Reassessing the Evidence of Chinese “Character Amnesia”

Increasing numbers of Chinese and Japanese speakers have been reporting that their ability to handwrite Chinese characters has been steadily diminishing, a phenomenon which is most likely a result of the growing reliance upon digital technologies. This so-called “character amnesia” has recently attracted a great deal of concern from a large number of observers, especially within the People's Republic of China. Unsurprisingly, many of the concerned participants involved in the discourse on this issue tend to rely on various empirical means in order to illustrate why they consider “character amnesia” such a worrying phenomenon. This article argues, however, that the bulk of this empirical support is unreliable and/or invalid. The article also suggests possible amendments which could hopefully lead to a better understanding of this important subject. 愈来愈多的说汉语与说日语的人发现, 他们手写汉字的能力一直在持续下降。该现象最有可能的起因是对数字技术日益依赖。这种所谓的 “提笔忘字” 最近引起了广大观察者的强烈担忧, 特别是在中华人民共和国。并不意外的是, 为了解释说明为何 “提笔忘字” 被认为是一种令人担忧的现象, 许多涉及这个话题的参与者们都倾向于依靠各种经验手段来解释。然而本文认为, 这些依靠经验方法支持的大部分是不可靠或无效的。因此本文提出了有可能性的修正, 希望能够更好地理解该重要主题。