Talk:Chinese characters

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Chinese characters article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: 90 days

Template:Vital article

Template:WP1.0

Writing systems C‑class Top‑importance

	Writing portal This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Writing systems, a WikiProject interested in improving the encyclopaedic coverage and content of articles relating to writing systems on Wikipedia. If you would like to help out, you are welcome to drop by the project page and/or leave a query at the project’s talk page.Writing systemsWikipedia:WikiProject Writing systemsTemplate:WikiProject Writing systemsWriting system articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

China C‑class Top‑importance

	China portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject China, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of China related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChinaWikipedia:WikiProject ChinaTemplate:WikiProject ChinaChina-related articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

East Asia C‑class (defunct)

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject East Asia, a project which is currently considered to be defunct.East AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject East AsiaTemplate:WikiProject East AsiaEast Asia articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Southeast Asia C‑class

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Southeast Asia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Southeast Asia-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Southeast AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject Southeast AsiaTemplate:WikiProject Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Archives

Index

Archive 1	Archive 2	Archive 3
Archive 4	Archive 5

This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by when more than 3 sections are present.

Should we add links for the characters?

I know it would be useful, but would it be acceptable to add links to the "radical" characters? Each "radical" has its own article here in Wikipedia. If the answer is yes: would it be good, additionally, to add links pointing to Wiktionary entries, for the rest of the Chinese characters in the article? If yes, I would do it. -- Genoskill (talk) 17:31, 16 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think that would probably be overlinking. We link because there are relevant connections between subjects, or because there are technical terms that might be unfamiliar. I don't think linking every single Chinese character here (and there are a lot of them) would be beneficial in that regard. It would probably be a solution in search of a problem. bibliomaniac 1 5 22:07, 16 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe keep Hanzi?

I agree with Kanguole that there should not be clutter but maybe it's worthwhile to keep a bolded Hanzi in the lead sentence.

Hanzi does seem to be used fairly commonly (it appears several times in this very article), oftentimes not italicized as a foreign word. A search of Google books Here finds quite a few uses, including in the titles of books, and a search in Google News, taking out a few irrelevant uses here, shows its in non-specialist use, including “Uncle Hanzi.” ch (talk) 01:23, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 30 September 2021

It has been proposed in this section that Chinese characters be renamed and moved to Han characters.

A bot will list this discussion on requested moves' current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil.

Please use {{subst:requested move}}. Do not use {{requested move/dated}} directly.

Links: current log • target log • direct move

Chinese characters → Han characters – Not only Chinese use these characters, using the original title is unrespectful to Taiwanese and Japanese 87737573WIKI (talk) 04:10, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This is a contested technical request (permalink). Anthony Appleyard (talk) 08:31, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@87737573WIKI: But everybody calls them "Chinese characters". I had never seen or heard the term "Han characters" before I saw this move request. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 08:31, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed usage is key, and that is overwhelmingly "Chinese characters". But "Han" is Chinese for "Chinese", so that doesn't seem to help. (And English speakers don't mind being told they use the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals.) Kanguole 08:44, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Either keep as is or move to Hanzi. "Han characters" is the worst of all possible worlds; a quick view on Google Ngram will show that this usage isn't prominent at all. "Chinese characters" is probably the most familiar usage to your average English speaker, but "Hanzi" has the most usage talking specifically about the language. bibliomaniac 1 5 17:45, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - per Ngrams, "Chinese characters" is unquestionably the more common name. However, like Bibliomaniac15, I would also support a move to Hanzi; Hanzi is a more WP:PRECISE term, and in Ngrams it easily surpasses "Chinese characters" and "Han characters" alike. ModernDayTrilobite (talk) 21:04, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
It doesn't[1]: you don't use quotes in ngram queries. Kanguole 21:48, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, my mistake - apologies, I'm not very experienced with Ngrams yet. ModernDayTrilobite (talk) 23:05, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Keep as is, or move to Hanzi. (I watch the article for its connection to Joseph Needham's series, Science and Civilisation in China, and his high opinion of Classical Chinese.) --Ancheta Wis (talk | contribs) 00:14, 1 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The nomination's assertion that this title is "unrespectful" doesn't appear to be supported by any Wikipedia policy. WP:COMMONNAME supports the status quo. 162 etc. (talk) 19:33, 1 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose "Chinese characters" is clearly the common name for the broad concept. Hanzi could possibly be an article split specifically about the use of characters in modern Chinese, similar to Chữ Nôm and Kanji relate to Vietnamese and Japanese; I'm not convinced that is necessary. I have literally never heard "Han characters"; were it not for the discussion about Hanzi a SNOW close would be in order. User:力 (power~enwiki, π, ν) 01:30, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]