Have you ever heard of character amnesia (记忆缺失)? Amnesia refers to a condition where someone loses all or most of his or her memory. It may be too strong a word to use. With character amnesia, however, it means people have forgotten to put the correct stroke (笔画) in a Chinese word or have forgotten the character completely when writing. Do you have the same problem about it?
Character amnesia is partly caused by the popularity of electronic communication. Today, most people write using computers or other electronic devices. These devices all have input software. You can easily type in a character even if you don't know how to form it.
Back in 2013, CCTV held an interesting TV contest. Contestants were given a word and then asked to write it on a screen. Some of them had a hard time writing such common words as "癞蛤蟆" and "打喷嚏". The audience at home were encouraged to try writing these words at the same time. The contest showed how widespread character amnesia had become. The audience felt surprised. For teachers, however, it was just old news.
Su Yunsheng has taught Chinese for more than twenty years. She says, "In recent years, character amnesia has become more and more common among students. I often see students write words incorrectly. The popularity of electronic devices is a major factor." Su is not the only one complaining. Many experts think not being able to write characters correctly threatens China's cultural heritage.
Written Chinese requires a good memory and a lot of hard work. But Chinese characters are a great cultural achievement. Chinese people should be proud of it. It will be a pity if we lose that heritage someday. The threat is nothing to sneeze at! This should arouse our attention.
