Campaign to eliminate illiteracy in China 

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See First Nation People

Upon the founding of new China in 1949, 80 percent of Chinese could neither read nor write. Illiteracy, the biggest obstacle that hindered the country''s development, became an important problem demanding a prompt solution for new China.

　　A vigorous mass campaign to eliminate illiteracy was launched nationwide right after the founding of new China. Literacy classes were set up in various places; factories, countryside, troops and streets. All the Chinese joined the literacy campaign with great enthusiasm. The first national drive of this kind was launched in 1952. Premier Zhou initiated the second round literacy campaign by calling on the whole nation to embrace modern science and technology. Two years later, Marshal Chen Yi said the campaign to eliminate illiteracy helped 600 million people open their eyes, which marked the beginning of the third round.　

　　Thanks to the campaign to eliminate illiteracy, a total of 150 million people took part in various literacy classes across the country from 1949 to 1960.

　　Throughout the 60 years since the founding of new China, the campaign to eliminate illiteracy has never stopped. China has consolidated nine-year compulsory education and eliminated illiteracy among young and middle-aged people, with the illiteracy rate for adults reduced to 9.08 percent and that among young and middle-aged people to below four percent.

Photo shows young students teaching commune members at Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to read and write in 1960.　

The campaign to eliminate illiteracy could be traced back to the war against Japanese aggression. Photo shows young soldiers of the Children's Corps at base areas behind enemy lines teaching passengers to read and write.

Winter literacy classes were launched in east China's Zhejiang Province, December 1950. Photo shows a local woman going to the course with a textbook in hand.

Photo shows student taking the winter literacy class in north China's Hebei Province, 1951.

Two children in northwest China's Qinghai Province go over new words they had learnt, 1951.

Women take literacy classes in north China's Shanxi Province in 1952.

Actors and actresses practice new words backstage in Tianjin, 1952.

Photo shows Yan Zhiying, a farmer in north China's Shanxi Province, writing a letter in 1956 to thank the literacy campaign.

Over 4000 miners took literacy classes in their spare time in Fushun, in northeast China's Liaoning Province, 1957. Photo shows students talking to their teacher (centre).

Workers learnt to read and write in their spare time in southwest China's Yunnan Province, 1958.

Ni Huaifeng, a farmer in southwest China's Sichuan Province learnt over 1500 new words in ten days. Photo shows Ni being awarded with a certificate in 1958.

Women practice new words on a ferry in south China's Fujian Province, September 1959. All the women working on the ferry in the region were illiterate before liberation in 1949. With help from local teachers, they took part in literacy classes upon the founding of new China.

A short play to arouse people's awareness to the campaign against illiteracy was performed in December, 1959.

Writing The New Language

As the old Chinese saying goes, one word is worth a thousand pieces of gold, but moves to update 44 characters in China's historic lexicon could cost the nation a whole lot more.

　　Scholars from home and abroad have reportedly worked for eight long years on revising the way some of the language's 8,300 standardized characters are written.

　　The proposal to tinker with 44 characters was made public by the Ministry of Education and State Language Commission on Aug 12.

　　Those behind the proposed moves say they have received waves of support for the changes, while those in the publishing industry as well as netizens have overwhelmingly shot down the plan, with many citing the financial implications and potential impact.　　

　　Suggested revisions include changes to the angles and length of the writing strokes of the 44 characters, which include commonly used words such as cha (tea), chun (lip), sha (kill) and qin (intimate).

　　So far, there has been no clear reasons given by the ministry or experts who suggested the changes.

　　"According to our studies, 67 percent of respondents favor the proposed revisions of the 44 Chinese characters, while those opposed to the proposals account for only 6 percent," said Wang Ning, a professor at Beijing Normal University who worked on revising the vocabulary, during an online chat with netizens at News.cn on Saturday.

　　She did not reveal how many people had been involved in the study but officials at the Ministry of Education, who invited the public to air their opinions about the proposals via email, letter or fax before next Monday, said the statistic was from the near 1,500 respondents.

　　"We proposed the revision according to the principle of Chinese traditional calligraphy practice," said Wang, who explained the new standard 44 characters would conform to the typeface for printing during the Song Dynasty (960-1276). "The revision of 44 characters accounts for less than six per every 1,000 characters in the glossary."