A TV program has become popular in China recently. It has made people all over China become interested in writing Chinese characters (汉字).

The increasing use of computers and smart phones has left most young people hardly able to write by hand. Many of them are even unable to remember the 10,000 characters used in daily life without electronic help.

CCTV started the Chinese Character Dictation Competition to improve the population’s handwriting skills. Contestants (参与者) on the show were school pupils, but it was found that 70% of adults in the audience (观众) were unable to remember how to write the words “chan chu”.

Because computers allow people to type characters simply by entering pinyin, they don’t need to remember how to write them. “The keyboard age has had a big influence on the handwriting of Chinese characters.” Guan Zhengwen, who designed and directed the show said. He added that he hoped to encourage people to keep it alive as an art form.

Hao Mingjian, an editor of a magazine, putting his heart into Chinese characters, said, “Learning Chinese characters goes on throughout your life. If you stop using them for a long time, it is very likely that you will forget them.”

In China, television is popular. Many people spend most of their spare time watching it. It has a huge influence on people’s lives. Is all this television good for us or bad for us?

As is known to all, television is one of the most important ways of getting information, such as the news all over the world, history, culture and interesting stories. It provides us with a more lively way to discover the outside world. Also, we can see great movies, operas and cartoons. Therefore, television is not only a way we learn about the world, but also a good entertainment.

However, many people think television is bad for us. They say that all the violence on TV makes people violent. Violence can give children bad ideas. TV can also make people lazy. Instead of doing outdoor activities, they usually sit in front of the screen for hours enjoying the funny shows and cartoons without a break.

In general, the problem is not television, but the programs we choose to watch. We have learned how to choose the best in newspapers, books and magazines. Now we have to learn to do with television programs, too. After all, it’s our choice.

A TV program has become popular in China recently. It has made people all over China become interested in writing Chinese characters.

The increasing use of computers and smart phones has left most young people hardly able to write by hand. Many of them are even unable to remember 10,000 characters used in daily life without electronic help.

CCTV started the Chinese character Dictation competition (中国汉字听写大会) to improve the population’s handwriting skills, contestants (参与者、竞争者) on the shows were school pupils. But it was found that 70% of adults in the audience were unable to remember how to write the word “chan chu”.

Because computers allow people to type characters simply by entering “pinyin” they don’t need to remember how to write them. “The keyboard age has had a big influence on the handwriting of Chinese characters.” Guan Zhenwen, who designed and directed the show said. He added that he hoped to encourage people keep it alive as the art form.

Hao Mingjian, an editor of a magazine, putting his heart into Chinese characters, said “Learning Chinese characters goes on throughout your life. If you stop using them for a long time, it is very likely that you will forget them”.