The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity

12. Conclusion

Chapter Twelve Conclusion You can't be serious. If we tighten controls, they may end up fixing their creativity problem. What then? -U.S. Department of Commerce official A Catechism of Complaints This study began by noting that the East Asian countries, the "Chinese character nations" (kanji minzoku) of China,]apan, and Korea, suffer a creativity deficit, evidenced by an insatiable quest for Western wellspring technology . This inability to make radical breaks with the past in science and thought, which drives East Asia's dependence on Western creativity, is a function of the type of writing used there. Without the incentive alphabetic writing provides to think analytically and abstractly, users of Chinese character-based scripts are at a handicap vis-a-vis the West in their capacity to generate new ideas and create entirely new technologies. Neither of these propositions-that East Asian nations depend heavily on Western scientific innovation and that alphabetic writing biases its users to analytic habits of thought-is original. Both arguments were made by others with specialized backgrounds. What the present study provides is a link between these two phenomena that takes into account facts discovered about the cognitive processes used in creative thinking. Although the connection between East Asia's borrowing and the use of character-based orthography seems clear to the present writer in light of what is known of the requirements of creativity, this thesis will be hard for some to accept, if not on intellectual grounds, then for practical or emotional reasons. Acknowledging that East Asia informally transfers tech- Conclusion 285 nology created by others entails an obligation for the responsible parties to curtail the practice, and for the governments of countries victimized by these attacks to prevent them. These "gray" transfers have been going on for decades. Stopping them will require adjustments on both sides. Beyond this, few icons of traditional culture are accorded as much sanctity in East Asia as character-based writing. Residual attachment to a writing system exists in any literate community, but in East Asia the linkage is especially close, both to the languages which evolved around the writing, and to the culture at large, which is defined in part by the orthographic tradition. Given these connections, it is not surprising that feelings run strongly against proposals to replace Chinese writing and its derivative scripts with systems based on alphabetic principles. Challenging the validity of character-based writing almost guarantees a negative response from people attached to the script by habit and sentiment. Given the reaction these arguments may produce among some readers, it occurred to me that instead of summarizing statements made in earlier chapters, it might be more useful, and more entertaining, to address some complaints in advance of their actual appearance. The utility of this catechistic approach as an instructional tool is well attested and is meant, not to deflect criticism, but to focus it on these critical issues. The following sets of points, arranged in no special order, pertain. 1. The argument is a rehash of Whorf's discredited claim that different languages have different effects on thought. Let's not mix apples and oranges. The Whorf-Sapir hypothesis applies to the effects different languages supposedly have on the way people parse reality. The present thesis deals with the impact of literacy on thought, in particular, with the effects of an analytically oriented writing system on people's ability to think analytically. 2. The claim that alphabetic writing is superior to other types conflicts with the linguistic maxim that all systems are equal. I am not sure this assertion has been proven, although I have heard it many times. Still, it is beside the point. Writing, which is the issue here, evolved along a well-defined path from iconic to phonetic representation 286 Chapter 12 and can be judged, if one so wishes, by its progress along that continuum. The alternate claim-that East Asian writing is well suited to the languages it represents-is empty, given that the languages developed under the character script's tutelage. 3. The book puts too much emphasis on the importance of writing. Humans have had speech for some 50,000 years and writingfor one-tenth ofthat time. Have you ever wondered what triggered the shift in the human condition that began some 5,000 years ago, the beginning of the asymptotic rise in technical knowledge that changed everything? Writing, besides helping to record...