Traditional

(Our luncheon discussion went on.)

“I also think comics is a good start of learning Chinese.” NT said, “You know, exactly for that purpose, I bought the whole series of Choi Chi Chung (蔡志忠) – Mencius (孟子), Zhuangzi (莊子), and everything!”

“God, where did you buy them? I wish to buy some for my own leisure reading actually but couldn’t find it anywhere. This lovely series simply disappeared ever since the Publication Limited (博益出版) bankrupted some years back!” I said.

“Oh, someone else from the mainland got the copyright and print it all over again – rather recently.” Our professor of chemical pathology explained.

“The only bad thing is,” WY interjected, “they are now printed in simplified Chinese.”

“Well, although mainland is a strong country, I would prefer my children to learn a bit more about traditional Chinese.” LS sighed, “So, is there any good comics written in the traditional version?”

“Em… I’m afraid in that case you would need to resolve to those Japanese comics translated by Taiwanese.” I murmured, “The choice is broad and the standard is generally good. Authors like Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) did have publications suitable for general education.”

Isn’t it learning a lost tradition from the barbarians (禮失求諸野)?