2002 Year-End Issue (Simplified Edition)

Author: Editorial Department of This Book
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: A few years ago, I heard about a new magazine in Shanghai called Yao Wen Jiao Zi (Chewing on Words), which had a considerable reputation and dared to correct mistakes made by celebrities and big names. It was dedicated to promoting the standardization of language and writing. Unfortunately, I never saw it in Beijing. I once thought Yao Wen Jiao Zi was probably solely focused on finding typos. In recent years, typos have been everywhere, even in published materials and on television screens, to the point where "a book without errors is rare." Therefore, I strongly support Yao Wen Jiao Zi in cleaning up the mess in the field of language and writing. Later, I came across a collected edition of Yao Wen Jiao Zi, and once I opened it, I couldn’t put it down. I read it almost in one sitting. I realized I had underestimated Yao Wen Jiao Zi—it doesn’t just correct typos but also addresses various errors in historical, cultural, and encyclopedic knowledge in publications. Some articles even provide readers with small but hard-to-find knowledge. 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, Yao Wen Jiao Zi was right up my alley, and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading it. In 1993, I represented the National Language Commission in a check of social usage of characters in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. In a large shopping mall in Nanjing, I saw the character "" (field) in "" (shopping mall) with a duck hat on its right side, almost identical to the character "" (injury) in "" (wounded soldier). This wasn’t just about standardization—it was a clear mistake. When I asked, the answer was that it was written by a famous calligrapher. I said, "Regardless of who they are, the character '' is not written like this—it’s wrong and should be corrected." I don’t know if it was corrected later, but it likely wasn’t, 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 Yao Wen Jiao Zi has to go. The issues Yao Wen Jiao Zi addresses are actually reflections of the author’s cultural literacy in various aspects, not just whether words are standardized or not. Broadly speaking, this approach to language and writing aligns with the views of most people. For instance, if a student writes in an essay that their rooster laid an egg, a 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 Qiaojun 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 suggestions Wu raised were factual errors. One was the paper’s unfounded claim that China was the earliest to brew wine. 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 historical, cultural, and encyclopedic knowledge cannot be excluded from language and writing cultivation. Yao Wen Jiao Zi is absolutely correct and highly beneficial to tackle these issues. A few years ago, a TV drama had a lady call her husband "wai zi," 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 culture. For example, a scholar younger than me by ten years sent me a photo calling me "Xue Xiong" (Brother in Learning). I felt extremely uncomfortable. We had no student-teacher relationship, so how could there be "Xue"? Especially "Xiong"—I’m not his student, and I’m older than him. Even if we were classmates, I would be called "Xue Xue" (Senior in Learning), not "Xiong." In the past, only teachers could call students "Xiong," like how Lu Xun always called Xu Guangping "Guangping Xiong." Among classmates, regardless of age or class rank, everyone was called "Xue Xue." These kinds of errors in historical and cultural knowledge must be avoided and corrected. Yao Wen Jiao Zi 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 Yao Wen Jiao Zi strengthens its distribution efforts, opens its doors, and doesn’t close them, delivering its excellent articles to every corner of the country, especially in culturally advanced areas like Beijing. Developing regions should be paid attention to, but developed regions are even more important, because the language and writing standards in developed areas have a greater impact on the entire country.