Zhou Hongyi, CEO of 3721, demonstrates his company's flagship product, software that allows users to type Chinese characters directly on the Internet (Photo: Mark Ralston/AFP-Getty Images).
The latest buzzword in the ever-changing world of the Chinese Internet is “thorough sinicization.” But what does this mean? Zhou Hongyi, chief executive officer of the computer firm 3721, a Chinese Internet pioneer and an outspoken champion of the sinicization of the Internet, talks to Guangming Daily.
“Thorough Sinicization” of the Internet Unlikely Internet sinicization, explained Zhou Hongyi, is simply adding new applications to the World Wide Web as it exists now to allow Chinese users to make better use of the Web by using their native language. Chinese e-mail address services and the navigation by Chinese keyword both reflect the gradual development of this process. Now Chinese people can register their e-mail addresses entirely in Chinese characters. The Chinese keyword service, which was launched a few years ago, enables Internet users to navigate the Web and search for relevant online information using real-world names and familiar terms in the Chinese language. Chinese users no longer must remember English-language domain names and URLs.
Still, Zhou says, “I don’t think a ‘thorough sinicization’ of the Internet will ever be realized. Talking as though it could be might be misleading; it suggests the infrastructure of the Internet could be sinicized as well.” Zhou believes the sinicization of the Internet should focus only on developing applications and on maximizing the use of the Chinese language on the Internet.
“As new applications of the Internet sprout up everyday, ‘Internet sinicization’ will experience a sustained development,” Zhou predicts. “In a sense, all major domestic portals have been working to sinicize the Internet. Five years ago, Chinese-language information available online made up less than one percent of Web pages on the Internet. Chinese Internet users had no choice but to visit overseas Web sites. They constantly complained about the slow speed and limited bandwidth. Five years later, those frustrations and disappointments are gone. Five years from now, things will be that much more changed,” he said.
Internet 101 for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Chinese keyword service received a lukewarm welcome when it was launched in 1998. A popular argument against it was: “Chinese Internet users are not accustomed to typing Chinese characters in the Web browser address bar.” Currently China has 68 million Internet users, and the number is still growing exponentially.
“If everyone in this country must know English to be able to use the Internet, it will not only undermine the practical use of the Internet but will gradually eat away our culture and tradition,” Zhou says.
When the personal computer was first introduced to China, many in the country believed it was necessary to Romanize the Chinese language in order to master advanced foreign technology and to be better integrated in the international system. The idea sounds rather ludicrous today because displaying and processing Chinese on computers is no longer an issue.
Sinicization, Zhou argues, will make Western technology like the personal computer or the Internet easier for the Chinese to use. “I have always believed that traditional industry will eventually become a major user of the Internet,” Zhou explains. “Why did the Internet give the U.S. economy such a great boost in the 1990s? Because virtually every American company is online. Today, those that do not have a Web presence are considered marginal companies in the United States.”
“In China, we have more than 10 million small and medium-sized businesses, but not even 5 percent of them say they have a Web site. Why? Language is a big problem. In the United States, a company’s domain name is usually the name of the company plus dot-com. English is their native language so it is not difficult for people to remember or even guess the URLs. But most Chinese companies’ domain names are impossible to guess. Sometimes they put up an advertisement for their Web site—‘Please do visit our Web site, www…’—but the URL is usually so long and foreign- sounding that people can hardly remember anything. And if few people visit or even know about companies’ Web sites, no wonder Chinese companies have little interest in building them. I personally believe sinicization will help those small and medium-sized companies make their first step toward building a Web presence and seeking opportunities through the Web. It is extremely important for Chinese companies, especially those located in the western hinterland, to use the Internet to reach out to the outside world.”
Internet Sinicization and Internet Security Some people argue that sinicization is not a solution. They argue the only reason that people are so concerned about the language issue is because China’s software industry is too weak.
Zhou agrees that the Chinese information-technology (IT) industry has always yearned to have its own core technology, but he argues that the priority right now is not to produce an operating system to challenge Microsoft’s but to fully utilize advanced Western technology and advance China’s own development in IT. More specifically, China’s IT industry should work toward helping more people get online and provide domestic businesses with information products and services of real value. “The truth is,” Zhou adds, “our only niche is in these areas. Because we understand the demands of our local market better than the foreign firms do.”
Some analysts have questioned whether as yet unknown “security tumors” might exist in the future sinicized Internet since its underpinnings would still be in English. Zhou has an answer for that:
“The Internet is an open system, and information about its infrastructure can be obtained through open channels. There is nothing secretive about it, which is why the Internet has been able to grow so rapidly all over the world. The Internet has always had security issues; they are out there, but that has little to do with sinicization. The United States alone suffers billions of dollars of losses because of Internet security loopholes. To replace the programming language with Chinese would almost be like taking all the Roman letters out of the mathematics or physics equations. It would be completely unnecessary. Programming languages are just symbols, and coding with Roman letters is, hands-down, the most efficient option. I imagine that if the Chinese had invented the operating system or the Internet, the underlying code would probably have been written in English, too!”
“I believe,” Zhou says, “that some day China will become an Internet superpower and that Chinese will become a dominant language of the Internet. It is because of this belief that I have continued working on the sinicization project for the past five years, against all odds. I am not saying that we should export the Chinese language and make Internet users all over the world communicate in Chinese. What I really mean is that as the Internet develops, its content and applications will be further localized. Internet users in France will be communicating primarily in the French language, the Russians in Russian, and the Chinese in Chinese. And that’s when the Internet will really come down from the ivory tower to enter ordinary people’s everyday lives.”
