SHANGAI – Authorities in Chinese city of Shanghai are asking locals what they think about removing English names from the city’s road signs.
Wang Weifang, Shanghai Road Administration Bureau Division Chief, believes that the English road names really aren’t all that useful.
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Currently, many of the city’s signs feature either English or pinyin, a writing system that turns Chinese characters into words using the Roman alphabet. But the bureau has started a public consultation on whether that should change, the Shanghaiist.com reported.
In a lengthy survey on the city’s highways, one question asks if signs should use only Chinese characters in future. The survey itself is also written entirely in Chinese.
The bureau argues that if the English road names were removed, that would then leave more room to enlarge the Chinese characters on the signs, making them easier to read for both drivers and pedestrians.
Still, it isn’t crazy enough to suggest that English be banned from traffic signs all around the city. “Of course we will keep the English-Chinese traffic signs around some special areas, such as the tourism spots, CBD areas and some transport hubs,” a bureau spokesman says.
According to the spokesman, the idea would create more space for a larger font, so Chinese characters would be easier for drivers to see.
But many expats are still worried they would end up getting lost.
One German pointed out that getting a driver’s licence in Shanghai doesn’t require knowledge of Chinese characters, while an Australian expat said “with Chinese characters, most foreigners are helpless”.
Social media users are divided on the issue – some on microblogging site Weibo don’t see why English or pinyin should feature on the signs anyway.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do, why do people who cannot speak a word of Chinese come to China if not to learn?” asks one user.
But another user points out that many expats can understand pinyin – usually the first stage of learning Chinese for foreigners – but can’t read the characters.
The online poll, only in Chinese will end on August 30th. Officials will use the results of the poll and the opinions of experts to decide what should be done.
