（2002）

Author: Compiled by the Editorial Department of ""
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-02-01
Features: A few years ago, I heard about a new magazine in Shanghai called "," which had quite a reputation and dared to correct mistakes made by famous writers and celebrities. It was dedicated to promoting the standardization of language and writing, but unfortunately, I never saw it in Beijing. I once thought that "" was probably just about finding typos. In recent years, typos have been everywhere, even appearing in public publications and on television screens, to the point where "books without typos are rare." Therefore, I strongly support "" in cleaning up the mess in the field of language and writing. Later, I came across the collected edition of "," and once I opened it, I couldn’t put it down. I read it almost in one sitting. I realized I had underestimated ""—it doesn’t just correct typos but also corrects various errors in historical, cultural, and encyclopedic knowledge found in publications. Some articles even provide readers with many small pieces of knowledge that are hard to find elsewhere. For example, "This thing is off!" Why is it called "off"? Where does it come from? (Answer can be found in Issue 4, 2001, page 25 of the magazine). Since I love reading various books and especially those that expand my knowledge, "" is just the kind of magazine for me—I couldn’t put it down after reading it. In 1993, I represented the National Language Commission to inspect social usage of characters in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. In a large shopping mall in Nanjing, I saw the character "" in "" with a duck hat on its right side, written almost like the character "" in "." This wasn’t just about standardization—it was an outright wrong character. When I asked, the answer was that it was written by a famous calligrapher. I said, no matter who they are, the character "" is not written like that—it’s definitely wrong and should be corrected. Later, I didn’t know if it was corrected or not, but it was likely not, because what do a few people who care about language and writing matter? Even a famous calligrapher could make mistakes? This also shows how far "" has to go. What "" actually addresses are various issues reflecting the cultural literacy of its authors, not just whether words are standardized or not. Broadly speaking, this approach to language and writing aligns with the views of most people. For example, if a student writes in an essay that their rooster laid an egg, the teacher shouldn’t just let it go because it involves a knowledge issue, not a typo. In the early days of the reform and opening-up, Comrade Hu Qiaojue reviewed a letter from Wu Shichang, a redologist, to the People’s Daily and made a directive for the paper to improve its language and writing work. However, the two opinions Wu Shichang raised were both factual errors. One was the paper’s unfounded claim that wine was the earliest brewed in China. The other was a report about an acupuncturist who, while testing needles on himself, pricked his uterine ligaments and prostate, asking whether the soldier was male or female. As a result, the People’s Daily held a symposium to discuss how to improve its proofreading and editing work and raise the language and writing standards of the paper. This shows that we cannot exclude the cultivation of historical, cultural, and encyclopedic knowledge from language and writing education. "" is absolutely correct and highly beneficial to tackle these issues. A few years ago, a TV drama had a lady call her husband "," which became a big joke. In real life, many people make jokes because they misunderstand the old-fashioned terms used among scholars and try to use them to show off their cultural sophistication. For example, a scholar younger than me by ten years sent me a photo calling me "," which I found extremely awkward. We’ve never been classmates, so how could there be a ""? And especially ""—I’m not his student, nor am I younger than him. Even if we were classmates, I would be called "," not "." How could he so casually call me ""? In the past, only teachers could call students "," like how Lu Xun always called Xu Guangping "." Among classmates, regardless of age or class rank, everyone was called "." These kinds of errors in historical and cultural knowledge must be avoided and corrected. "" not only criticizes various language and writing errors but also provides a lot of positive knowledge. The articles are concise, witty, and highly engaging to read. However, such a great magazine is hard to find in some places, even in Beijing, and many of the articles criticize authors living in Beijing. I hope "" can strengthen its distribution efforts, open up its operations instead of keeping them closed, and deliver its excellent articles to every corner of the country, especially focusing on culturally advanced regions like Beijing. Developing regions deserve attention, but developed regions deserve even more, because the standardization of language and writing in developed areas has a greater impact on the entire country.