您现在的位置: Language Tips> Columnist> Liu Shinan  
 





 
Letters of yester years
[ 2007-10-10 11:46 ]

When did you last write - I mean in the real sense, i.e. a handwritten letter - to your parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives or friends who live apart from you? To this question, most people would answer "years ago".

I know I would be jeered by a number of my regular critics, who would say: "Listen, this old foggy is harping on the good old days again."

Wait a minute. Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming modern technology for the disappearance of handwritten letters; instead, I'm blaming modern men (me included) of becoming lazy and less attached to kinship while enjoying the ease and convenience afforded by modern technology.

Take greetings between family members and friends at festivals. Chinese people wrote letters to their kinfolk and friends to express good wishes during traditional festivals before the telephone became popular in the early 1990s in cities and about a decade later in rural areas.

E-mails were soon bypassed as mobile phone text messaging began to sweep across the nation as the dominant carrier of festival correspondence in the early 2000s. The fast, ubiquitous, low-cost messenger prevails over any other form of communication where speed is concerned. And the broadcasting function of a cell phone makes it easy to send one message to a number of receivers with just a click.

The new technology even created a new occupation. In 2002, "professional writers of short messages", appeared producing ready text passages for various occasions: New Year greetings, marriage congratulations, sickness condolences, and so on.

At first, people were attracted by the witty, metaphorical and philosophical messages written by the "professional writers". But they soon got bored because they often received the same message from their colleagues, friends and family members. The identical texts ruined the sincerity of the greetings. Now people have resumed writing their own messages - with a statement that it is their "own creation".

However, for people who used to communicate through handwritten letters, neither an e-mail nor a cell phone message can match a traditional letter. The lifeless print characters on the screen of a computer or cell phone never conveys an affectionate association as is described by a traditional Chinese saying: "The seeing of the handwriting is like seeing the writer him/herself." The modern "letters" may even cause a sense of unreality on the part of the receiver: "Is this really written by him/her?"

In the just past Mid-Autumn Festival, the Nanjing Normal University urged its students to hand write a letter to their parents. It was the first ever handwritten letter the students had sent to their parents. They felt great pleasure in doing so and their parents were greatly moved. A mother wrote back to her daughter saying that the day she received the letter was "the happiest day in my life".

All Chinese who have read Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) verses remember this line of the great poet Du Fu: "A letter from home is worth 10,000 liang (a weight unit) in gold "

A "letter from home" has served as an emotional bond between family members and friends. It is also part of Chinese culture for it is a carrier of etiquette, calligraphy and literature. We should not abandon this part of our culture. At least we can urge young people to regularly write to their parents like what the Nanjing university did.


Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn           

(China Daily 10/10/2007 page10)

 我要看更多专栏文章

 

 

About the author:
 

刘式南 高级编辑。1968年毕业于武汉华中师范学院(现华中师范大学)英文系。1982年毕业于北京体育学院(现北京体育大学)研究生院体育情报专业。1982年进入中国日报社,先后担任体育记者、时政记者、国际新闻编辑、要闻版责任编辑、发稿部主任、《上海英文星报》总编辑、《中国商业周刊》总编辑等职。现任《中国日报》总编辑助理及专栏作家。1997年获国务院“特殊贡献专家政府津贴”。2000年被中华全国新闻工作者协会授予“全国百佳新闻工作者”称号。2006年获中国新闻奖二等奖(编辑)。

 
 
相关文章 Related Stories
 
         
 
 
 
 
 
         

 

 

 
 

48小时内最热门

     
  Lewis Hamilton 刘易斯•汉密尔顿
  “爽约”怎么说
  下午茶的起源
  全球变暖 海象“搬家”
  安妮斯顿获封“封面王”

本频道最新推荐

     
  Slippery slope?
  “酒后驾车”还是“边开车边喝酒”?
  A case of overlooked talent
  Cut no ice?
  此肉非彼肉

论坛热贴

     
  “净脸联盟”两周年——迎国庆特别活动启动
  how to translate“三局两胜”
  知青 农民工 怎么翻译
  "魅力城市" 英文怎么说?
  请教:统一口径的译法
  Mountain Story 大山的故事