Traditional Chinese characters

Traditional Chinese
Script type
Published
  • Taiwan: ()
  • Hong Kong: (1986)
Direction
  • Left-to-right
  • Top-to-bottom, columns right to left
Official scriptTaiwan, Hong Kong, Macau
LanguagesChinese
Related scripts
Parent systems
Sister systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Hant (502), ​Han (Traditional variant)
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Traditional Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Literal meaningOrthodox form characters
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhèngtǐzì
Bopomofoㄓㄥˋ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ
Wade–GilesChêng4-tʻi3-tzŭ4
Tongyong PinyinJhèng-tǐ-zìh
IPA[ʈʂə̂ŋ.tʰì.tsɹ̩̂]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationJing tái jih
Jyutpingzing3 tai2 zi6
IPA[tsɪŋ˧.tʰɐj˧˥.tsi˨]
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Literal meaningComplex form characters
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinFántǐzì
Bopomofoㄈㄢˊ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ
Wade–GilesFan2-tʻi3-tzŭ4
Tongyong PinyinFán-tǐ-zìh
IPA[fǎn.tʰì.tsɹ̩̂]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationFàahn tái jih
Jyutpingfaan4 tai2 zi6
IPA[fan˩ tʰɐj˧˥ tsi˨]

Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters. These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century,[1][2] when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms.[3][4]

Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia.[5] As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts. Korean hanja, still used to a certain extent in South Korea, remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic.

There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters.[6][7] Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from the merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets.[8]

  1. ^ Wei, Bi (2014). "The Origin and Evolvement of Chinese Characters" (PDF). Gdańskie Studia Azji Wschodniej. 5: 33–44. Retrieved 29 September 2023 – via CORE.
  2. ^ Kornicki, P. F. (2011). "A Transnational Approach to East Asian Book History". In Chakravorty, Swapan; Gupta, Abhijit (eds.). New Word Order: Transnational Themes in Book History. Worldview Publications. pp. 65–79. ISBN 978-81-920651-1-3.
  3. ^ Pae, H. K. (2020). "Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Writing Systems: All East-Asian but Different Scripts". Script Effects as the Hidden Drive of the Mind, Cognition, and Culture. Literacy Studies (Perspectives from Cognitive Neurosciences, Linguistics, Psychology and Education). Vol. 21. Cham: Springer. pp. 71–105. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55152-0_5. ISBN 978-3-030-55151-3. S2CID 234940515.
  4. ^ Twine, Nanette (1991). Language and the Modern State: The Reform of Written Japanese. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-00990-4.
  5. ^ Yan, Pu; Yasseri, Taha (2016). "Two Diverging Roads: A Semantic Network Analysis of Chinese Social Connection ("Guanxi") on Twitter". Frontiers in Digital Humanities. 4. arXiv:1605.05139. doi:10.3389/fdigh.2017.00011.
  6. ^ O'Neill, Mark (8 June 2020). "China Should Restore Traditional Characters-Taiwan Scholar". EJ Insight. Hong Kong Economic Journal. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  7. ^ Sui, Cindy (16 June 2011). "Taiwan Deletes Simplified Chinese from Official Sites". BBC. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  8. ^ Lin Youshun (林友順) (2009). 大馬華社遊走於簡繁之間 [The Malaysian Chinese Community Wanders Between Simplified and Traditional Characters] (in Chinese). Yazhou Zhoukan. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.