For using simplified Chinese to introduce her new clothes store in Hong Kong, fashion designer Victoria Beckham caught the ire of netizens from the Special Autonomous Region. The former Spice Girls member posted on Instagram on Sunday, “So excited to be coming to Hong Kong! My new store opens March 18th.”
The anger comes from the use of simplified Chinese which Hong Kong residents consider disrespectful because it is used on mainland, reported Global Times. Beckham immediately changed the message when she realized that she was facing a social media storm.
The Hong Kong store would be her first location in Asia and the second in the world. The first is in Dover Street in London. Ahead of her opening the second store, Beckham noted to Vogue China that “The women in Asia really know how to dress.”
The wife of athlete David Beckham wrote a new message which used simplified and traditional Chinese. To enhance communications with people in the mainland, education authorities in Hong Kong suggested that schools teach students simplified Chinese, but local residents were against the plan.
From 1949 through 1964, the People's Republic of China started a series of reforms in Chinese characters to make simple the traditional Chinese characters which were complicated strokes. Beijing finalized a new character list, including the most used words.
While the simplified Chinese characters are easier to remember and have less strokes, it broke the balance of framework of some characters. Besides mainland, simplified Chinese is now used in Malaysia and Singapore, but Taiwan insists on using traditional Chinese characters.
After Beckham made the change, one Instagram user wrote, “I hope you finally realized the Chinese you use in caption is not the original Chinese. And stop using this in Hong Kong and be respectful to Hong Kong.”