郑州新郑机场 国际航班:"提笔忘字"是退化还是进化？

        昨天看到一篇报道，说由于中国年轻人习惯于使用手机、电脑来进行拼音打字，久而久之书写汉字的能力逐渐退化，越来越多语文教育者也体认到这样的情况。这是源自洛杉矶时报7月12日的一篇报导，原文题目是China worries about losing its character(s)——“中国担心丢失自己的特色(文字)”，还配了这幅照片（洛杉矶时报文章译文及英语原文附后供参考）。         我读了这篇报道后，发了一个微博：                洛杉矶时报报导，许多中国年轻人由于依赖打字，因而提笔忘字。报导中引用中国青年报在今年四月的调查，在受访的2072人当中，有高达83%的人坦承有提笔忘字的问题。报导当中访问一名18岁的大学新生程京（音译），他说连写下“再见”两字，都曾经让他迟疑，因为不确定“再”（zai）这个字，写的对不对。         这段微博因为有陈志武、闾丘露薇的转发，引起了很多网友的关注。从留言看，很多网友们从自身的体验都认为“提笔忘字”是个客观存在： 一氺盈盈：9494艾，我曾经也有这样的感受，提笔想不起字怎么写拉～ stormtrooper：我也四 上海CEO俱乐部： 转发此微博:我的一手好字，也是被键盘废掉的。 伸懒腰的喵：很多时候认为人是在慢慢退化，忘字症，自我诊断——轻度患者 Zhirong：别说18岁的孩子，就连现在让我提笔，也写都不会字了。更现实的是电脑已不仅仅是人的手和笔这么简单了，他所取代的已超出了我们的想象 小宝宝的奥特曼：我最后一次大规模写字，是期末考试…… 芭月晴明：非常严重的提笔忘字...羞愧ing 珠簾寨主：我现在常会写成汉语拼音，一上手就写字母。 Chocolating：经常拿手机打字确认下… SiLvIa_Li：我今天就忘了“浴缸”的“缸”怎麼寫…… windlala：今早就有在纠结“蜗”字怎么写，幸亏最终想起了。现状就是这样的 21陆振华 ：今天就忘了油罐的罐字怎么写。呃。。。 夹缝见曙光 :以后写字会不会成为专业呢 —池小州：我也是，稍复杂的字都要先反应一下。 我叫JJ：偶已经不会写字了，电脑里出现的字就像一个个字符画，看着极其面熟。闭上眼却描绘不出他们的样子 孤帆搏浪：是的，这种现象很普遍了，到时，估计我们想用笔写出一份完整的文章都难了。 罗拉摩托： 我承认我有这种情况 susu123：的确如此，从繁体到简体再到如今提笔忘字~悲哀啊~ 双城之畔：我也有过忘字的经历。汉字，将会被汉语拼音化，符号化（火星文之类）的文字。而且，书法，也更很快申请成为世界文化遗产。 OJ123 早就遇到这个问题了。特别是现时拼音的打字法，为了加快打字速度，通常词组或几个词连打。在手机中，字库沒那么大，一旦失去自动组词的功能，连字都不敢太肯定。所以，最近我逼自己边看报纸边写字。 邹鲁野人：我覺得挺嚴重的。我就經常這樣，想不出來的字就拿手機打出來看，科技雖然方便，但太依賴這些科技反而會失去一些東西。 yyssyzh： 一种先进的手段的运用，却废了人的本能。我们都有体会。实际上，汉字输入也不是太熟练。 米兰的兰：  好多字要想半天才回写 八点购物商城：有代表性，一个常用字，写出来你盯盯着看10秒，越看越不象，电脑打字更促长了人的不自信。这是不是也算电脑信赖症的一种？ fannie小仙：无奈自己小时候还天天练字来着。估计那时候我爸是没料到我们这无纸化进城的速度之迅速，不过，一手好字仍然有其无可替代的重要性。 李江博 ：这确实是一个可悲的事情，我现在写字的时候提笔忘字就赶紧拿出手机打出来确认是否正确后再写，唉。 Yu淤鱼与钰娱：我更多的时候是，提笔写拼音 猫镭：连我这种语文基础不错的70后都开始出现这问题了…… lalabear：我提笔忘字得厉害，发短信时经常因为字不会写而切换到拼音输入法，考试的时候也常因想写的字不会写而不得不另换他词。 布丝鱼：我是半文盲，只会拼音认字，早不会写了。开会时会议纪要让我很头疼，得挡着怕别人看见我的错别字和拼音。         面对“提笔忘字”的现实，有许多网友们的立场就是 “面对现实”，甚至认为是时代的必然。其中陈志武先生的评论最有代表性： 陈志武：我们可能只能接受这一新现实了，今后电脑就是人的手和笔。不能因为这个趋势而重新逼着人们去用手写字、重复练字。 小飞羊：早料到了这种现实，小时候我妈让我练字，我就说以后都是电脑办公，不需要，就不练，哈哈哈哈 潘明煦： 那又如何？？不过证明了写字这件事不是那么必须… 我是太海：是的，正如现在已经很少有人会在竹板上刻字一样。电脑用得多，纸笔用得少，自然就会是电脑熟练而写字生疏了。不过还是要多练字，很多场合还是要用的。 寒沐春华：人类正朝着Wall•E中所描绘的方向进化 Amygdala：文字的书写也需经过淘汰与演化。如果有用，自然还有许多人努力练习的。这样的调查比较糖水 飘来飘去的围脖：画家与书法家会越来越珍贵。不要悲观。一切都是可以平衡的。 懒人必肥：繁体字和毛笔也曾有类似的烦恼。 白太明：这个问题不好说. 这不像从毛笔到钢笔那样的转变。 深创投格日勒图： 电脑是新的笔和纸 周煜颖：有这种现象，但我觉得没有统计数据所显示的严重，有提笔忘字的问题正常不过。目前来讲，中学校园教育基本都还是动笔学习的，所以不用太严重化这个问题。 饿了吃馒头：书法会更加值钱的。 咏涛 ：未来，写字是一门艺术。会写的都是艺术家 沈嘉柯：这个道理如同我们人类学会了直立行走后，是不想退回爬行的。极少数爬行爱好者自便。互不干扰 子柬：在全球一体化时代，英文对世界的影响会更广泛一些，而中文推向世界似乎比较难，另外用什么语言文字和方式表达并不重要，重要的是你表达的内容和意义是否与时代同步，信息技术革命的浪潮将引领社会向更高、更宽‘更广的领域迅速崛起。 陈俊酉：手寫幾乎要退出實用領域了。有了短信和電郵，書信和便條不寫了。現在手寫的東西好像只剩下簽批文件了。 小常羲：我真的觉得我已经习惯打字了,谁叫我写字难看呢(摊手) 但是有的人写字很漂亮,他写字的形式感就大于其内容本身。 静水流深之围脖：时代在进步，有些东西一直在被抛弃，比如书信！ 水果拼盘武士G：以后的孩子看我们这代人会写汉字，或许就像我看我爷爷会写繁体字一样惊讶。         当然，也还是有许多网友不甘心面对这样的现实而失去自己的特色文字，纷纷献计献策（其中不乏“五笔”的粉丝）： Arusa：用五笔的人表示鸭梨不大 空强bmk2slash：经常练字的人表示鸭梨不大 heechul0819：建议国家颁布条例规定每天练字100个 小二子：可是练自己的文字都写不好的民族是可悲的。。不能赞同陈志武的观点。。 张力奋：要自觉地保护手写。 罗袜生尘的老婆：字是我们传统文化的一部分,写字是一门艺术,是中国传承下来的文化,不应放弃,还是应该练字！ 冰国雪乡：写字的基本功还是要的，尤其是中小学生，听说上海要在中小学推广电子书，如果继续发展下去恐怕就要在中小学开始使用电脑打字，那才是令人担忧的。 半罐可乐：可以在写作草稿的时後用手和笔。 macadam：我们不能丢弃最本能的东西，那是我们应对最低生活条件的保障~ps：从今天起每天便签记录点滴~ mycola：这年头写字的机会是越来越少了。虽然机会少了，但是基本的东西也忘了不应该。给自己找机会练练。 片言只语总有意：写字甚或练字，还是需要的，这是不一般的传统，理应传承再传承！ 李泽生V：可当写字为一项有益的运动而对待之。 偶尔偏移：转发此微博:或许提倡五笔输入法，抛弃拼音输入法会改善这种情况 曾顾曲：这个故事告诉我们，请用五笔输入法~~ 董Funfun 转发此微博：我觉得提笔忘字是脑子变笨的表现，所以我的日记全部手写在本子上。经常写字有利于预防老年痴呆…嗯… 小新闻眼：每天都要动动笔，否则长此以往不是手畸形就是脑萎缩。 陈福广：用五笔吧 我一直奇怪，整天用电脑的人竟然用拼音打字。还是五笔快。苦练三天终生受益！！！ 无为自然超逸：如果有一天没电了，电脑坏了，我们就都成“文盲”了！当前的“书法”为艺术而作并不以实用为上，所以很难超越古人；难道文字也要走到这一步？被电脑挤兑得下笔无言？这个问题需要社会关注和适当的引导！ tangyc：汉字是我国文化的基础，汉字发展的历史就是中华文化的历史，不能只是接受现状，必须保护我们的文字。很多公司比如汉王在做的就是这件事。 叶绿素：介都是打拼音的杯具，母们打五笔的从来就不会提笔忘字，最多就是字写得难看些。 macadam：我们不能丢弃最本能的东西，那是我们应对最低生活条件的保障~ps：从今天起每天便签记录点滴~ 小的米：不用逼，该是时候创造一种手写代替打字的电脑屏幕了 doraepig：我绝对要求我儿子或我闺女练字，至少不能写的比他爸还丑吧 MissChildren：我每天都写钢笔字耶，我真是个靠谱的年轻人！         美国《洛杉矶时报》文章：中国担忧忘掉汉字——越来越多中国人发现自己常常忘记如何正确书写某个汉字。         在手机和电脑上打字替代了汉字的书写笔画。许多中国人需要匆忙记录几个词时，才意识到完全不记得该怎么写。 马斯朗（音）高中毕业后去伦敦读了三年摄影，之后买了第一台电脑，从此他就开始逐渐忘记汉字书写了。 现如今这位30岁的时尚摄影师用母语书写就有困难，有天他要写个购物清单，突然发觉自己忘了该如何用汉字写“香波”。 他正在北京的苹果电脑店送修电脑，从自己的iPhone手机上抬头看了一眼说，“不可避免的我们会忘掉汉字，除非每周花几个小时练习写字，可谁又有这些时间呢？”         这是新形式的文盲，或者更确切的说：书写困难症，而且是中国独有的。病源就是类似苹果电脑店的地方，就是为中国的电脑科技迷而建。典型受害人就是马斯朗这样的人，穿条纹T恤衫、短裤和人字拖，看起来就像著名服装品牌拉夫•劳伦（Ralph Lauren）广告里的男主角，年轻富裕又受过良好教育。         人们拥有的科技产品越多，比如手机、智能手机和电脑，手写汉字机会就越少。不管是在电脑或手机上，大部分中国人都使用汉语拼音输入，这是种常用的中文罗马拼写法，加上presto手机软件，人们就可以输入汉字了。不用手忙脚乱，也不用钢笔铅笔，更不用毛笔研墨。 “除了姓名地址，人们再也不用手书写任何汉字，”马斯朗承认这一点。         几乎你遇到的任何中国人都坦诚自己记忆力衰退，就像患老年痴呆的某个状态。握紧笔的手在纸上要写字时，突然出现了尴尬的停顿，而这些字在孩提时代不知道学习、重复默写过多少次。 《中国青年报》今年4月一项投票结果显示，2072名投票人中有83%承认有书写困难问题，这种现象很寻常以至于产生了专有名词：提笔忘字。         “有天我要写个便条，写｀再见＇两字时，有点反应迟钝，因为我不确定我写那个｀再＇字对不对，”18岁的大一新生程京（音）说。 某种程度上，类似的问题在世界任何地方都存在，人们越来越依赖科技而不是记忆，类似将大脑功能外包，许多论文都提出这个问题：计算机和互联网是否毁了人类的智力。          中国的情况则上升到了文化危机的高度，因为汉字比其它更能代表几千年传统生活的缩影。 汉字是世界上最古老的书写系统，持续使用至今；今天使用的汉字可追溯到公元前1200年前刻在龟甲上的象形文字。 尽管毛泽东1950年代指示将许多汉字简化，便于提高识字率，中国的儿童还是花大量时间记忆重复汉字写法。学生15岁之前每天都会有4到5小时时间练字，9年里至少要会写3000个汉字。不过在中国文化中，书写不仅仅是为了交流，还是一种艺术和精神锻炼，许多人相信书法能够帮助集中精神，延年益寿，甚至提高武术技巧。 　　“这些汉字存在于每个中国人的灵魂深处，”38岁的书法老师王健学（音）说，来自哈尔滨的他正在琉璃厂街的书店翻阅书架上的书籍。琉璃厂里有许多商店卖毛笔、砚台、拓片、卷轴和古玩。“中国必须靠文字来维持自身的独特性。文字是我们的文化遗产。计算机只是个工具。”店外一名男子身着白衣，正在马路上用水写字，他用来写字的东西看起来更像海绵拖把而不是毛笔。“这是我的爱好，” 41岁的王加中（音）说，他写了“春和怡荡”，然后看着字迹在烈日下蒸发消失。        “中国人现在只关心物质生活。甚至日本和韩国练习书法的人都比中国的多。这事儿怎么会发生在汉字的发源地？”他抱怨说。“政府得做点事儿。没有政府介入，人们不会关注。”         实际上中国政府已开始关注此事。2008年教育部咨询了3000名老师，发现有60%的老师抱怨学生书写能力持续下降。因此，教育部去年开展了一项书法竞赛，有1000万参与者，该试点项目旨在让更多学生练字。 “不是为了写漂亮的书法，”负责该项目的教育部官员于虹说。“我们就是想帮助学生重新开始写字。” 　　手写汉字的减少可能和手机更相关，而不是计算机的使用。中国人比世界其他国家的人更爱发短信，或许因为这种交流方式不那么昂贵，因为中文能用更少的字表达更多信息。 手机配备了手写笔和触摸屏后，你就可以写出你想要发送的内容，许多上年纪的中国人更偏爱这种方法。不过年轻人更熟悉字母，会用拼音或者缩写发送消息。 　　针对该问题，去年教育界人士召开了首个全国性会议。讨论补救措施时，有人要求大学生论文要手写，这或许能取得额外收益，假如学生们剽窃论文，从互联网剪贴粘贴内容时更困难。  “我跟我的学生说，我觉得看他们的手写体很愉快，不过我许多同事坦白说不愿意这么麻烦，”广西大学教授陆灵霄（音）说，他参加了在南宁召开的会议。“要是我的同事和政府都不能认真对待，我担心人们的识字水平会遭殃。” 　　许多年轻人对此事足够关切，自己要去学习书法。　“要保留中国文化需要付出巨大努力。和保护这些胡同一样。”北京24岁的大学毕业生朱林飞（音）说，她提到了古老的北京胡同，现在正快速消失在拆迁的铁锤下。朱和她同学在逛琉璃厂这些老书店，要买些书法方面的书籍，她估计自己高中时认识的汉字已经忘了20%。     　“不过这也不是什么大问题，”她说。“要是哪个字我不认识，拿手机查下就行了。” 洛杉矶时报报道原文：
China worries about losing its character(s)
More and more Chinese are realizing they can't remember exactly how to write a given character.
COLUMN ONE
July 12, 2010|By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Beijing — Texting and typing are replacing the elaborate strokes that make up written Chinese. And when it comes time to jot down a few words, more Chinese are realizing they can't remember exactly how.
For Ma Silang, the long descent into forgetfulness began after he graduated from high school, went off to London for three years to study photography and bought his first computer.
 
Now the 30-year-old fashion photographer, a native Beijinger, has such difficulty writing in his mother tongue that the other day when he was scribbling a shopping list for himself he suddenly realized that he had forgotten one of two characters that make up the Chinese word for "shampoo."
"It is inevitable that we forget our Chinese characters unless we make a special effort to practice writing a few hours each week, and who has time for that?" said Ma, looking up from an iPhone on which he was tapping a message while waiting for his MacBook to be repaired at Beijing's Apple store.
This is a strange new form of illiteracy — or, more exactly, dysgraphia, the inability to write — that is peculiar to China. The epicenter of the contagion is in places like the Apple store, a multilevel, glass-facaded emporium for China's tech-savvy.
The typical victim is someone like Ma — dressed in a pinstriped, button-down shirt, Bermuda shorts and loafers, he looks as if he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad — who is young, well-educated and affluent.
The more gadgets people own — cellphones, smart phones, computers — the less often they go through the elaborate sequence of strokes that make up Chinese characters. Whether on their computers or texting on phones, most Chinese use a system where they type out the sound of the word in Pinyin, the most commonly used Romanization system — and presto, they are given a choice of characters to use.
No muss, no fuss, no pens, no pencils — not to speak of inkwells and calligraphy brushes.
"People don't write anything by hand anymore except for name and address," admitted Ma.
Almost any Chinese person you meet will confess to a lapse of memory, almost like a senior moment. The hand clutching the pen or pencil is poised above a sheet of paper about to write a character learned in childhood and memorized in countless repetitions when — suddenly — an embarrassing pause.
In an April poll commissioned by the China Youth Daily, 83% of the 2,072 respondents acknowledged problems with writing characters. The phenomenon is so common that there is even a name for it, tibiwangzi, which translates to "take pen, forget character."
"The other day I was writing a note by hand and when I came to the word zaijian [goodbye], I did sort of a double-take because I wasn't sure I'd written the zai correctly," said 18-year-old Cheng Jing, a college freshman.
To some extent, similar problems arise anywhere that people rely on technology rather than memory — outsourcing of the brain, as they call it in the many treatises that address the question of whether computers and the Internet are stifling our intelligence.
In China, the situation rises to the level of a cultural crisis since the characters, more than any other facet of life, epitomize thousands of years of tradition.
Chinese is the oldest continuously used writing system in the world; the characters used today can be traced to pictographs found on bones and turtle shells dating to 1200 BC.
Even though in the 1950s Mao Tse-tung ordered the simplification of many characters to promote wider literacy, much of childhood in China is still spent memorizing and copying. By the time students are 15, they will have spent about four to five hours per day over nine years learning to write a minimum of 3,000 characters.
Writing, moreover, is not merely about communication — in Chinese culture, it is an art form and spiritual exercise, believed by some to improve concentration, longevity and even martial arts skills.
"These characters are in the soul of every Chinese person," said Wang Jianxue, a 38-year-old calligraphy teacher from Harbin who was lovingly leafing through the stacks at a bookstore in Liulichang, a street of quiet shops that sell brushes, ink stones, rubbings, scrolls and curios. "The nation has to maintain its personality through its characters. They are our cultural heritage. The computer is just a tool."
Outside the shop, a man in white silk pajamas traced characters in water on the pavement with a device that looked more like a sponge mop than a brush. "This is my hobby," 41-year-old Wang Jiazhong said as he wrote out the characters meaning "beautiful spring day" and then watched them disappear as the water evaporated in the beating sun.
"Chinese people these days care only about material life. Even in Japan and Korea more people practice calligraphy than here. How could such a thing happen when the characters began here?" he complained. "The government has to do something. Without government intervention, people won't pay attention."
In fact, the Chinese government is beginning to take notice. In 2008, the Education Ministry surveyed 3,000 teachers around the country and found 60% complaining about declining writing ability. As a result, the ministry last year launched a writing competition with 10 million participants and has begun pilot programs to make students do more handwriting.
"It is not about producing beautiful calligraphy," said Yu Hong, who runs the ministry's program on writing language. "We want to help students to come back to writing again."
The decline of handwriting probably has less to do with the computer than the cellphone. The Chinese do more text messaging than anybody else in the world, perhaps because it is an inexpensive way to communicate and because the Chinese language can squeeze a lot of information into a small space. (One example is a single character, pronounced "zha," which means the red dots that appear on your nose when you are drunk.)
With cellphones that have a stylus and touch screen, you can draw the character you want to text, and many older Chinese prefer that method. But younger Chinese, who are more comfortable with the alphabet, will write out the Romanized version of the word — or an abbreviation, such as "bei" for Beijing.
Last year, educators held the first nationwide conference on the issue. Among the remedial measures discussed is requiring college students to write out papers by hand, which would have the added benefit of making it harder for them to plagiarize by cutting and pasting text from the Internet.
"I tell my students I find reading their handwriting to be a pleasure, but most of my colleagues frankly don't want to bother," said Lu Lingxiao, a professor at Guangxi University, who was a participant at the conference in the southern city of Nanning. "If my colleagues and the government don't start taking it seriously, I worry that our level of literacy will suffer."
Many young Chinese are sufficiently concerned that they have taken it upon themselves to study calligraphy.
"It will take a lot of effort to preserve our Chinese characters. It is the same way they try to preserve these old hutongs," said Zhu Linfei, 24, a Beijing graduate student, referring to the traditional Beijing alleys, now rapidly succumbing to the wrecking ball.
Zhu, who was touring the old bookstores of Liulichang with her classmates to buy calligraphy books, estimated that she had already forgotten about 20% of the characters she knew in high school.
"But it's not such a big problem," she said. "If I don't know a character, I take out my cellphone to check."
barbara.demick@latimes.com
Nicole Liu and Tommy Yang of The Times' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.