[Wikipedia-l] Re: Q1 2005 Fund Drive over

[Felix Wan]

On Tue, March 1, 2005 10:00 am, Delirium said:
> Mark Williamson wrote:
>
>> Some people may not think it is notable, but to give a local example
>> drives home that Wikipedia is very diverse. If you are presenting in
>> China, please don't forget to mention that we have places for people
>> to build Wikipedias in Yi, Zhuang, Tibetan, Uyghur, and many other
>> languages.
>>
> I don't disagree with this, but it's probably worth noting that
> languages are intimately connected to culture, nationalism, and
> politics, so when to mention what can sometimes be a sensitive
> issue. In China, in particular, promoting of regional languages
> is often connected to promoting regional political independence
> (i.e. secession from China, or at least increased autonomy), so
> needs to be done somewhat carefully so we don't become seen as a
> meddling US-based political organization that's trying to break
> apart China or something like that.
>
> -Mark
>
The PRC government recognizes that the minorities (non-Han) have
their own languages.  Some of them are even printed on the Renminbi
bank notes.  The word "Putonghua" (common speech) was coined by PRC
to replace the previous name "Guoyu" (national speech), officially
as a repect to the minorities.  I believe it should be rather safe
to promote an encyclopedia in any recognized minority language.

Even for Han Chinese regional speeches, although the government
recognize them as dialects rather than different but related
languages, there is no official statement against promoting them
and there is no record of considering the action secessionist yet.

They make a great effor in promoting Putonghua though.

I am not saying that we should not be careful about the language
issue, but I just want to set the record straight.

Felix Wan