The ideographic fallacy holds that Chinese characters are “ideographs” (also called ideograms) that express ideas independent of spoken language. The idea originated among early modern Europeans, spread to Japan, and then to China. Sustained by cultural politics east and west, it retains a powerful hold on the popular imagination and in some areas of academia. However, linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists consider the ideographic fallacy to be long disproved. Computer science breakt…