Oracle - Chapter 21

After a forgettable Chapter 21 involving a foreign affairs trip by President Bush, the interlude that followed was very thought provoking. Hessler traces the history of the Chinese writing system and the attempts at writing reform during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Unlike ancient Sumerian cuneiform or Egyptian hieroglyphics which eventually evolved into an alphabetic system, the Chinese writing system as stayed logographic throughout the years. In other words, syllables were depicted with individual symbols, making the total number of required symbols much greater and less flexible than other systems. Additionally, there is no way to develop vernacular writing systems without creating whole new characters. Thus, while cultures using Latin could diverge because alphabetization allowed vernacularization, Chinese culture was kept close-knit because they were united by a common, logographic writing system (which was usually vastly different from spoken languages in different regions).

Its thought that the logographic system was maintained because of Chinese conservative culture and Confucian idealization of the past. In contrast, Mao's Cultural Revolution called for a reform for the writing system. Many ideas come forth, including adopting the Latin alphabet or creating an entirely new Chinese alphabet, but they never were implemented. Regardless, "rightists" like Chen Mengjia were criticized for wanting to preserve the archiac, logographic system.