There are many sources which refer to Chinese 'Hanzi' characters as kanji.
There's no problem with referring to kanji as exactly that ; regardless of whether such ideograms are used in the Chinese or Japanese languages.
Do you correct everybody who does this ?
For just one example (although there are many) :
Arc communications wrote:
The Japanese and Chinese languages both use an extremely sophisticated writing system that uses kanji ideograms. Although the number of kanji characters that are actually used is overwhelmingly larger in Chinese than in Japanese, about 70-80% of the characters used in both languages are used to express the same meaning.
Many Japanese people think when traveling to a Chinese-speaking region that even if they do not speak Chinese, they may be able to get by if they communicate by writing. If you are trying to convey something simple, written communication might allow you to get by. However, it is important to remember that 20-30% of the kanji used have different meanings in Japanese and Chinese. What would happen if you wrote a succession of kanji, which look the same in Chinese, without being aware that they mean something different in Chinese? Not only would your meaning not get across, you may also bring about a misunderstanding. Therefore, much care must be taken when resorting to writing kanji to communicate with a Chinese-language speaker.
http://www.arc-japanese-translation.com/chinese/04tidbits.html
(Arc Communications : A Tokyo-based translation agency specialising in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean translations)
You could refer to the Chinese version as Hanzi if you prefer to, as the terms are interchangeable ; but the chances are high that few non-Chinese people will know what you're talking about without further explanation.
10 Oct 2013, 12:32 pm
