Traditional Chinese characters

9 min readJun 14, 2021

Traditional Chinese characters (traditional Chinese: 正體字/繁體字; simplified Chinese: 正体字/繁体字, Pinyin: Zhèngtǐzì/Fántǐzì)[3] are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took at the introduction of the regular script in the 2nd century.[1] Over the following centuries, traditional characters were regarded as the standard form of printed Chinese characters or literary Chinese throughout the Sinosphere until the middle of the 20th century,[1][4][5] before different script reforms initiated by countries using Chinese characters as a writing system.[4][6][7]

Traditional Chinese characters remain in common use in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside Southeast Asia;[8] In addition, Hanja in Korean language remains virtually identical to traditional form, which is still used to a certain extent in South Korea. Though there is a few divergence of which variants to be adopted in the standardised traditional characters among these regions. In Taiwan, the standardisation of traditional characters is stipulated through the promulgation of the Standard Form of National Characters, which is regulated by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore in official publications.

The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities.[9][10] Currently, many overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both character sets.[2]

History[edit]

The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty and have been more or less stable since the 5th century (during the Southern and Northern Dynasties).

The retronym “Traditional Chinese” is used to contrast traditional characters with “simplified Chinese characters”, a standardized character set introduced in the 1950s by the government of the People’s Republic of China on Mainland China.

Modern usage in Chinese-speaking areas[edit]

Mainland China[edit]

The east square of Guangzhou railway station in 1991. Notice the prevalence of traditional Chinese characters as brand logos during that time, including Jianlibao (健力寶), Rejoice (飄柔) and 萬家樂, only Head & Shoulders (海飞丝) printed in simplified. In Mainland China, it is legal to design brand logos in traditional characters, yet by 2020, apart from Jianlibao, the other three have changed to simplified.

The character 繁 (Pinyin: fán) meaning “complex, complicated (Chinese characters)”

Although simplified characters are endorsed by the government of China and taught in schools, there is no prohibition against using traditional characters. Traditional characters are used informally, primarily in handwriting, but also for inscriptions and religious text.[citation needed] They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear. Nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China use simplified characters.

Hong Kong and Macau[edit]

In Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, however, simplified Chinese characters are used to accommodate Mainland Chinese tourists and immigrants.[11] The use of simplified characters has led to residents being concerned about protecting their local heritage.[12][13]

Taiwan[edit]

Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is prohibited or discouraged by the government of Taiwan.[14][15][16][17] Nevertheless, simplified characters (簡體字) usually can be understood by an educated Taiwanese person, as it may take little effort to learn them. Some writing stroke simplifications have long been in folk handwriting from the ancient time, existing as an informal variant form (俗字) of the traditional characters.[18][19]

Philippines[edit]

Job announcement in a Filipino Chinese daily newspaper written in traditional Chinese characters

The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification.[citation needed] Although major public universities teach simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News all use traditional characters. So do some magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan. On the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters.

DVD subtitles for film or television mostly use traditional Characters, that subtitling being influenced by Taiwanese usage and by both countries being within the same DVD region, 3.[citation needed]

United States[edit]

Having immigrated to the United States during the second half of the 19th century, well before the institution of simplified characters, Chinese-Americans have long used traditional characters. Therefore, US public notices and signage in Chinese are generally in traditional Chinese.[3]

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