The Traditional Chinese Characters VS The Simplified Characters - Part I

There are two versions of Chinese symbol writing used by Chinese today ... You might wonder why sometimes a Chinese symbol for exactly the same English word would appear to have two totally different looks. For example, your Chinese name written down by your friends from mainland China may look completely different from that written by your friends from Hong Kong or Taiwan. This is because there are two versions of Chinese symbol writings used by people today : "The Traditional version and The Simplified Version". Whether people write in the traditional Chinese symbol characters or simplified characters really depends on which part of Chinese speaking regions they are living in. Whereas, people from Taiwan or Hong Kong people are using the traditional Chinese complex characters, people from mainland China are writing words in simplified version. Most symbols seen in China Town's gift shop or Chinese restaurants' advertising are in "the traditional version" as these property owners have settled down in the west for many years, most of them did not grow up in communist China and therefore can not master the "simplified Chinese symbol writings". Brief History You may ask, "why should this happen?". It's a long story. Before 1949, when China was under Chinese national government' s ruling system, all Chinese were writing symbols in one version: the traditional characters or so called "the complex characters". But soon, China as a country was split into two parts. The Chinese national government lost in the Civil war and was therefore kicked out of mainland China by Chinese communist forces. They were forced to retreat to Taiwan and set up their new government there. People from Taiwan are still governed by the Chinese National government since then, and of course still continue using the traditional version of Chinese symbol writing. But in mainland China, since 1950s, the communist Chinese educational authority has started launching a campaign called "Chinese words reforming". Some symbols in the traditional version, especially those with lot of strokes and complicated structures were selected to change into the new version. The Traditional Chinese Characters The traditional version of Chinese characters are called "the complex character". The main writing style of the traditional Chinese characters has been developed over thousands of years and mainly appears in the writing style of "the clerical script" and "the standard script", which have been introduced else where on this website". The picture presented here is the typical example of the traditional Chinese symbol characters written by Chiang Kai-shek, the ex-president of the former Chinese National government. These traditional calligraphic characters were written in memory of those martyrs, who died for the national government's revolutionary cause.

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