with Chinese characters,
not the digraphia previously practiced in the Border Areas during the
Sino-Japanese War of Resistance.
Since 1976, after the ten years of ``Cultural Revolution'' [1966 ±1976],
China's language policies have gradually been adjusted. On January
23, 1982, Hu Qiaomu, then Central Party Secretary of the Chinese
Communist Party and Head of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
made a speech on the work of Chinese writing reform in which he said,
``In fact Chinese characters have been used for several thousand years
and it is impossible to completely abandon them. But phonetic [ pinyin]
writing will certainly also be used. It is very likely that phonetic writing
and Chinese characters will co-exist for a long time, each being used for
its respective strengths. If we can achieve such a situation (for example
within several decades or a hundred years), that would be a great victory''
(Hu Qiaomu 1982). This speech in fact negates a policy of phonetic

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 113
pinyin monographia and proposes a situation of digraphia between
Chinese characters and phonetic pinyin writing. In October 1984, at the
Conference on the Work of Writing Reform convened by the Committee
for the Chinese Language Reform (Zhongguo Wenzi Gaige Weiyuanhui),
it was noted that

From now on our Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Language's
policy will remain: Chinese characters must be reformed; the reform of Chinese
characters should ``follow the common direction in the world of phonetic
spelling.'' At present, we must strongly spread and popularize Standard [Man-
darin] Chinese ( putonghua), comprehensively regularize the currently used Chinese
characters, energetically promote the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
(Hanyu Pinyin Fang'an), striving to realize as soon as possible the long term
coexistence of Chinese characters and Chinese Phonetic Spelling (Hanyu Pinyin),
each bringing into play its relative strengths and each compensating for the
other's short-comings, so that they both serve to realize our modernization''
(Yanjiu Xin Shiqi 1984).

Phoneticization [romanization] is the direction for the future; the present

task is to strive to realize digraphia. Digraphia will ®nally evolve into a
monographic situation with a phonetic writing system.
In January 1986 at the national meeting of the renamed State Language
Commission6 it was noted that

For a relatively long time in the future, as the [only] legally recognized writing
system, Chinese characters will still continue to display their usefulness. The
``Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet'' (Hanyu Pinyin Fang'an) presently
in use is not a phonetic writing system for replacing Chinese characters; rather it is
a phonetic notational tool to help in the learning of the Chinese language, Chinese
characters, and the popularization of Mandarin Chinese, and to be employed
where Chinese characters are inconvenient or cannot be used.

Thus the meeting armed China's monographic policy on Chinese

characters. The ``Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet'' is not
a[n ocially recognized] phonetic writing system; it may only be used
where Chinese characters are inconvenient or cannot be used. This is
China's current [ocial] writing policy.
Between Mao Zedong's ``follow[ing] the direction in the world of
phonetic spelling'' and Hu Qiaomu's digraphia [see above], there are
di€erences of opinion. From the point of view of proponents of phonetici-
zation, this is a retreat; from the point of view of those [Chinese character
proponents] who feel that phoneticization has already failed, this seems
like ``retreating in order to advance.'' All this is the burden of history;
we should overcome history and take a fresh look at digraphia [in China].

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114 Su Peicheng
Scienti®cally evaluating Chinese characters

Chinese characters are a morphemic writing system. The ``morpheme''7

( yusu) is [de®ned as] the smallest [linguistic] unit combining sound and
meaning. As a morphemic writing system, Chinese has both strong and
weak points. The strengths are primarily two: ®rst, Chinese [written]
characters are monosyllabic, and Chinese [spoken] morphemes are for
the most part monosyllabic, [so] using monosyllabic Chinese characters
to represent monosyllabic Chinese [sic] is basically appropriate. Second,
Chinese characters are units that unify form, sound, and meaning. They
are basically di€erent from phonetic writing in that each Chinese
character, in addition to having form and sound, also has a character
meaning [associated with its form Ð JSR]. A small number of exceptions
do not in¯uence this basic fact about the nature of Chinese characters.
Let us suppose for the moment that we take Hanyu Pinyin Chinese
phonetic spelling as representative of phonetic writing. [Using this
phonetic system] a single [morpheme spelled] muÁ does not tell us what
meaning is being expressed. But Chinese characters are not like this:
see Figure 1. The Chinese character labelled character 1 [pronounced muÁ,
derived from a pictograph of a tree] means `wood'. The Chinese character
labelled character 2 [also pronounced muÁ, a squared-up pictograph of
an eye] means `eye'. The Chinese character labelled character 3 [also
pronounced muÁ, a so-called picto-phonetic character composed of the
`three dots of water' semantic radical on the left to suggest the meaning,
plus the afore-mentioned pictographic `tree' character pronounced muÁ,
suggestive of the character's pronunciation] means `to wash'. These
Chinese characters [although homophones] are all very clear and distinct,
obvious[ly di€erent] at a glance. Chinese characters have two primary
weaknesses. First, their number is too large and their [written] forms
are too complicated. Because it is a morphemic writing system, the
number of [di€erent] single characters should match the number of
di€erent morphemes in the language.

Figure 1. Three meanings for muÁ

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 115
Now, the Chinese [spoken] language has a lot of morphemes, so the
number of Chinese characters must also be large. And these tens of
thousands of Chinese characters must all be distinct in form, so their
[written] forms are very complex. Second, the Chinese characters
themselves lack a complete phonetic system. The ``phonetic'' part of a
``picto-phonetic'' character [such as in muÁ `to wash' cited just above]
can suggest the sound; however, for a variety of reasons, the actual
phonetic functions [of these ``phonetic'' components] are in fact very
weak. Having these two weaknesses, Chinese characters are de®nitely
dicult to learn.

The technical and artistic nature of Chinese characters

On this topic, Professor Zhou Youguang has an excellent analysis:

Written characters originally evolved from pictures. Primitive painting developed

in two directions. In one direction it developed into artistic pictures; in the
other direction it developed into the technology of writing. Artistic painting is
for enjoyment; the technology of writing is to be utilized. Yet, having originated
in this way, writing from its inception has always carried the ``artistic gene.''
Therefore, writing itself has both an ``artistic nature'' and a ``technical nature.''
A writing system should be easily learned, convenient to write, transmitted
quickly, typed easily, and easily processable by computers; these are technical
requirements. Written characters should also be beautiful to write, develop into
the art of ``calligraphy'' (shufa/shudao), able to be hung on the walls to decorate
rooms and halls; these are artistic requirements (Zhou Youguang 1992: 147).

As an instrument to record the Chinese language, as a useful tool for a

billion Chinese people, what we must be concerned about is the technical
nature of Chinese characters. From this technical point of view, Chinese
characters should be easy to learn, easy to use, convenient to reproduce
and to transmit.

Correctly assessing the almost one-hundred-year-long history of

Chinese character reform

In ancient China, the study and use of Chinese characters was a right of
the privileged class of people only. They did not have to care about the
complexity of the forms of the Chinese characters because they had
enough time and energy to master them. In fact, this class of people
could use the complexity of the Chinese characters to elevate themselves

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116 Su Peicheng
and distinguish themselves as di€erent from the masses of the common
people. The writing system was held in the hands of a minority elite and
irrelevant to the majority of the people. Such a society is obviously one
in which a minority of people exploit the majority of people. By the end
of the nineteenth century, in order to save the country it was necessary to
popularize education and to enlighten the people. These requirements
were in sharp contradiction with the complexity of the Chinese character-
writing system, and it was thus that the societal demand for reforming the
Chinese characters came about.
In ancient China we had the Ancient Four Great Inventions [paper,
gunpowder, the magnetic compass, and moveable type], of which all
Chinese people were quite proud. But after the coming of the Industrial
Revolution, the world changed. The center of world technology was no
longer in character-using China. Western countries invented many new
techniques applied to the technology of writing, such as printing, typing,
and the telegraph, all of which were aptly suited to the phonetic writing
systems of the West, whereas the ancient Chinese characters were not
suited to these new technologies. Only after Westerners had repeatedly
used their guns and cannon to attack and then to attempt to dismember
and devour China were the Chinese at ®rst shocked, and then aroused.
It was only after being faced with this new technology that the Chinese
people ®nally realized that the ``venerable oldster,'' Chinese characters,
was not suitable for the modern world. Only after adopting the
Romanized alphabetic phonetic spelling system prevalent throughout
the world would China be able to build a rich country and a strong
people. This is another strong argument in support of Chinese character
reform.
The complexities of Chinese characters are not suitable for the
development of modern technology. And replacing Chinese characters
with phonetic spelling is completely logical. But why has all the energy
expended to replace Chinese characters with phonetic spelling up to
now not been successful? In addition to the opposition of conservative
forces, another reason is not recognizing the advantages of Chinese
characters. [China's eminent linguist] LuÈ Shuxiang has said, ``First,
Chinese characters and pinyin phonetic spelling both have inseparable
advantages and disadvantages, and wherever one has an advantage, there
is also a disadvantage. Second, wherever Chinese characters have an
advantage is exactly where pinyin phonetic spelling has a disadvantage,
and vice-versa'' (LuÈ Shuxiang 1988: 8). Chinese characters have a
long history of carrying Chinese culture. Their advantages have deeply
penetrated China's people and society; even illiterate people have a
certain a€ection for them.

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 117
Although Chinese characters are complex, through character
simpli®cation and improvements in methods of teaching character
reading, the degree of complexity can be lowered to an acceptable
level. The con¯icts arising out of the lack of suitability of Chinese
characters for modern technology can be mitigated through improve-
ments in technical methods and equipment. Don't we already have
Chinese character printing machines, Chinese character typewriters,
four-number-code telegraphs, etc.? Chinese characters have been forced
to modernize. When one considers that Chinese characters have so many
advantages, and that pinyin phonetic spelling is not without disadvan-
tages, who would want to abandon Chinese characters and change over to
pinyin phonetic spelling?

The Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet's indispensable functions

On February 11, 1958, the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
(Hanyu Pinyin Fang'an) was approved at the ®fth session of the First
National People's Congress. On July 1, 1988, the State Education
Commission (Guojia Jiaoyu Weiyuanhui) and the State Commission for
Work on Chinese Language and Writing (Guojia Yuyan Wenzi Gongzuo
Weiyuanhui) jointly proclaimed the Basic Rules for Hanyu Pinyin
Orthography (Hanyu Pinyin Zhengcifa Jiben Guize).8 On January 22,
1996, these Basic Rules were elevated to become the national stan-
dard, proclaimed by the National Oce of Technical Inspection, as
No. GB/T 16159-1996. On August 1, 1982, the International Standards
Organization made a decision that the Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet
is the international standard for spelling the Chinese language;
see Report No. ISO-7098. Thus the Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet is
playing a more and more important function in the life of Chinese
language and writing.
The Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet is an important tool to help
in learning the writing of Chinese and the popularization of standard
spoken Mandarin [Putonghua]. First, because Chinese characters
are complex, using the Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet for phonetic
annotation greatly reduces the degree of diculty in the task of learning
to read Chinese characters. This has already been put into practice
throughout China. The experiment started in Heilongjiang province in
1982 entitled ``Phonetically Annotated Character Recognition Promotes
Earlier Reading and Writing'' (Zhu Yin Shi Zi: Ti Qian Du Xie) has
achieved great success in reforming Chinese language education in the
primary schools and has now spread over the entire country. The primary

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118 Su Peicheng
methods of this experiment are as follows: after the primary-school
students begin their schooling in the ®rst grade, they ®rst study the Hanyu
pinyin phonetic alphabet. The students then continue to strengthen their
language abilities by broad reading in many materials printed in Hanyu
pinyin, while at the same time writing essays in Hanyu pinyin as well.
At the same time, by reading materials printed parallelly in both
Hanyu pinyin and Chinese characters, they learn to read Chinese
characters as well. In this way, the traditional approach of ``learning to
read Chinese characters ®rst, and learning to read books later'' is changed
into a new approach of ``learning to read books ®rst, and learning to
read Chinese characters later.'' The results of this experiment are that
the language abilities of most of the fourth grade students in primary-
school classes employing this experimental approach are equal to the
language abilities of sixth grade primary-school students who are taught
to read Chinese characters in more traditional ways. Thus, the Hanyu
pinyin phonetic alphabet appears to be a ``golden key'' to knowledge
for primary-school students. Second, the Hanyu pinyin phonetic
alphabet, helps in the popularization of Standard Mandarin Chinese
[Putonghua], helps to eliminate the separating e€ect of local dialects,
assists in economic development, and strengthens the unity of the Chinese
people. (On the ``Z.T.'' experiment see Rohsenow 1996.)
Hanyu pinyin helps to promote cultural exchange between China and
other countries. Globalization is the latest trend in world development,
and China is now quickly entering the world stage. The scope of use
for Chinese characters is enlarging from the circle of those sharing the
Chinese cultural heritage to all the various peoples of the world at large.
The Latin alphabet is the mainstream of modern international writing;
the Latin alphabet is used by more than one hundred countries over the
globe. But [as we have seen], Chinese characters are unlike the Latin
alphabet in being a morphemic writing system. Outside of China itself,
Chinese characters are now used only in Japan and South Korea. For
China to communicate with other countries all over the world, the
Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet is the best medium. First, Hanyu pinyin
makes it easier for non-Chinese to learn the Chinese language. As China
opens up to the world at large, the Chinese characters present the
greatest hindrance. Many foreigners, including those of Chinese ancestry
[born in other countries], ®nd that it is not too dicult to learn spoken
Chinese, but that it is very dicult to learn to read and write Chinese
characters. As for those for whom learning Chinese characters is useful,
they may utilize the Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet to reduce the number
of Chinese characters that they have to learn. For those who have no
need to learn Chinese characters, Hanyu pinyin can help them avoid the

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 119
diculties of Chinese characters altogether. Using Hanyu pinyin can help
them to learn to speak Chinese, which can often be an insoluble problem
using Chinese characters alone. Second, the Hanyu pinyin phonetic
alphabet has replaced the old Post and Telecommunications, Wade-Giles,
and Yale romanization systems originally designed by non-Chinese and
has now achieved international acceptance.9 Hanyu pinyin also makes it
easier for many Chinese words and terms (including personal names
and place names) and even entire phrases and sentences to enter into all of
the world's literatures that employ the Latin alphabet. Writings in
Chinese characters can use the Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet to mix
letters from the Latin alphabet into Chinese character texts for checking
or searching, for example. Having one's name and Chinese passport
written only in Chinese characters is not, good as many customs and
immigration personnel cannot read them, so again Hanyu pinyin must
be used. None of the functions just listed can be accomplished using
Chinese characters alone. In the twenty-®rst century China will open up
even more to the outside world, and contacts between China and other
countries will be even more frequent. How are we to deal with this new
situtation?
The Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet is also helping the Chinese
language to enter the information highway. Human society has already
entered the information age. Information processing means computeriza-
tion. Information processing and the Internet constitute the latest in
high technology; they were both invented in countries where the Latin
alphabet is employed. The Latin alphabet suits these techniques very well,
but Chinese characters do not. However, if we use the Hanyu pinyin
phonetic alphabet [to represent Chinese], we are freed and can use this
new technology just as easily as in English. Hanyu pinyin uses the letters
of the Latin alphabet, and information technology treats everything
encoded in the Latin alphabet equally in the same fashion. The Chinese
language [encoded and being processed or transmitted] is still Chinese,
but by using Hanyu pinyin, we can enjoy all the bene®ts that the Latin
alphabet enjoys at little cost. Many people have had the experience that
it is often inconvenient to transmit [information in] Chinese characters
over the Internet, but it is no problem if one uses Hanyu pinyin.
Some people say, ``We must adapt the machines to the language, not
the reverse.'' This old platitude was also used to oppose writing reform
way back in the May Fourth Movement [of 1919]. But history has already
proved it wrong. When the telegraph was invented in the countries using
the Latin alphabet, Chinese characters were not suited for this new
technology, so the machine was adapted to the [Chinese] writing system,
producing the ``four-digit telegraph code'' [in which every Chinese

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120 Su Peicheng
character was assigned a four-digit number used for encoding telegrams].
But [now] the four-digit telegraph code is to a telegram printed in
Hanyu pinyin as the ox cart is to a railroad train. Again, when the Western
countries that use the Latin alphabet invented the alphabetic typewriter,
Chinese characters were not suited to this technology, and once again
we tried to accommodate the machine to the [Chinese character] writing
system. Thus the heavy, cumbersome Chinese character typewriter was
produced, with the result that we missed out on the age of the mechanical
typewriter. Now in the information society, Chinese characters are
again not suited to many aspects of this new technology, and once again
some people want the machines to adapt to the [Chinese] language. But
such ``Sino®cation'' of the technology would cost both time and money,
and not all of the new technologies can be adapted to suit Chinese
characters. If we continue to rely on the old way of insisting on adapting
the machine to Chinese characters, we will continue to lag behind
others forever. Trying to compete under this kind of disadvantage
can only leave us further behind. In the twenty-®rst century, information
technology will become even more important. How can we deal with
this new situation?

Digraphia is imperative

Digraphia is also called ``One language with two writing systems.'' This
means using two writing systems to write the Chinese language; one way
is to use the traditional Chinese characters ( fangkuaizi), the other way is
to use the newly established Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet. Chinese
characters will be the ®rst writing system and Hanyu pinyin will be
the second writing system. This is the only correct strategy for the twenty-
®rst century. The East has Eastern culture and the West has Western
culture. Digraphia represents a combination of the two cultures. Such
a combination is a necessity for our new age.
In the twenty-®rst century, the ancient Chinese characters should
continue to be used. Thus all of the advantages of the Chinese writing
system will be preserved for a long period without any changes. If we
do this, then we will not have to worry about all the problems that
people [who fear abandoning Chinese characters] have raised, such as
inability to di€erentiate homophones, reading [works written in the old]
literary Chinese, communication between di€erent dialect areas, assum-
ing for the moment that these are in fact problems. In this way, the
status quo will be preserved, and all the functions of the traditional
writing system will be maintained. Of course, to promote eciency in

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 121
Chinese character use, we can make some technical improvements in the
characters. For example, we can work on the so-called ``four standards,''
that is, standardizing the number, the forms, the pronunciation, and the
sequencing of Chinese characters.
We Chinese should actively work on developing Hanyu pinyin. As
noted above, because Chinese characters are not well suited to inter-
cultural exchange and cannot be used for some applications of modern
technology, we must develop a Hanyu pinyin writing system. Note that
the present Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet is not yet a Hanyu pinyin
writing system. From a long-term perspective, merely having a Hanyu
pinyin phonetic alphabet is not enough; we must build a full Hanyu
pinyin writing system on the foundation of the present Hanyu pinyin
phonetic alphabet. In order to do this, we will have to solve the following
kinds of problems. First, we need to standardize the spelling forms and
resolve the problem of [the large number of ] homophones in Chinese.
For example, the monosyllabic word spelled zaÁi [in the falling, fourth
tone] can mean either `again' or `at' [which are expressed by two
completely di€erent Chinese characters]; the two di€erent homophonic
place names both spelled JõÁ XõÁan [all falling, fourth tones], in which
the ®rst JõÁ is represented by two di€erent characters, will also have to
be distinguished in some fashion. Second, we must resolve the problem of
marking the [four] tones [of standard Mandarin Chinese] in the computer.
It is not convenient to use the present system of [diacritical] tone mark-
ings [over the vowels] in computers; we need to use the letters themselves
to represent the di€erent tones.10 Third, we must improve the rules for
Hanyu pinyin orthography and popularize the orthographic rules for
the correct joining of morphemes and separation of words. We already
have the ``Basic Rules for Hanyu Pinyin Orthography'' (Hanyu Pinyin
Zhengcifa Jiben Guize), but they have not been adequately popularized
and promoted. We must actively utilize them and popularize them.

Overcome conservative thinking and actively promote digraphia

The diculties in realizing digraphia lie not in technology, but in

ideology. First we must overcome the strong conservative thinking
about language prevalent in China. Traditional linguistic views still stub-
bornly occupy the territory of our minds, but sooner or later the objective
conditions of reality will force people to change their thinking. The world
is changing and China is changing too. Social changes will inevitably
bring about changes in language. One hundred years ago people primarily
spoke their local dialects and writing was in literary Chinese; Chinese

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122 Su Peicheng
characters were hard to learn and illiteracy was widespread; language
and literature were extremely backward. Today, one hundred years later,
many people speak standard Mandarin ( putonghua) and write in standard
vernacular Chinese (baihuawen); learning Chinese characters has been
made easier by the standardization and simpli®cation of some Chinese
characters. And we now have the Hanyu pinyin phonetic alphabet [as a
notational device] to supplement Chinese characters. One hundred years
ago the writing of Chinese characters employed only the ``four treasures
of the [scholar's] study'' (Wenfang Sibao), that is, writing brushes, ink
sticks, ink slabs, and paper. Today even [some] common people have
personal computers in their homes. This is a great change. It must be
admitted that over the last one hundred years the language and writing
of the Chinese people have greatly progressed. But faced with the even
more intense competition of the twenty-®rst century, we must continue
to advance and to reform those things that are not suitable for social
development. Otherwise, they will in¯uence both our economic and
our cultural development and will hinder China's overall national
development.
In order to overcome conservative thinking, we must examine the past
scienti®cally, opening our eyes to the world and the future; we must look
at China from the perspective of the outside world. Professor Zhou
Youguang has said,

[China has] an ancient and independent civilization. After a long and dicult
isolated evolution, China's cultural path di€ers from that of the New World in
many respects. If China wishes to join up with the contemporary international
direction, it will not be easy. Among the many diculties, the greatest is that of
a change in thinking. Where does a new consciousness come from? It comes
from international information. The more information we have, the more
enlightened our consciousness will be. The more enlightened our consciousness is,
then perhaps the more we can progress (Zhou Youguang 1999: 236).

We must be grateful to the previous generation of [such] scholars who

have pointed the way for us.

Beijing University

Notes

1. This paper was originally presented by Professor Su to the International Conference

on Chinese Character Use and Dissemination organized by Qinghua University in
Beijing, June 22±24, 1999.
2. Su Peicheng is a Professor in the Chinese Language Department at Beijing
University, PRC, and also Chairman of the Study Committee for the Modernization

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 Digraphia: a strategy for Chinese characters 123
of the Chinese Language (a nongovernmental organization). This article was edited and
translated with his permission by Prof. John S. Rohsenow (JSR) of the University of
Illinois at Chicago, USA. The ®nal translation was read and approved by Prof. Su.
Additional information is enclosed in square brackets [like this] and in notes. Following
common Western practice, the tone-marking diacritics that should be placed over the
vowels in the now standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization employed in this article are here
omitted, except in a few crucial examples Ð JSR.
3. Symbols derived from Chinese characters (as are the Japanese kana symbols) represent
the consonant or semivowel ``initial'' sounds and the vowel or vowel-plus-®nal-nasal
``rhymes'' of each syllable.
4. According to DeFrancis (1950: 65) the name was deliberately changed in 1930 ``to
discourage the idea that the symbols might be used as in independent system of
writing.'' DeFrancis (1950) is an excellent introduction to the history of language
reform in China; see also Chen (1999: 141±201) Ð JSR.
5. This system was later called Guoyeu Romatzyh or G.R. for short, meaning `National
Language Romanization'. See DeFrancis (1950: 74) and note 9 below Ð JSR.
6. In December 1985 the Committee for Chinese Language Reform (Wenzi Gaige
Weiyuanhui) was ocially renamed as the State Language Commission (literally: ``The
National Committee for Language and Writing Work''; Guojia Yuyan Wenzi Gongzuo
Weiyuanhui). In March of 1998 the Committee was combined with the Ministry of
Education, but ``preserves its [new] name for external purposes'' Ð JSR.
7. The English word ``morpheme'' is given here in parenthesis in the original Chinese text.
8. Cf. Hanyu Pinyin Cihui (1991: 807±821). The English translation that I did for
the Chinese State Language Commission appears as an appendix in DeFrancis
(1996: 835±845) Ð JSR.
9. On July 27, 1999, Liu Chao-shiuan, Vice Premier of the Nationalist government,
announced that Taiwan would also adopt the Hanyu pinyin alphabet ``due to the
system's widespread international recognition.'' Ð JSR.
10. Such a system re¯ecting the four tones of Mandarin Chinese by changing the spelling of
the basic syllable according to the tone is the so-called Guoyeu Romatzyh or G.R.
system created in 1926 and employed by the late Sino-American linguist Y. R. Chao
(see Chao 1948: 11 and note 5 above) Ð JSR.

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