Ok. Well this topic has been talked to death. But here’s one aspect of pollution in China that you may not have considered: Language Pollution. And this is one that some in government think should be given high priority:

The reliance of mobile phones on foreign corporations’ Chinese character input technology creates at least three major problems. First, foreign corporation’s Chinese character input methods are destroying the traditional patterns for thinking about using Chinese characters and are Westernizing Chinese culture, [causing it to be] alienated and degenerate. Next, foreign corporations are not complying with our country’s compulsory standard of 27,484 characters, using instead only 6,763 characters, which wreaks chaos in the use of Chinese characters, distorts Chinese character text messages, and affects national information security. Also, China spends hundreds of millions of yuan every year on Chinese character input software. Where is the self respect of the [domestic] industry? The dignity and prestige of the culture of Chinese characters — where have they been put? –committee member Chen Duo, source Pinyin News

C’mon Chennie… You’re killin’ me here. My western culture isn’t gonna destroy yours is it? I mean, can’t you be more accomodating and develop a katakana for us like Japan did? As a foreigner in China, my initial reaction is obviously a defensive one. I’m in this country as an outsider, and any negative reaction to me or my culture is naturally gonna put me on edge a little, right?

But then I think about where I’m from. Newfoundland. A Canadian province known for having a dialect of English comparible to how an Irishman might sound if he had a mouthful of codfish and LSD. And I’ll be fucked if we’re not proud of it.

But here’s the kicker. I’ve all but lost my accent. I don’t sound a lot like my parents, and I sound even less like my grandparents. I still have some traces of it, but I have to say I’m sad to see it become so diluted. The fact that the world is getting smaller has made it harder for oddities like Newfie-english to stay pure. But of course, such cultural osmosis is happening everywhere.
(Note: If I said “osmosis” in my everyday speech back home, my friends would have given me a kick in the balls to set me straight.)

And now with China not as isolated as it once was, should they (the Chinese) be defensive about such cultural pollution? As I said, my initial thought is that people like Chen Duo should shut the hell up and focus on the dangerous forms of pollution in China. But then again, if Chinese culture was indeed my culture, would I still feel that way?

When I think about all the changes back in Newfoundland and how my culture has changed, I guess I can see his point. At least, just a little.

P.S. China’s Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: The 2007 NBA All-Star Game from Las Vegas. The Offender: Yoqoo

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