In an age widely heralded as the Information Age, few people question the convenience the computers and mobile phones have brought to us. We are given easy access to reach every corner of the world with the computer alone. However, there is a growing concern that we Chinese may lose the Chinese characters, a traditional carrier of Chinese culture.

Evolution of Chinese characters

“Texting and typing are replacing the elaborate strokes that make up written Chinese. And when it comes time to jot down a few words, more Chinese are realizing they can't remember exactly how,” says one report in the Los Angeles Times.

More and more Chinese people are realizing they can't remember exactly how to write a given character. They are experiencing more amnesia with them.

A survey conducted by China Youth Papers in this April reveals that of the 2072 respondents, 83 % admitted they sometimes found it difficult to write characters. This means, in other words, that we may become the new generation of illiterate Chinese, and the centuries-old characters are teetering on the brink of extinction.