Traditional Chinese a possible cause of myopia?

[ChristopherB]

Edit: I believe this thread should be moved to the Characters sub-forum.

 

I'll state up front that this is highly speculative, and more than likely incorrect in a number of ways, given that myopia is a complex condition with a range of different causes.

That said, I came across an article from Language Log which included a study done on the comparative physical effects on the eyes of simplified versus traditional Chinese characters and thought it at least merited some discussion.

I understand Taiwan has an exceptionally high level of near-sightedness, but as with many apparent relationships between things, this may be another example of confusing correlation with causation.
 

At any rate, the often minute differences between different characters, and especially at smaller font sizes, does make me wonder whether long term this could have detrimental effects on eyesight. Additionally - historically, was Chinese often written as small as you'd find in modern books, or were the works of literature produced at the time done so with larger typefaces?

 

[Shelley]

I think that until we had computer/printed modern fonts most of the time the font was big enough not be a problem. Only now when we can choose a tiny font easily and after we write it using a larger one and then shrinking, is it usual to see them.

 

The size of the font was limited by the size of the brush and the resolution possible in wood blocks limited how small it could go. So unless there was a lot of undiagnosed/untreated myopia so it would be hard to say if there was more then than now.

[oceancalligraphy]

5 hours ago, ChristopherB said:

I understand Taiwan has an exceptionally high level of near-sightedness, but as with many apparent relationships between things, this may be another example of confusing correlation with causation.

 

I don't think it's from reading characters. It's from being indoors all the time, constantly studying, reading, being on cellphones and computers. This article explains a bit more:

https://thediplomat.com/2015/03/the-problem-with-taiwanese-eyes/

 

5 hours ago, ChristopherB said:

Additionally - historically, was Chinese often written as small as you'd find in modern books, or were the works of literature produced at the time done so with larger typefaces?

 

I doubt Chinese was ever written as small as we find them in modern printing. Historically, Chinese was written with a brush. While certain animal hairs would be thin and fine enough to create letters of that size, I doubt it was common. For calligraphy, what are considered the smallest characters（小楷） fit in a 1.5 cm box. Anything smaller is called 蠅頭小楷，literally 'fly head small script'.

 

In modern writing (with pen or pencil), I think the smallest grids given in school are 1 cm by 1 cm boxes. 

 

As for printing, there's a letterpress shop in Taipei called Rixing Type Foundry （日星鑄字行） that makes movable type for traditional characters. On their pinkoi site, they sell copperplate characters put together to form stamps. In particular the third and fourth photo in the description of this product https://en.pinkoi.com/product/2GcDCEsm shows the size of the letters. It looks like type size 2 is a bit less than 1 cm per character, while type size 5 is maybe 0.5 cm per character.

[Xiao Kui]

Here's an article that suggests keeping kids indoors might contribute to myopia. In that case, the Chinese educational system (as well as many Western ones!) may be the culprit.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/well/live/for-better-vision-let-the-sunshine-in.html

[mungouk]

Similar sentiments from SCMP article (indoors, screen use): https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2085125/chinas-myopia-epidemic-why-simple-solution-being

 

South Korea is even worse than Taiwan, and presumably Hangul is more readable at small font sizes than traditional Hanzi.

 

 

 

 

[mungouk]

On 8/30/2018 at 8:56 PM, mungouk said:

(indoors, screen use)

 

And just today bloomberg reports that a recent announcement from the MOE (in Chinese) suggests that parents reduce their kids' screen-time, which is "intended to address the health and growing incidence of myopia among children".

 

This also appears to be related to the freeze on approving new games over the last few months, which has resulted in a huge fall in Tencent's share price, amongst others.