Help needed, not directly Hokkien-related

[SimL]

Hi everyone,

I need to ask for some help here. It's only indirectly related to Hokkien, but very much related to my interest in Chinese in general and characters in particular.

Most of you probably know this site:

- http://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/main.htm

Well, I think it's a great site, because I have seen quite a number of different characters with all their known variants listed (in the course of the last 2-3 years), every time I stumble across a page for a specific character.

But I've been clicking around for hours (on a number of different days, in the last few months) and I simply can't find a page where there is a "box" where I can enter the character I'm interested in, and it will show all the variants. I would like to think that such a spot exists, because how else would one make the site interesting for users or what would be the use of gathering all these variants, and making such a site public, if you didn't allow users to select the character they were interested in?

So, yes, if anyone can help me with which page to go to, and what do do after that, I'd be very grateful.

[amhoanna]

I recall the site had this function about a yr and a half ago, the first time I stumbled across it. I think they overhauled the site last yr and took out the search function. After all, who needs a search box when U can just look it up by radical and number of strokes?

[SimL]

Oh, I couldn't even find that! Could you post instructions here on how to get to it? (If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know from the "start page" I originally posted... i.e. what link(s) to click from there onwards to get there. Part of it is that I'm curious why I couldn't find even that, and part of it is that I would then learn the characters of each of the links along the way, and in so doing, learn more Chinese.)

[Yeleixingfeng]

Haha. I like this page also.

Starting from your link, click 字形檢索. From there you have two choices, either to search according to radical or to stroke. You will know from there. ^^

They took out the search button, I think, because since it would be mostly scholars who use the page, searching for characters not encoded in the Unicode. So, since you can't type the character you intend to find, why set up a search box? >.<

[SimL]

Hi Yeleixingfeng,

Thanks a lot! I forgot to say "Good luck in your exams". I hope you're doing well.

I accept your point that one needs to look for characters which are not encoded in Unicode. Indeed, that would be a huge added benefit, if the site records these as well. I just never thought of it, because the Extended A and Extended B areas cover so many other characters already...

Nevertheless, for the ones which are in Unicode, it would have been handy to have the search, IMHO...

[amhoanna]

Actually, beyond this lack of modern search facilities on moe.gov, many other aspects of the Qing Dynasty lifestyle are alive and well in the country that spawned this website, more than in any other country.

[SimL]

many other aspects of the Qing Dynasty lifestyle are alive and well in the country that spawned this website

LOL! .

On a (vaguely) related issue...

http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/

The thing that struck me when reading this was the one line:

"222 additional CJK Unified Ideographs in common use in China, Taiwan, and Japan"

TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO ONLY??? What are these people doing?!?!? There must be heaps of dialect (read "Hokkien") characters screaming out for inclusion in Unicode. Why isn't anyone lobbying for them? For example, is that "weird looking one" required for writing "ka-cuah" (= "cockroach") already available? Is this because Hokkien has such low prestige in Taiwan, or because Taiwan has such low standing in the UN (I hardly think it's the latter, as it had a lot of say in Big5...)? [And even the POJ "dot-after-o-to-indicate-open-o" made it...]

[Yeleixingfeng]

Amhoanna,
What do you mean? Those characters were created during Qing?
By the way, are you really a hoanna? Or is it just a pseudonym? (Don't mind me if you consider this private. >.<)

[SimL]

Hi Yeleixingfeng,

I think (but I may be wrong!) that amhoanna is just having a light, humorous dig at Taiwanese conservatism... . ["not providing a unicode-based search" <=> "not keeping up with the times" <=> "many other aspects of the Qing Dynasty still preserved in Taiwan" <=> "conservative"]

[amhoanna]

Sim is right!

And I really am a hoanna for true. Then again, aren't we all?