Someone from Taiwan can read a HK newspaper no problem.
The pinyin phonetic alphabet only works for mandarin, while a unified written script applies beyond mandarin.
Learning written Chinese not only connects you across varying spoken Chinese languages, but also connects you with the rich history of Classical Chinese text.
The formal pinyin system is great, and should be used along side with the actual Chinese characters. But there is no reason to replace the rich written Chinese characters, which connects across space and time, with a narrow and hollow substitute.
The pinyin phonetic alphabet only works for mandarin, while a unified written script applies beyond mandarin.
Learning written Chinese not only connects you across varying spoken Chinese languages, but also connects you with the rich history of Classical Chinese text.
The formal pinyin system is great, and should be used along side with the actual Chinese characters. But there is no reason to replace the rich written Chinese characters, which connects across space and time, with a narrow and hollow substitute.