Press
Interview with Huang Jiwei
1. What have you been busy with lately?
Outside of work, I’ve been preparing my sharing session for your “StoryDrive Conference” on June 1 ...... I’ve always paid attention to, recorded, searched for and studied stories related to languages. I also have my own WeChat public accounts (Yuwuliaogongmian (与无聊共勉, translated: Mutual encouragement between boredom and I), just a commercial break). However, having to exchange and share with so many experts and peers at the “Conference” is making me really nervous. I’m not very learned or skillful; I don’t want to waste the precious time of my peers.
2. Do Chinese find the Chinese language easy to learn?
If you mean “learn” in the general sense, the Chinese basically don't have to “learn” the Chinese language; otherwise, the concept of “mother tongue” won’t exist. For most Chinese, “mother tongue” is a “default skill” you’re born with. In the 1950s, UNESCO defined “mother tongue” as, “The language a person acquired in early years and that has become his or her natural instrument of thoughts and communication” ...... In this passage, the term “natural” gives much food for thought. My understanding is that the emphasis is on something that’s natural, automatic and tacit. Of course, if, by “learn”, you mean a more thorough, comprehensive and in-depth mastery of the Chinese language, then consistent and continuous learning is imperative. Whether it’s “easy” or “difficult” to learn would depend on the objective, surely? To attain the level achieved by linguistic guru Zhao Yuanren? That would probably be more difficult. To get to the level of famous crosstalk actor Guo Degang? That’s no mean feat either. If however, you want your competency in the Chinese language to better help you communicate and express yourself, that can be achieved. Building competency over time, little strokes fell great oaks ...... that “oak” is the objective.
3. Do foreigners find the Chinese language easy to learn?
My answer is similar to the preceding question. To be sure, getting started would be more difficult for a non-mother tongue learner, but many foreigners are more competent in the Chinese language than the Chinese, and it’s quite common these days. The key is really whether you want to learn, and the level you wish to attain. There’s a section in what is known as “Chinese Level 10 Exam Questions” which states, “Please explain the meaning of “Chinese football teams can’t beat any team”, “Chinese table tennis teams can beat any team ......” - I tell you, for a Chinese language beginner, this question is “Level 10” indeed.
Translator’s note: The original text in Chinese: ‘中国足球谁也赢不了’‘中国乒乓谁也赢不了’- the last five characters of the two phrases are the same, but depending on the context and one’s understanding of Chinese sport, it could mean very different things as the English text above suggests.
4. What does Chinese minimalism and maximalism mean?
“Minimalism” and “maximalism” are two keywords I would like to share with the participants at my StoryDrive session. To put it more generally, these refer to “frugality” and “extravagance” - I’ve observed that in the internet era, held hostage by self-media and smart phones, “frugality” (minimalism) and “extravagance” (maximalism) are very prominent changes amid the numerous changes taking place in the Chinese language - in the language life of contemporary Chinese, particularly that of youths, “minimalism” and “maximalism” are the two most conspicuous variables. The two echo one another and are mirror images. In today’s world, where time, attention span and attentiveness are scarce commodities, “minimalism” or “maximalism” are in fact, at the service of speed. “Highlighting one’s individuality” has become the key content of the life of the language of youths outside of communication and expressions of feelings and ideas. Although the Chinese language is still a high-context text, in today’s fast-paced and rapidly changing internet and self-media world, being tacit, restraint and forbearing are no longer sole Chinese cultural characteristics. In the language life of the younger generation, humility and self-control are now deemed overly old-fashioned. To them, trendy speech, even if it’s self-mockery or self-deprecating, has to be full of peculiarities and spectacular.
5. Do you think the Chinese language is improving?
Chinese is a high-context language. Relatively speaking, therefore, it is a lot more closed than opened. However, as cultural integration continues to increase, pressured by waves of “globalization” and accompanied by the internet, which has moved from being a tech tool to a way of life, openness in the Chinese language has become increasingly apparent. This integration and change in openness have become, and will continue to be, effective drivers of diversity in Chinese language and culture. These will continue to enrich the forms of expression of Chinese language and culture. Today, the foreign language standards of the younger generation of Chinese are getting better. A master once said that the limits of my language mean the limits of my world. For youths who understand one to two, or even two to three foreign languages, their world is a lot broader and deeper than the previous generation. On this basis, can you imagine how rich, open and diverse their language life is? That’s why their “dictionary” is perpetually on update mode; there’s no “final edition”.
6. What impact do you think AI development has on the Chinese language?
I’ve never thought about this before, so I don’t really know what to say, but instinct tells me that AI “meeting” the Chinese language in “complex expressions” could be a pretty knotty issue, won’t it? For instance, “participles in the Chinese language” would be difficult to handle. In contrast, for alphabetic script such as English, the space between words, which serves as a natural demarcation symbol, makes things a lot easier. The demarcation symbol for the Chinese language is based on character, sentence and paragraph, and terms for conveying thoughts or feelings do not have demarcation symbols in form. Therefore, it would be very difficult to subject AI to decide on the correct participle in the Chinese language. A scholar once gave this example. He said that the phrase “those married and those not yet married” may be broken down like this: “those married | monk | those not married”, or like that: “those married | and | those not yet married”. The meanings of this one phrase can be so diverse, would AI be able to demarcate it correctly? As far as I know, however, among those participating in AI research, linguists are a very important category. With them around, I guess AI could be omnipotent? Who knows?
Translator’s note: The original text in Chinese: “结婚的和尚未结婚的”, i.e. “those married and those not yet married”.
If the phrase is broken down as “结婚的|和尚|未结婚的”, it would mean “those married | monk | those not married”. The middle term requires some explanation: the character “尚”, when grouped together with the preceding character “和”, i.e. “和尚”, means “monk”.
If “尚” were to be grouped together with the following character “未”, i.e. “尚未”, the term means “not (未) yet (尚)”; hence, when broken down as “结婚的|和|尚未结婚的”, it would mean: “those married | and | those not yet married.