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Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. The other set is Traditional Chinese characters. Simplified Chinese characters are the Chinese characters officially simplified by the government of the People's Republic of China in an attempt to promote literacy. This character set is used for most Chinese-language printing in Mainland China and Singapore whereas traditional characters are used in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities. Simplified characters are gradually gaining popularity among many overseas Chinese communities as more mainland Chinese are emigrating from their homeland.
Only a fraction of characters were simplified, and many characters are identical between Simplified and Traditional Chinese. There are also a large number of Simplified characters whose forms are regularly derived using rules that replace Traditional character components with Simplified components. A small number of Simplified characters, however, are not regularly derived from Traditional Chinese; some Simplified characters are completely different in form from Traditional characters
Origins and history
Mainland China
Although associated with the People's Republic of China (PRC), character simplification predates the PRC's formation in 1949. Cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed (they date back to as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC), though early attempts at simplification actually resulted in more characters being added to the lexicon).
One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lu Feikui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement, many Chinese intellectuals began to propose reform of the Chinese writing system, either by simplification or complete abolishment. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the "writing of ox-demons and snake-gods" (牛鬼蛇神的文字). Lu Xun, one of the most influential Chinese writers of the 20th century, also declared, "If Chinese characters aren't destroyed, then China will be." (漢字不滅，中國必亡。)
In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers have long maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China. In many world languages, literacy has been promoted as a justification for spelling reforms.
The People's Republic of China issued its first round of official character simplifications in two documents, the first in 1956 and the second in 1964. In the 1950s and 1960s, while confusion about simplified characters was still rampant, transitional characters that mixed simplified parts with yet-to-be simplified parts of characters together appeared briefly, then disappeared.
Within the PRC, character simplification became associated with the leftists of the Cultural Revolution, culminating in a second round of character simplifications (known as erjian 二简, or "Second-round simplified characters", which were promulgated in 1977. It was poorly received, and in 1986 the authorities retracted the second round completely. Later in the same year, the authorities promulgated a final list of simplifications, which is identical to the 1964 list except for six changes (including the restoration of three characters that had been simplified in the First Round: 叠, 覆, 像). Although no longer recognized officially, some second-round characters appear in informal contexts, as many people learned second round simplified characters in school.
Simplification initiatives have been aimed at eradicating characters entirely and establishing the Hanyu Pinyin romanization as the official written system of the PRC, but the reform never gained quite as much popularity as the leftists had hoped. After the retraction of the second round of simplification, the PRC has stated that it wishes to keep Chinese orthography stable and does not appear to plan any further reforms in the future, nor restore any characters that have already been simplified.
Singapore and Malaysia
Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification, eventually arriving at the same set of simplified characters as Mainland China.
The first round, consisting of 498 Simplified characters from 502 Traditional characters, was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969. The second round, consisting of 2287 Simplified characters, was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the Mainland China system; those were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted the six revisions made by Mainland China in 1986.
Malaysia promulgated a set of Simplified characters in 1981, which were also completely identical to the simplified characters used in Mainland China.
Method of simplification
There are several methods in which characters were simplified:
Replacing complicated components of common characters with simpler shapes:
對 > 对; 觀 > 观; 風 > 风; etc.
Changing the phonetic:
潔 > 洁; 鄰 > 邻; 極 > 极; etc.
Omitting entire components:
廣 > 广; 寧 > 宁; 滅 > 灭; etc.
Using grass script shapes:
書 > 书; 長 > 长; 馬 > 马; etc.
Adopting ancient forms that are simpler in form:
涙 > 泪; 網 > 网; 傑 > 杰; etc.
Creating new radical-radical compounds:
體 > 体; 塵 > 尘; 竃 > 灶; etc.
Creating new radical-phonetic compounds:
護 > 护; 驚 > 惊; 膚 > 肤; etc.
Merging a character into another one that sounds the same or similar:
餘 > 余; 穀 > 谷; 後 > 后; etc.
Merging several characters into a newly created and simpler character:
髮 & 發 > 发; 儘 & 盡 > 尽; etc.
Systematically simplifying a shape, so that every character that uses it is simplified:
門 > 门; 閉 > 闭; 問 > 问; etc
Since traditional characters are sometimes merged, confusion may arise when Classical Chinese texts are printed in simplified characters. For example, a phrase like 獨餘余一人(only I am left alone) will become 独余余一人 when simplified. This also makes conversion between simplified and traditional texts a non-trivial task.
In rare instances, simplified characters actually became one or two strokes more complex than their traditional counterparts due to logical revision. An example of this is 搾 mapping to the previously existing variant form 榨. Note that the "hand" radical on the left (扌), with three strokes, is replaced with the "tree" radical (木), with four strokes. However, one of the primary goals of the character simplification is to reduce the number of strokes if possible.
Distribution and use
Mainland China and Singapore generally use simplified characters. They appear very sparingly in printed text produced in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities, although they are becoming more prevalent as China opens to the world. Conversely, the Mainland is seeing an increase in the use of traditional forms, where they are found aesthetically appealing and often used on signs and in logos.
People unfamiliar with how the PRC deals with simplified versus traditional characters erroneously claim that the PRC permits only simplified characters and has "banned" traditional characters. Although the PRC views Traditional characters as errors in domestic published material, the Law of the People's Republic of China on National Language and Common Characters explains that traditional characters are not banned altogether on mainland China; instead, their usage is relegated to certain aspects and purposes. In Mainland China, traditional characters are used mainly for ceremonies, cultural purposes (e.g. calligraphy), decoration, some books on ancient literature and poetry, and commercial purposes such as shopfront displays and advertisements, though the latter is technically discouraged.
The PRC also tends to print material intended for Taiwanese, people in Hong Kong and Macao, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, the PRC prints versions of the People's Daily in traditional characters and both the People's Daily and Xinhua websites have versions in traditional characters using Big5 encoding. Other examples include milk from a mainland company which is for distribution in Hong Kong, for example, has traditional characters printed on it instead of simplified. Also, as part of the one country, two systems model, the PRC has not attempted to convert Hong Kong or Macau into using simplified characters.
Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. Some traditional character publications other than dictionaries are published on mainland China, for domestic consumption. Moreover, it is possible for residents in Guangdong to receive Chinese language television in Cantonese from Hong Kong (though the politically sensitive issues in news and other current affairs programs may be censored). The use of traditional form characters is flourishing in Hong Kong, and through such encounters, mainlanders are exposed to the use of traditional characters in television subtitling.
In all areas, most handwritten text will include informal character simplifications, and some characters (such as the "Tai" in Taiwan: traditional 臺 simplified 台) have informal simplified forms that appear more commonly than the official forms, even in print.
Education
In general, schools in Mainland China and Singapore use Simplified characters exclusively, while schools in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan use Traditional characters exclusively.
For overseas Chinese going to "Chinese school", which character set is used depends very much on which school one attends. Not surprisingly, parents will generally enroll their children in schools that teach the script they themselves use. Descendants of Hong Kong people and people who emigrated before the simplification will therefore generally be taught Traditional (and in Cantonese), whereas children whose parents are of more recent Mainland origin will probably be taught Simplified.
Mainland China
In December 2004, Beijing's educational authorities rejected a proposal from a Beijing CPPCC political conference member that called for elementary schools to teach traditional Chinese characters in addition to the simplified ones, but to use simplified characters exclusively. The conference member pointed out that most mainland Chinese -- especially the youth of today -- have difficulties with traditional Chinese; rather than discouraging it, the characters should be taught so that they can understand them; this is especially important in dealing with non-mainland communities such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau where traditional Chinese is used. The proposal would also make it easier for Chinese on the mainland to read older text before simplification.
The educational authorities slammed the recommendation, saying that it did not fit in with the "requirements as set out by the law". The authorities also claimed that the proposal could potentially complicate the curricula by adding excess content.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, a majority of secondary school students are fond of writing in simplified Chinese characters, particularly in examinations, for the sake of the 'quickness' of writing. However, this is generally frowned upon, as there are teachers who believe that Simplified Chinese is an "inferior system of writing designed for uneducated people". Also, some teachers admit that quite a few simplified Chinese characters were derived illogically.
Chinese as a foreign language
For persons learning Chinese as a foreign language, instruction varies greatly: most universities on the west coast of the United States teach the Traditional character set, most likely due to the large population of Chinese-Americans who continue to use the Traditional forms. (The largest Mandarin Chinese Program in North America, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, switched to Simplified at least a decade ago, even though the majority of ethnic Chinese at that time were Traditional users.) In places where a particular set is not locally entrenched—for example, Europe, and some of the east coast of the US—instruction is swinging towards Simplified, as the economic importance of the Mainland increases, and also because of the availability of cheap high-quality textbooks printed in Mainland China. Teachers of international students often recommend learning both systems. Their experience is that students who start with Traditional characters would understand Simplified characters without much difficulty while students who begin with Simplified characters tend to have more difficulties when they encounter Traditional characters.
Pros and cons
The effect of Simplified Characters on the language remains controversial decades after their introduction:
Pros
Proponents point out that the Chinese writing system has been changing for millennia: it has already passed through the Oracle Script, Bronzeware Script, Seal Script and Clerical Script stages. Moreover, many simplified characters are drawn from conventional abbreviated forms that have been in use for centuries; some simplified characters are in fact restorations of ancient forms that had become more complicated over time.
Proponents also feel that simplification makes the Chinese writing system easier to learn. Literacy rates since simplification have risen steadily in rural and urban areas.
Opponents argue that the literacy rates of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan compare favorably, so simplification seems not to correlate with the improvement. Some have suggested that the greater etymological coherence of the traditional set might even pose an advantage when learning how to write.
Proponents feel that simplified characters give a less cluttered appearance, preventing an overflow of useless information and thus making reading and writing easier and faster. They point to some common characters that are extremely complex in their traditional form, such as 邊 (biān), "side", with nineteen strokes; the simplified form is 边, with five strokes. They also feel that simplified characters are easier to view in print and on computer displays, as they require less space.
Proponents also feel that some traditional characters are too similar in appearance, such as 書 (shū) "book", 晝 (zhòu) "daytime" and 畫 (huà) "drawing": the simplified forms are 书, 昼, and 画, which look much more distinct.
Opponents claim the reverse: simplifications make distinct characters more similar to each other in appearance, giving the "shape recognition" mechanism of the reading part of the brain less unique clues. An example is 無 (wú) "without", simplified into 无, which looks very similar to the existing character 天 (tiān) "sky".
Chinese characters are most often made up of a pronunciation-indicating part (called the phonetic) and a part that indicates the general semantic domain (called the radical). During the process of simplification, there are some attempts to bring greater coherence to the system. For example, the shape of 憂 (yōu), meaning "anxious", is not a good indicator of its pronunciation. The simplified version is 忧, a straightforward combination of the "heart" radical to the left (indication emotion) and the phonetic 尤 (yóu) to the right.
Cons
Character simplification merged many characters with same or similar pronunciations. For example, 后 (hòu) "queen" and 後 (hòu) "behind" are both simplified into 后. Opponents complain that by merging many characters into one and hence offering new meanings to a traditional character, simplified characters create ambiguity, especially in ancient literature that depends more heavily on characters to disambiguate meaning, for example, between 后宮 "the Queen's palace" and 後宮 "the palace at the back".
However, proponents argue that the amount of spoken and written deviation from Classical Chinese and the modern vernacular is a greater factor, and has already brought about incompatibility with ancient texts. They also claim that the ambiguity brought about by the merger of characters is minimal.
Some characters that do not have the same pronunciations in Standard Mandarin have also been merged together. For example, 尽 is a merger of 儘 jǐn and 盡 jìn; 只 is a merger of 隻 zhī and 祇 zhǐ; 发 is a merger of 發 fā and 髮 fà. Other characters that were merged are pronounced identically in Standard Mandarin, but not in other varieties of Chinese, such as 松, a merger of 松 and 鬆, which are pronounced identically in Standard Mandarin but differently in Cantonese. Opponents feel that this adds unnecessary complexity to the Chinese writing system.
Some simplified characters distort or entirely remove the phonetic and/or radical, reducing the internal logic of the system. For example, the traditional character 盤 (pán), meaning "plate", has the phonetic component 般 (bān) on top. The simplified version is 盘, whose upper part is now 舟 (zhōu). Although easier to write, the pronunciation of the character is no longer apparent from its shape.
Some people feel that simplified characters violate the traditional aesthetics of Chinese writing. For example, the use of grass script shapes in simplified Chinese is viewed as being incompatible with writing in the regular script or the running script.
As computers are increasingly used to write text, the speed advantage of writing fewer strokes becomes less relevant.
The sheer difficulties posed by having two concurrent writing systems, which hinders communications between Mainland China and other regions, is used by both sides of the debate to support their arguments. Translating an entire document written using simplified characters to traditional characters, or vice versa, is not a trivial task. For human translators, simplified Chinese characters can look vastly different from their traditional counterparts to the extent that the two have no signs of simplification and instead appear completely irrelevant to each other. Proponents claim that this poses no problem to anyone who has had some reading experience with both systems. For computer automated translation, one simplified character may equate to many traditional characters, and vice versa. Some knowledge of the context of the word usage is required for correct mapping; but it has been difficult for computers to work with word usage perfectly. As a result, direct computer mapping from simplified to traditional is not trivial and requires sophisticated programming. (This line of reasoning is used both by traditional Chinese advocates opposed to simplification, and simplified Chinese advocates opposed to the continued use of traditional characters.)
In addition to those practical considerations, many minds link simplified characters with the idea of communism and traditional characters with anticommunism. This often hampers rational debate about the relative merits of the two systems.
