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TV
Ministry of Education says "TV" is against the rulesPosted by Joel Martinsen, February 4, 2009 10:25 AM
![]() Improper station logos The Ministry of Education says that 40% of the country's satellite TV stations are in violation of the law. According to China's laws on language use, broadcasters are supposed to use Mandarin and standardized characters unless they have a particular need to use a local dialect or have been approved to broadcast in a foreign language. This requirement extends to station logos as well, which means that CCTV (an abbreviation of the English name China Central Television) and BTV (Beijing TV) are in violation. But wait: doesn't the Ministry of Education operate China Educational TV, which goes by the English-language initialism CETV? As it turns out, the station converted over to Chinese-language titles at the beginning of the year, giving the Ministry the moral authority to condemn the rest of the industry for failing to promote standard Chinese. Here's part of an interdepartmental letter sent to China Education TV by the Ministry's Department of Spoken and Written Language Management on January 15:
Beijing TV overhauled its own logos at the start of 2009, abandoning a three-pointed transmission tower for a series of plain text logos and switching from numbered channels (BTV-1, BTV-2) to subject titles (BTV, BTV). It told The Beijing News that its new logos had been approved by SARFT and were therefore entirely legal. The newspaper was unable to obtain any comment from CCTV, but a reporter from the Beijing Times had better luck:
CCTV is under the direct control of SARFT. The Administration previously expressed its lack of concern that the abbreviation would confuse foreigners who are more used to CCTV meaning "closed-circuit television," so it is unlikely to sacrifice a major brand just to placate some departmental-level copy-editors. Links and Sources
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Comments on Ministry of Education says "TV" is against the rules
Good to know that the Chinese Ministry of Education is just as useless as the US Department of Education.
I do find it odd that English abbreviations are so prevalent in China. Shouldn't chinese firms/tv stations target Chinese audiences, including those farmers who don't know english?
Don't people learn the alphabet and pinyin in grade school or has that changed.
The original law promulated on Jan. 1, 2001 has no specific stipulations for TV station logos.
This is a blatant misinterpretation of Articles 12 and 14 which were meant to cover broadcast programming content, not station logos.
Spelunker finds the Ministry of Education guilty of stupidity and sentences the Minister to 24 months of solitary confinement inside a 卡拉OK (卡拉欧勊?) room equipped with Chinese hip hop music.
Arabic numerals are NOT very Chinese either!
With this logic they shouldn't be using the abbreviation "TV" either.
That was the point of the article.
"With this logic they shouldn't be using the abbreviation "TV" either."
it won't make me surprised for this kind of speech from education ministry. look at the National College Entrance Examination! the masterpiece of this department......
@canini
Well, the test uses 高等学校招生全国统一考试 as it's official title on test papers, and that's not English. Also the official official English transition of the test is National Matriculation Test. However most people wouldn't know what Matriculation is. (BTW it's actually an SAT word.....)