Should I use Chinese traditional or simplified?

Simplified Chinese is typically used when translating for mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, and international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. However, when translating for audiences in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and international immigrant communities, Traditional Chinese is the norm.

Can Chinese people read both simplified and traditional?

Taiwanese and Mainlanders are both native speakers of Mandarin while Cantonese native speakers can often read both Simplified and Traditional Chinese without any problems, depending on where they are from. In this written style, some special characters are created for Cantonese only.

Do Chinese people still use Traditional Chinese?

Traditional Chinese characters are only still used primarily by those in Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong and many overseas communities, comprising a small minority of the Chinese-speaking population (~50 million people). However, they also remain in use in mainland China for artistic, scholarly and advertising purposes.

Is simplified Chinese easier to read?

Simplified characters are based on Traditional characters, but Simplified Chinese characters, as its name suggests, have fewer strokes than their traditional equivalent, making them easier to read, write, and to learn.

Did simplified Chinese increased literacy?

Although some argue that compulsory education is what lifted the majority of the population out of illiteracy, it is clear that using simplified characters has been a powerful tool in improving the literacy rate of a great number of Chinese.

Is traditional or simplified Chinese harder?

Traditional characters are typically more complicated and have more strokes, while simplified characters are, as the name suggests, simpler and have fewer strokes. As mentioned, all Chinese characters were originally the same, so while some characters were changed in the simplified Chinese system, some carried over.

Why is there traditional and simplified Chinese?

The Simplified set or style was derived from the Traditional style by the government of the People’s Republic of China circa 1949 to 1964. The majority of “common” people in China could not read their system of writing, it was too complex. Hence “Simplified” Chinese was born.

What is the difference between traditional Chinese and Mandarin?

Simplified and Traditional Chinese refers only to the written word while Mandarin and Cantonese refer to dialects of the spoken word. Therefore Mandarin or Cantonese cannot be used for document translation nor can interpretation be done in Simplified or Traditional Chinese.