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The disappearance of the written word is a drastic loss to all cultures
By Ge Li |
March 28, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
US satiric novelist Jill Kargman is fond of buying writing paper. A 100-year-old stationer she frequents has gone into bankruptcy, its patrons include the Duchess of Windsor, former US First Lady Pat Nixon, and Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue. Some people regard its closure as a bell tolled to the writing paper industry. The written word will turn into signs spreading over the Internet.
The practice of writing is stuck in a predicament severer than ever in the Information Age. I have two sons with a 12-year age gap. I worked in Anhui Province during the mid-1980s. Exchange of letters occurred almost every week between our elder son who left home to pursue further study in Anhui Normal University and us. As he majored in Chinese language and literature, he would extract some lines from poems in Tang (AD 618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties at the end of his letters, even including lines from love poetry. I read his letters over and over and felt comforted to read between his smooth handwriting.
My younger son was admitted to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics at the end of the 1990s. He keeps in touch with the family by telephone rather than writing letters. Later, he even texted short messages full of wrongly typed characters instead of phone calls. The year he returned home to spend his winter holiday, he left a note before going out, and his unrecognizable handwriting surprised me.
The ways of communication are changing with the ages, becoming more efficient and time-saving. However, handwritten letters retain an aftertaste for a long time. Reading letters from my eldest son is like chewing Chinese green olive with a lasting aftertaste while my younger son's phone call and message is just like cotton candy - no sooner as you taste the sweet, it disappears.
The practice of writing is stuck in a predicament severer than ever in the Information Age. I have two sons with a 12-year age gap. I worked in Anhui Province during the mid-1980s. Exchange of letters occurred almost every week between our elder son who left home to pursue further study in Anhui Normal University and us. As he majored in Chinese language and literature, he would extract some lines from poems in Tang (AD 618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties at the end of his letters, even including lines from love poetry. I read his letters over and over and felt comforted to read between his smooth handwriting.
My younger son was admitted to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics at the end of the 1990s. He keeps in touch with the family by telephone rather than writing letters. Later, he even texted short messages full of wrongly typed characters instead of phone calls. The year he returned home to spend his winter holiday, he left a note before going out, and his unrecognizable handwriting surprised me.
The ways of communication are changing with the ages, becoming more efficient and time-saving. However, handwritten letters retain an aftertaste for a long time. Reading letters from my eldest son is like chewing Chinese green olive with a lasting aftertaste while my younger son's phone call and message is just like cotton candy - no sooner as you taste the sweet, it disappears.
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