Chinasage : All about China

Is it a sign of new-found confidence that at least one Chinese blogger has questioned the need to learn the English language?

For at least fifty years the learning of English has been seen as the passport to get that all important better job and get on in life. Early tourists were pestered by the locals honing their English language skills. Many English words like 'coffee' have made their way into the Chinese language.

In his post, Hua Qianfang says that studying the English language was “... a trash skill for most Chinese that wastes countless energy and money and has cost children their childhoods”.

The tables could now be starting to turn with businessmen keen to learn Chinese so they can aspire to land a deal in China without language difficulties. Learning written Chinese is known to be more of a struggle than other languages adding may be a year to achieve the same proficiency in writing. English has been a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum since the 1990s and must be a seen as quite a burden on the young if it is not to be of much use in life.

Although many disagree with the blogger Hua Qianfang, the fact that it is being discussed may mark an important change of direction. Just as English people are among the worst for knowledge of foreign languages it may be that Chinese people will return the compliment.

That judgment may be a bit harsh, the blogger makes it clear that it is technology that is making the vital difference. With modern natural language translation algorithms it is perfectly possible to get by with machine translation now - and this happens in real time. So the need to learn the language has dramatically decreased. Real-time translation is perfectly adequate for day-to-day business dealings but what will be lost is the appreciation of foreign languages and culture.

Image by Mới Ngô from Pixabay

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Some businesses have come under criticism for only accepting electronic payments and not cash. China is leading in the adoption of payment by smartphone (583 million people). In Shenzhen, China's main technology and manufacturing hub, new technology is being tested to let customers pay by just posing in front of a screen. The camera will then use facial recognition to match to an individual and take payment.

It is being tested at the Futian station on Shenzhen's subway network as well as the local branch of KFC. In theory this will work for everyone including the elderly who still carry cash and have no smartphone.

However the state and local authorities are also trialing facial recognition to automatically identify people involved in minor infringements. In one case cameras will spot and identify people who cross the road with the pedestrian crossing sign on red (jay -walker). As these minor infringements end up reducing the overall 'good citizenship' score it is a strong encouragement. A low score makes getting a loan, a house or permits more difficult.

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After the probable extinction of the Yangzi river dolphin - the Baiji (白鱀豚 Bái jì tún) the Chinese are keen to preserve its close relative the finless porpoise 江豚 Jiāng tún - affectionately known as the ‘river pig’. This has involved the introduction of bans on fishing which has caused the many communities to suffer. Zhu Changhong is one such fisherman, he was forced at the beginning of 2019 to give up his fishing boat that had been in his family for generations. In 2000 the Tongling Freshwater Dolphins National Nature Reserve, Anhui was created which included the stretch of Yangzi/Yangtse river he used to fish. Since then the periods of fishing bans has been extended until it was applied to the whole year round. It is not just over fishing that is causing river dolphin population to plummet, increased river traffic and pollution have played their part too.

The Yangzi finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis ssp. asiaeorientalis) is a critically endangered species with only about a thousand individuals remaining, it is often called a river dolphin. Zhu Changhong has been give a new role to which he has adapted, he now patrols the river collecting trash and recording sightings of the porpoises. He collects 441 pounds [200 kgs] of rubbish each day from about 7 miles [12 kms] for which he is paid 600 yuan.

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We've started upgrading our popular quizzes. We have looked at the statistics and we've made some of the questions too hard! We've also trawled the web site for possible new questions and our haul is over 1,100 possible new questions. The first two general quizzes have been updated and more will follow in coming weeks.

For over a century China set the fashion in Europe and America. In fabrics, ceramics, furniture, interior and garden design if you were a person of impeccable taste you would look to China for inspiration. King George IV of Britain, King Louis XV of France and George Washington of America were all fans of Chinoiserie. We've scoured through over a thousand pictures for good examples of the this worldwide style. At times it was a crude approximation and a strange mixture of cultural styles, while at others the Europeans achieved a realistic copy of the Oriental ideal. The Pagoda at Kew Gardens, London and the Brighton Pavilion provide fine examples of this fixation with all things from the East.