The second character in 报道

[Jose]

Hi. I am a student of Chinese currently living in Beijing. Although I only use simplified characters here, I have studied both systems in the past and often try to read Hong Kong or Taiwan materials, mainly articles from news websites.

Here goes my question:

I have seen that Hong Kong newspapers usually write the Chinese word for "report" as 報導，which in theory should be pronounced bao4dao3. This has surprised me, since the dictionary I use (the "little red book" published by The Commercial Press and Oxford University Press), only lists the form bao4dao4 报道. Is this a normal difference between the simplified and traditional standards?

I wonder if it is all right to write 報道 in traditional-character Chinese. What about 报导 in simplified-character Chinese?

Note: This is the first time I post here (I've recently found this forum, and I find it amazing!), and I am not sure if I will be able to copy and paste the simplified and traditional characters correctly. I apologise if the characters are not displayed correctly. I am not sure about how to mix them in the same document. Anyway, I suppose it is clear what characters I am talking about.

[Guest Yau]

報道 is more prefered in hongkong today. As hongkongais tends to believe that a news report is to deliever (道) a news, insteading of leading (導) it.

It's a commonly found explanation and seems it's widely accepted in HK. but i have no idea about the origin of it.

[skylee]

I am not sure which one is preferred in HK newspapers (I don't really read them). But I myself would prefer 報導.

現代漢語詞典 lists both 報導 (bao4 dao3) and 報道 (bao4 dao4). It says the former = the latter, and then gives detailed explanations to the latter.

[Guest Yau]

surely, 報道 in far more popular in hongkong.

報道 has been used 68825 times among all hongkong media for the past six months, while 報導 was used only 191 times, and most of them was due to an obvious editor's mistake. (figure from wisers news)

[Jose]

Thanks for the replies.

Actually, when I said "Hong Kong newspapers", I also had in mind some articles from Taiwan I recently tried to read. I think I can remember seeing the 報導 form in the Sing Tao Daily, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, this afternoon I have been trying to use Google for this kind of research. I thought it was not possible to use Google for this, since it usually displays results in both types of characters. I have realised that Google allows to restrict the search to one type of characters. Using the two versions of Chinese Google, I got the following results:

1. Fantizi Google (with the option "Search traditional Chinese web pages" turned on, and the text pasted in Big5 code)

報道 : 555,000 results (33%)

報導 : 1,120,000 results (67%)

2. Jiantizi Google (with the option "Search simplified Chinese web pages" turned on, and the text pasted in GB code)

报道 : 5,260,000 results (92%)

报导 : 430,000 results (8%)

It looks as if there is definitely a difference between the two standards in the preferred form for that word. Since Hong Kong uses the first form, I guess it must be in Taiwan where the second form is the more common one.

[Guest Yau]

jose,

you got the point. Taiwanese prefers to use "報導" while hongkongais takes another form.

however, if you see "報導" in singtao daily, you can simply assume it's an editor mistake. The editorial guideline of Singtao insists that they should use 道. As a matter of fact, singtao is one of the first a few newspapers that adopted these new set of character. 計劃 is written as 計畫 too.

Some statistic for you:

報道 is wrongly appeared on singtao for 270 times,

while 報道 is used for 81214 times.

[Jose]

Yau,

Thanks for the info. It looks as if HK, though it uses trad characters, tends to follow mainland usage in vocabulary more than Taiwan.

I was thinking that something similar probably happens with 什麼 / 甚麼 and 意大利 / 義大利. I think the former forms are preferred in HK, and the latter in Taiwan. Is that right?

I would like to check a Taiwanese dictionary, but they aren't easy to find in Beijing...

[Guest Yau]

jose, i don't think hongkong media is going to follow the mainland usage in this way. They prefer to use 報道 because they think it's more accurate to deliver to meaning of newspaper.

However, the mainland influence can be seen in hongkong in other way. The words like 嚴打 (strike against crime), 取締 (to have a clampdown) have been introduced to hongkong media in recent years. They've also begun to adopt the translations of european names in mainland style, e.g Rumsfeld is translated as 拉姆斯菲爾德.

For the latter one, there're also complaints from cultural critics, saying this translation style is bad taste and redundant, but it doesn't stop the trend.

However, just for your info, Bush is translated as 布什 (taiwan) , 布殊( hongkong) and 布希 (mainland) respectively. For this name, the mainland influence has yet been seen.