联络口译第八单元

第八单元教育交流Education Exchange

第一部分背景知识

Chinese characters have evolved through time.

If you look at the history of Chinese characters as a whole, you will find that simplification is the general trend. As a matter of fact, simplification developed sequentially. First, the Chinese characters fonts changed then the character’s structure changed. Font-wise, modern Chinese characters have fewer curves and more vertical and horizontal strokes and dashes compared with their ancestors. Structure-wise, they have fewer strokes and dashes, appearing more abstract than their traditional versions. However, calligraphy experts and linguists did not create the simplified form of the characters. They evolved as a communicative tool in ordinary people’s daily lives. As far back as the fourth century, there were already simplified Chinese characters. In the Sui and Tang dynasties(581-907) simplified characters were extensively used. These were called “folk characters”. About 80 percent of simplified characters in use nowadays date back to before the Qing Dynasty(1616-1911).

The promotion of simplified Chinese characters in modern times began with the New Culture Movement in the creation of a new Chinese characters reflecting Western concepts of democracy and science.

In 1956, the State Council issued its Simplification Plan for Chinese characters. In the plan,a total of 515 simplified Chinese characters and 54 radicals, or Chinese characters components, were highlighted by the government, making more than two thousand simplified Chinese characters official. Previously, “folk characters” were used only on hand written billboards and personal notes. Now they were deemed by the government as official.

第三部分：单句口译

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