汉字简化小史

On the History of Chinese Simplication

香港教育局计划在中小学语文教育领域提倡识读简体字,仅是计划,尚未行动,引起一些人的反对声,有人甚至指责这是"政治手段",把学校课程"内地化"。笔者认为:汉字从产生之日起,存在简化和繁化两种趋势,但是,简化的趋势总是大于繁化的趋势。让学生识读简体字,是一个文化需要问题,与政治无关。中国人使用简体字,由来已久,并非始于新中国。汉字简化是一种历史趋势,谁也阻挡不了。

There is a news that the Hong Kong Education Bureau plans to advocate reading simplified Chinese in primary and secondary school language curriculum. It is only a plan, not an action. For this news, some people have opposite views, they think that it is a political plot -- which want to change school curriculums to mainland. In the author＇s view, there are two trends -- simplify and complex character from the producing of Chinese. However, simplified trend is always greater than complex one. It is a problem of cultural needs, which wants to let students use simplified character, not related with the politics. It is a historical trend that using simplified Chinese characters.