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A reader writes:
The Chinese government is creating a database of 8,000 characters and requiring all parents to name their newborns by limiting themselves to the characters in it. A population of 1.3 billion people limited to 8,000 characters? Mayhem. I work in an office where 3 out of 10 people are named Wong, and the database didn't even pertain to their names.
This -- like flying cars -- seems like a subject just waiting for a pearl of wisdom from James Fallows. Send your bad idea nominations to ThinkingBig@theatlantic.comThe article I first read about this in explained that the database was being created to "rein in a trend of unusual names," which I'm sure is code for "government authorities are having a tough time recording all these strange names when writing people up for crimes, so we must create a name database to more easily keep tabs on the population." Proponents of the idea compare names to numbers and argue that in the name of social development, like automobiles and mobile phones, names must be standardized. No need for me to elaborate on how many things are wrong with that school of thought, although I did rather like the response of Xinmin Evening News journalist Tao Duanfang -- there are many different kinds of restaurants, but no one has ever suggested a ban on home cooking.
Comments (2)
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We get by with 26, & you think 8000 is too few?
This is really nothing more than saying everyone has to have a name that can actually be written. They don't have a phonetic writing system and it sounds like there were many occasions where people either screwed up the characters or made up new ones. This is a complete non-controversy.