[Foundation-l] Klassical Chinese

[Aphaia]

Hi,
thank you for your positive feedback, Ting Chen,

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 11:23 PM, Ting Chen <wing.philopp at gmx.de> wrote:
> I agree with you totally that the Classic Chinese has a tremendous
> cultural value. I myself had studied it from the fifth class until to
> the eleventh class. And among the few books I took from China to Germany
> and kept them through all my movings was Guwen Guanzhi
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guwen_Guanzhi). I am a big fan of some
> articles collected in that book. I can read texts from Zhou until the
> Qing-dynasty and had wrote classical poems at my youth myself. That's
> not the question.
>
> I also totally agree with you and Tim and Aphaia that it is important to
> keep this cultural value and maybe find some place in our projects to
> keep it alive.
>
> What I wonder is, is there a meaning to write an encyclopedia with this
> language. Who would look for Olympic Games in a classical chinese
> Wikipedia, except the people who write the article themselves?

It may be as same as the discussion on Latin Wikipedia when we
discussed what word was the most appropriate for "links" (then we
decided nexus would be) or an unfinished discussion  if Classical or
ecclesiastic Latin should be picked up for "spoken" Latin Wikiquote
for the sake of NPOV ...

On the other hand, I totally agree with you and H.T.Chien that
literacy in Classical Chinese is a lively part of our common tradition
and Wikimedia project as the sum of human knowledge shouldn't lack it.
Maybe writing an article in Classic Chinese could fit more to a course
of Wikiversity, but I am not sure about it.

Another problem in this sphere might be to introduce auto-conversion
to zhwikisource; currently some classical texts are available only in
simplified Chinese, and it makes its portability less to the text
traditional Chinese is preferred in my humble opinion.

> Ting
>
> Ted (Hsiang-Tai) Chien wrote:
>
>> Personally I do not think Classical Chinese is a dead language. Here in
>> Taiwan I studied Classical Chinese when I'm in school (junior / senior
>> high). In our higher education, Classical Chinese is an optional subject as
>> common sense course. And we still have lots of poem writers here using the
>> language.
>>
>> As Aphaia previously stated, Japanese people are also using the Classical
>> Chinese in their daily lives, maybe more than Chinese people.
>>
>> If you think the language is dead, it's your own opinion. It's still alive
>> somewhere in the world. But, yap, it might be my own opinion, too. ;)
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ted / H.T.
>> User:Htchien
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Ting Chen
>>> Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 2:12 PM
>>> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
>>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Klassical Chinese
>>>
>>> Jesse Plamondon-Willard wrote:
>>>
>>>> Tim Starling <tstarling at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Because at the time it was created, we had not yet given [...]
>>>>> team of rules lawyers the power to decide all wiki creation issues.
>>>>>
>> There
>>
>>>>> was a sentiment that we as a community should make our own decisions
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Tim Starling <tstarling at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Sounds like a reasonable compromise. Have the Board approve it and
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> No community decision? :)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> That's the reason why I put the question here.
>>>
>>> Ting
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> foundation-l mailing list
>>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> foundation-l mailing list
>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>



-- 
KIZU Naoko
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Britty (in Japanese)
Quote of the Day (English): http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/WQ:QOTD