Subject: CCCII sets

From: Martin Heijdra <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 08:43:03 EDT

I also got a question about the total number of CCCII characters. From
a small publication, Guozi zhengli xiaozu shinian, published by CCCII in Dec.
1989 (officially, but in fact much later), I culled the following figures.

Note that the group has a very Sino-centered and normative approach to
what it calls "orthodox" and variant characters; it is rather virulently
(in this booklet) opposed to any Han-unification as Unicode (which it sees
as a Japanese-Communist plot), and to simplified characters as characters in th
eir own right. Since CCCII was heavily involved in the first code using
Han unification, i.e. the American ANSI/EACC code, I don't know what made
them change their position. They're also very against the Chinese National
Code (Taiwan) as well; we are not talking about a disinterested objective
computer body here! This does not preclude the usefulness of their work
of course.

The total number of characters collected by the group is 75,684; this
breaks down into 44,167 official characters, and 31,517 variants. Only the
6,763 simplified characters of GB 2312 are included, as "variants"; apparently
also if there is no difference whatsoever between a GB and an "official" glyph.

This number does NOT include the 6,349 Japanese characters (apparently, again,
no matter what the glyph is), 171 kana signs, and 2028 hanmun combinations,
all limited apparently to the smallest official codings of Japan, Korea and
the PRC.

(Since -almost- any character can and has been used in Japanese and Korea,
since there are Korean "kokuji", and since there are many more simplified
characters (through simplified radicals!) possible than the mere 6,763 of
the GB2312 - and why not the other GB codes?, this way of counting seems
ridiculous; one would have to end up with some 50,000x4 "different" charac-
ters at least!)

Not all these characters have been published, and have gone through CCCII's
mysterious validation process. Published are: Common characters (4,808),
Useful characters (17,302), Rare characters (20,583) and Variants (11,517),
for a total of 53,940; the other 20,000+ characters are said to be in the stage
of beta-checking.

As I said before, more interesting is the fact, that the group found IN ADDITIO
N to the 75,684 some 9,000 characters "with no way of recognizing them". They
come from the automated files of the Ministry of household registration and
other agencies; they were expected to be investigated through the early
nineties; I don't know whether the files have them or not.

In addition to these compilations and codings, the CCCII group also tries,
as have Japan, Korea, and the PRC done before, to actually standardize
(with the object of normative enforcement) script FONTS: FangSongti, XiMingti,
Mingti, Kaishuti, and Songti. Let's hope they are not succesful; it is a
blatant effort of all these countries to put extra difficulties in the way
of foreign computer makers and/or font developers, especially now that the
opposition against Unicode has failed (Japan AND Taiwan were heavily against
it!) The fact that some of the orthodox characters (which e.g. prescribe diffe-
rentiations not commonly adhered to, as between the moon- and meat-radicals)
can look rather strange, is yet quite another matter; the reason is, again,
politics -against the Japanese domination of the printing industry-, so
I won't comment upon that on this listserv.

Martin Heijdra/Gest/Princeton