Destination China: Traditional versus Simplified Chinese
March 1, 2010
The Chinese Communist government believed that by simplifying the written language, literacy rates would increase, which would lead to a more educated public and help improve the social-economic conditions of the people and of the country. Starting in the 1950′s the CCP starting “simplifying” the Chinese characters that they deemed overly complicated. Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China and Singapore and Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities. With Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997 and with the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, Simplified Chinese is gaining popularity in Hong Kong as people have more and more business interactions with mainlanders. Job seekers have advantages if they speak Putonghua, which is another name for Mandarin, the official spoken dialect in China. Request a PDF of this white paper
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