Is Chu Nom more or less complicated than Hanzi/Hanja/Kanji?
When reading about Chu Nom I often see the argument “Chu Nom was too complicated for the common people to learn, so it was better for Vietnam to adopt Chu Quoc Ngu”
But as someone literate in Chinese traditional characters this doesnt seem right to me when I try to learn Chu Nom because it functions the same as sinograms in other east asian countries. The only “complicated” thing I could see is that Chu Nom is unstandardized.
What I see is that this message of Chu Nom is “too complicated” is often also accompanied by either intimidation of learning a sinogram script (which I understand if you never learned it, it can be a bit scary) or just pure nationalism/anti china rhetoric (which i think its ridiculous because Vietnamese love Japanese culture but wouldnt ever say Kanji is too Chinese! Unlike our native nôm which is distinct from Kanji and Hanzi)
Another talking point is that most people in Vietnam were illiterate before the introduction of Chu Quoc Ngu.. which I think is also another invalid point because most people in China were also illiterate (millions more people actually) and yet China’s and Taiwan’s literacy is now almost 100%. I think people fail to see(or ignore) literacy rates have more to do with access to education rather than the script.
Anyone else feel this way?