The MTR Corporation has confirmed it will make arrangements to replace a sign outside one of its stations after netizens pointed out that it contained a simplified Chinese character instead of a traditional one.
According to Ming Pao, the sign in question was outside Hung Hom station.
Attention was first drawn to the sign after a photograph of it appeared on Facebook, where one of the characters in the Chinese word for “prosecute” was spelt using a simplified Chinese character instead of a traditional one.
The character swiftly prompted a backlash online, with netizens calling it “outrageous” and demanding MTR replace the sign immediately.
One netizen went “this is Hong Kong, you should be using traditional characters.”
This comes over a long-running battle over language and identity in Hong Kong.
In Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong, traditional Chinese characters are used, while Mandarin and simplified Chinese is used in the mainland.
In January, Hong Kong Baptist University students protested on campus in response to a furore over a Mandarin proficiency test.
The controversy came about after it emerged that 70 per cent of students failed a Mandarin proficiency test that, if passed, allows pupils to skip a compulsory Mandarin course. Mandarin-language proficiency is a HKBU graduation requirement. Overseas, mainland and local students whose first language is not Chinese, however, are exempt.
In June 2016, Pokémon fans took to the streets after it was announced that Pikachu’s official Chinese name will be changed from “Bei-kaa-chiu” (比卡超) to “Pei-kaa-jau” (皮卡丘), prompting anger from many Pokémon fans who said the name change was based on the Mandarin pronunciation, “pi-ka-qiu.”
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