A Hong Kong television station made Hongkongers’ blood run cold when it aired a program with subtitles in Chinese characters used in the mainland.
As of late afternoon on Feb. 24, more than 13,000 viewers have lodged a complaint with the Hong Kong government’s media regulator after local broadcaster TVB used simplified Chinese characters for a news bulletin on Feb. 22, according to Apple Daily, a Hong Kong daily newspaper. In Hong Kong, Chinese subtitles have always been in the traditional script.
When placed side by side, even those unfamiliar with written Chinese will see a clear difference between the traditional and simplified Chinese script—characters in the traditional script typically have more strokes. Those educated in the traditional script also find simplified characters devoid of deeper meaning or plain nonsensical.
TVB’s Facebook page was bombarded with complaints from Facebook users from Hong Kong, many of whom called TVB’s action “a violation of the 50-year promise set out in the Basic Law”—a reference to the Chinese regime’s guarantee not to interfere with Hong Kong’s way of life according to the “One Country, Two Systems” framework—and demanded an apology. One Facebook user, “Hoke Wong,” questioned whether Beijing had ordered the use of the simplified Chinese script. Another Facebook user chastised TVB for becoming “a Communist Party puppet, abandoning Hongkongers.”
