Unrelated, but really strange how, after the Communists took over, they changed the direction that Chinese is written in and nobody seems to ever think about this. It's a remarkable transformation.

For thousands of years, Chinese has been written right-to-left, but everyone just accepts it's left-to-right now. It's only when you see these old advertisements that you realise just how recent the change was, and up until the mid-20th century, right-to-left text was the correct and normal way to write Chinese. Nowadays, doing that would be strange and invite confusion.

It's a shame and really a bit of lost cultural heritage, IMO

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nowadays, doing that would be strange and invite confusion.

I'm not even Chinese and I know that it was historically written from right to left. I'm sure people in China would know this.

[–] Daqu@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Depends on how the party handled people, who pointed out, that ther direction was changed. Did they pat them on the back and say "Yea, funny old times, but thankfully the people figured out a way to make writing even better" or did they just beat them and their family until they stopped talking about capitalist heresy?

It is easy to forget history if nobody is allowed to speak of it.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Right to left is still used in (mainland) China, it is just less common. It is also the more common style in Hong Kong and Taiwan. And, of course, Japanese.

[–] 3volver@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And only about 10 years later the Empire of Japan would cease to exist.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

Sure it did. That's why the Emperor wasn't even forced to abdicate.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Sometimes pictures are just absolute fits of irony.