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Could fear of losing touch with Chinese mean a backlash for English in China?
对汉字危机的担忧意味着英语会在中国受到抵制吗？
On Friday, Chinese television audiences watched the final of a national spelling bee competition that has both enthralled the nation and revved up cultural purists worried about the declining ability of many Chinese to write their own language. Now, officials in the Chinese capital are mulling a plan to elevate the position of Chinese in school curriculum at the expense of English.
上周五，中国电视观众观看了《汉字听写大会》的决赛，这个比赛不仅吸引了全国观众，而且令文化纯粹主义者更担心许多中国人的汉字书写能力正在下降的问题。现在，中国首都的官员正考虑一项计划，以降低英语在学校课程中的重要性来提升语文课的地位。
Starting 2016, the Beijing government is planning to reduce the weighting of English in college and senior high school entrance exams, according to a report from Xinhua. English, Chinese and math currently have the same weighting. Public consultation on the proposal started Monday, said the report.
据新华社报道，北京市政府计划从2016年起下调高考和中考中英语科目的分值。目前英语、语文和数学的分值相同。报道称，政府于周一开始就这一计划征询公众意见。
Sources with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education said students in Beijing will only start to learn English in third grade, instead of starting English on the first day of elementary school, according to the report. Students can also sit their English exams more than once until they get the best score for college admissions.
报道称，北京市教育委员会的人士说，北京的学生将从小学三年级才开始学英语，而不是小学入学第一天。此外，学生可多次参加英语考试，取最好成绩计入高考总分。
The move comes amid a surge in interest in Chinese as the CCTV show 'Chinese Characters Dictation Competition' has taken the country by storm since it started in August. As part of its stated mission, the show says it is hoping to reinvigorate interest in Chinese, in part because it sees writing skills deteriorating as young people increasingly communicate by smartphones with Western keyboards.
该计划提出之际，正值中央电视台《汉字听写大会》节目令人们对汉字的兴趣高涨之际，这档节目自8月份开播以来已经吸引了全国观众。该节目称，其目的之一是希望能唤起大家对汉字的兴趣，这在一定程度上是因为看到年轻人越来越多的通过在手机上使用西方键盘打字来沟通，导致他们的书写技能退步。
'The change highlights the fundamental importance of [the] mother tongue in the curriculum,' Li Yi of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
新华社援引北京市教委委员李奕的话报道称，这一调整将突出语文作为母语学科的基础性重要地位。
Jiangsu and Shandong provinces as well as Shanghai are also mulling similar moves to lessen the importance of English in college entrance exams, the report added.
报道称，江苏、山东以及上海也考虑采取类似举措，降低英语在高考中的重要性。
One of the most extreme proponents of the move to deemphasize English in Chinese schools is Wang Xuming, a former spokesman for the Ministry of Education. On his Weibo account, he has been repeatedly calling for English lessons to be dropped in primary schools.
中国教育部前发言人王旭明是最为支持在中国学校中弱化英语教育的人之一。他曾在微博账户上反复呼吁小学取消英语课。
'Save the children, save the Chinese language, save our culture!' he tweets frequently on his account, which has about 1.8 million followers.
他在微博账户上经常说，救救孩子，救救汉语，救救语文。
'I rarely give recognition to Beijing, but this is not just recognition, this is heartfelt praise,' Mr. Wang said on Tuesday in an interview with state media.
王旭明周二在接受国有媒体采访时说，我很少表扬北京，这次不仅表扬，而且大赞并发自内心。
Xinhua was careful, however, not to trivialize the importance of English, which it said is important as China 'opens wider to the outside world.' It says that the new measures will simply shift the way English is taught, from a narrow focus on achieving high scores in tests to help students apply what they learn in real life.
但新华社较为审慎，并未否认英语的重要性。新华社的报道中说，在中国进一步向世界开放之际，英语具有重要性。新华社称，新措施只会改变英语的教授方式，从仅仅侧重在考试中取得高分向帮助学生将所学运用到实际生活中转变。
But any government-led attempts to play down the importance of English may not make much of an impact in China. It is, after all, a country where the thirst to learn English has spawned companies such as U.S.-listed New Oriental Education & Technology Group, which inspired the hit movie 'American Dreams in China'. Xinhua puts the value of China's English-learning industry at about 30 billion yuan ($5 billion).
但政府采取的任何弱化英语重要性的尝试都不大可能在中国产生太大的影响。毕竟在中国，对学习英语的渴望已经推动缔造了美国上市的新东方教育科技（集团）公司(New Oriental Education & Technology Group)这样的公司，热播电影《中国合伙人》(American Dreams in China)的灵感就来自于新东方。新华社称中国英语学习产业的价值高达人民币300亿元左右。
'I have a friend who is the same year as me, who went to work for Standard Chartered after graduating because his/her English is good...during the 2008 financial crisis my friend 'only' got a bonus of 500,000 yuan. I don't think there is any subject that is more important than English,' Zheng Chu, a columnist for China's Time Weekly magazine, wrote on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.
《时代周报》特约评论员郑褚在类似推特(Twitter)的新浪微博上说，我有个朋友，跟我同一届的，因为英语好，毕业去了渣打银行(Standard Chartered)。08年受金融风暴影响，年终奖“只”拿了50多万。比英语更重要的课我觉得是没有了。
Those who share a similar view to Mr. Zheng's may take comfort in the result of 'Chinese Characters Dictation Competition,' where the winner and the runner-up were two 14 year-old girls from the Hangzhou Foreign Languages School, which has a heavy emphasis on teaching English.
《汉字听写大会》的决赛结果可能会让那些与郑褚持相同观点的人感到安慰，大赛的冠亚军是两位来自杭州外国语学校的14岁女生，这所学校非常重视英语教学。
