Mencius Moldbugman

Mao asked the committee to get inspiration from ancient Chinese calligraphy. So 傷->伤, 楊->杨，陽->阳 From left 伤Jin Dynasty王羲之, 杨Ming Dynasty 文徵明, 阳Ming徐渭pic.twitter.com/InT88loncG

Another goal of simplified Chinese script is to reduce # of chars, so many chars w same sound are combined into 1. So 干means dry but also do/f*ck. We end up with news headline: after 干 112days, finally wet!!!!pic.twitter.com/Tfqd0IGJ0M

In 1952 when PRC committee are working on simplified Chinese script, Chiang Kai-shek on Taiwan also pushed simplification 2 reduce difficulty 2 learn among soldiers n students. But PRC roll out their version 1st. It became political. Chiang switched to defend traditional script!pic.twitter.com/mVieKrd6rJ

Chinese Propaganda poster: Today vs Yesterday! Left student wrote Simplified chars easy to write(from left to right), right one wrote complex chars hard to write in traditional (from right to left)pic.twitter.com/sR9FuaseLs

But there were a lot of opposition to switch to full Latin alphabet. Mao eventually relented in his old age (Cultural Revolution raging, nobody going to school anyway). Pinyin became a tool to help character pronunciation instead.pic.twitter.com/B6tTsX85Lf

After Cultural Revolution, 2nd round of simplified Chinese chars were published. But this time it met with huge public outcry that it was canceled in less than a year. From left to right: traditional, simplified, 2nd simplificationpic.twitter.com/p36EnJo1p3