Translate your documents into Chinese

DEVIS GRATUIT

Would your company benefit from access to the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens? Are you planning to set up and promote your goods and services there? If so, there are many things you need to know, from the differences in Chinese business culture to the forms of Chinese language to use.

As an experienced translation agency, Pop Translation is well placed to advise you on relevant language issues. Do you understand Chinese? No? No problem! We are here to take care of it for you, with Chinese translators at your disposal to meet all your needs.
Even if you don’t speak Chinese and don’t intend to learn, it can be interesting to discover the languages of China. That’s where this article comes in! We have looked at Traditional Chinese versus Simplified Chinese, explaining what they are, why and how they differ and what you should use for your Chinese translations. If you are still unsure whether you need Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese, don’t worry, you will be when you finish reading this article!

What exactly are Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese?

What is the difference between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese? Good question! We will see what each of the forms of the language involves below. For now, suffice it to say that, as the name suggests, simplified Chinese is a simpler version of traditional Chinese.
Let’s look at the two different types of Chinese language.

What is traditional Chinese?

“Traditional Chinese” is actually a retronym, because until the 1950s it was simply “Chinese”. However, the creation of a simplified version of the written language at that time required the introduction of a means of differentiation, hence the addition of the term ‘traditional’.
Traditional” Chinese characters are those that have been used for the written form of the language since the appearance of the clerical script in the Han dynasty. They have changed little since the 5th century.
Traditional Chinese is officially used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as in China. Chinese speakers refer to its characters in a variety of ways, including ‘standard characters’, ‘orthodox characters’, ‘complex characters’ and ‘full Chinese characters’.

What is simplified Chinese?

Simplified Chinese is exactly that: a simplified version of traditional Chinese characters. The government of the People’s Republic of China in mainland China introduced this character set in the 1950s. Today, it is used in China, Malaysia and Singapore. Quite simply, many characters have fewer traits than before, making them easier to learn. Some of those that were already quite simple remained unchanged.
The introduction of simplified Chinese has meant that learners not only have easier characters to write, but also have far fewer characters in total. The introduction of simplified Chinese has allowed learners not only to have characters that are easier to write, e.g. traditional Chinese contains two or more words with the same pronunciation but different meanings (think of ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ for an English example), the simplified version will use a single character for all the words, rather than one for each (as was the case with traditional Chinese).writing, but also to have far fewer characters in all
It is interesting to note that the Chinese government remains officially committed to further simplifying the language. Within this framework, a second round of simplifications was launched in 1977. However, the resulting confusion and unpopularity led the government to withdraw these new simplifications almost ten years later.

The history of simplified Chinese

Why are there simplified and traditional Chinese? Largely because literary levels in China used to be incredibly low. When the communists took power in the late 1940s, the literacy rate in China was below 20%. The party actively promoted the simplification of the language in the 1950s. Today, China’s literacy rate has risen to 95%, while among young people (aged 15-24) the figure is 99.6% according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Clearly simplified Chinese has been a great victory for literacy levels in China, but what about foreigners who want to do business with the world’s second largest country (by GDP)? In reality, when it comes to choosing between simplified and traditional Chinese for your translations, the determining factor will be the person you are considering.

Simplified Chinese Vs Traditional Chinese

The use of traditional versus simplified Chinese is, for many, an emotional issue, with different territories clinging vehemently to one version or the other. The exception to this rule is China itself, where both are commonly used.
Supporters of traditional Chinese include Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Educational materials and most other printed materials use traditional Chinese characters. Indeed, the use of simplified Chinese characters is even prohibited in official government documents in Taiwan, although it is legal to import and distribute publications written in simplified Chinese.
Many of those who use traditional Chinese in these territories associate simplified characters with an erosion of their traditional culture. In both Hong Kong and Macau, this has created tensions, with simplified Chinese, increasingly used to accommodate tourists and immigrants from mainland China, raising cultural alarm bells for some residents.
There are also other reasons why some regions have retained their traditional Chinese. The 3.8 million Chinese Americans living in the United States, for example, are largely descended from those who migrated to America before the introduction of simplified characters. This is why traditional Chinese tends to be used in the US.

Explore the simplified Chinese writing system

Simplified Chinese has changed the writing form of the traditional Chinese language in several ways. The switch from traditional to simplified Chinese was intended to improve literacy by making the language easier to learn, so the changes were more profound than simply reducing the number of character strokes.
An example of this was given above when discussing the reduction of character variants with the same pronunciation to a single character. This was also the case for character variants that had identical meanings.
Another form of simplification is the application of regular rules to certain characters. This means introducing a standardised and simplified version of a particular element into all characters that contain that element.
The combined result of feature reduction in so many characters with these other forms of simplification was a significant reduction in the number of words that language learners had to master. As of June 2013, the table of general standard Chinese characters included 8,105 simplified and unchanged characters.

A word on Chinese dialects and characters

If you are in the market for Chinese translation services, there is also the question of which Chinese dialect you need. China has 297 living languages. The most common is Mandarin, which is spoken by about 70% of the Chinese population.
Cantonese is the second most spoken Chinese dialect and is an official language in Hong Kong and Macau (alongside English in the former and Portuguese in the latter).
Mandarin and Cantonese can be written in simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

Which one to use and learn?

Are you faced with the question of traditional versus simplified Chinese when it comes to which form of language to use? Or even to learn? If this is the case, don’t worry, you are not alone! Chinese is known to be one of the most difficult languages for French speakers to learn and decisions like this make it seem even more complicated.

Learn traditional and simplified Chinese characters

In reality, the choice of which form of Chinese characters to use or learn will depend on a range of factors specific to you. If you are looking to use Chinese in a business context, you will need to consider the territory where you intend to do business and the form of language used there.
If you are learning Chinese for personal use in a particular country or region, the same applies. On the other hand, if you are learning Chinese simply for the love of the language, without a clear plan of where and how to use it, Simplified Chinese will be the easiest version to learn.

Traditional versus simplified Chinese: final thoughts

The exploration of Chinese, both in its written and spoken form, is a fascinating subject of study. From its ancient roots, contemporary Chinese retains an appeal that is only made more attractive to linguists by its relative complexity.
Your own situation will dictate the reasons for using Chinese, as well as the type of Chinese translation services you are likely to need. This means that the choice of using Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese is not a matter of choice, but of practicality.
Whatever your decision to use Chinese, be aware of the cultural sensitivities associated with the acceptance of Simplified Chinese in different countries and territories. The issue is not without its problems and is worth being aware of, especially in a commercial context, where offending could mean losing out to the competitor who has done their homework better than you!
Finally, don’t forget that the Pop Translation team is always there to advise you. We regularly translate and localise documents into Chinese. If you would like the latest information and advice, we would be delighted to hear from you.

We translate all types of documents

Brochures

Catalogues

Meeting minutes

Contrats

Financial documents

Websites

Packagings

Marketing presentations

Industrial designs

Scripts

Mobile applications

Web app

Translate your documents into Chinese

Would your company benefit from access to the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens? Are you planning to set up and promote your goods and services there? If so, there are many things you need to know, from the differences in Chinese business culture to the forms of Chinese language to use.

As an experienced translation agency, Pop Translation is well placed to advise you on relevant language issues. Do you understand Chinese? No? No problem! We are here to take care of it for you, with Chinese translators at your disposal to meet all your needs.

Even if you don’t speak Chinese and don’t intend to learn, it can be interesting to discover the languages of China. That’s where this article comes in! We have looked at Traditional Chinese versus Simplified Chinese, explaining what they are, why and how they differ and what you should use for your Chinese translations. If you are still unsure whether you need Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese, don’t worry, you will be when you finish reading this article!

What exactly are Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese?

What is the difference between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese? Good question! We will see what each of the forms of the language involves below. For now, suffice it to say that, as the name suggests, simplified Chinese is a simpler version of traditional Chinese.

Let’s look at the two different types of Chinese language.

What is traditional Chinese?

“Traditional Chinese” is actually a retronym, because until the 1950s it was simply “Chinese”. However, the creation of a simplified version of the written language at that time required the introduction of a means of differentiation, hence the addition of the term ‘traditional’.

Traditional” Chinese characters are those that have been used for the written form of the language since the appearance of the clerical script in the Han dynasty. They have changed little since the 5th century.

Traditional Chinese is officially used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as in China. Chinese speakers refer to its characters in a variety of ways, including ‘standard characters’, ‘orthodox characters’, ‘complex characters’ and ‘full Chinese characters’.

What is simplified Chinese?

Simplified Chinese is exactly that: a simplified version of traditional Chinese characters. The government of the People’s Republic of China in mainland China introduced this character set in the 1950s. Today, it is used in China, Malaysia and Singapore. Quite simply, many characters have fewer traits than before, making them easier to learn. Some of those that were already quite simple remained unchanged.

The introduction of simplified Chinese has meant that learners not only have easier characters to write, but also have far fewer characters in total. The introduction of simplified Chinese has allowed learners not only to have characters that are easier to write, e.g. traditional Chinese contains two or more words with the same pronunciation but different meanings (think of ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ for an English example), the simplified version will use a single character for all the words, rather than one for each (as was the case with traditional Chinese).writing, but also to have far fewer characters in all

It is interesting to note that the Chinese government remains officially committed to further simplifying the language. Within this framework, a second round of simplifications was launched in 1977. However, the resulting confusion and unpopularity led the government to withdraw these new simplifications almost ten years later.

The history of simplified Chinese

Why are there simplified and traditional Chinese? Largely because literary levels in China used to be incredibly low. When the communists took power in the late 1940s, the literacy rate in China was below 20%. The party actively promoted the simplification of the language in the 1950s. Today, China’s literacy rate has risen to 95%, while among young people (aged 15-24) the figure is 99.6% according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Clearly simplified Chinese has been a great victory for literacy levels in China, but what about foreigners who want to do business with the world’s second largest country (by GDP)? In reality, when it comes to choosing between simplified and traditional Chinese for your translations, the determining factor will be the person you are considering.

Simplified Chinese Vs Traditional Chinese

The use of traditional versus simplified Chinese is, for many, an emotional issue, with different territories clinging vehemently to one version or the other. The exception to this rule is China itself, where both are commonly used.

Supporters of traditional Chinese include Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Educational materials and most other printed materials use traditional Chinese characters. Indeed, the use of simplified Chinese characters is even prohibited in official government documents in Taiwan, although it is legal to import and distribute publications written in simplified Chinese.

Many of those who use traditional Chinese in these territories associate simplified characters with an erosion of their traditional culture. In both Hong Kong and Macau, this has created tensions, with simplified Chinese, increasingly used to accommodate tourists and immigrants from mainland China, raising cultural alarm bells for some residents.

There are also other reasons why some regions have retained their traditional Chinese. The 3.8 million Chinese Americans living in the United States, for example, are largely descended from those who migrated to America before the introduction of simplified characters. This is why traditional Chinese tends to be used in the US.

Explore the simplified Chinese writing system

Simplified Chinese has changed the writing form of the traditional Chinese language in several ways. The switch from traditional to simplified Chinese was intended to improve literacy by making the language easier to learn, so the changes were more profound than simply reducing the number of character strokes.

An example of this was given above when discussing the reduction of character variants with the same pronunciation to a single character. This was also the case for character variants that had identical meanings.

Another form of simplification is the application of regular rules to certain characters. This means introducing a standardised and simplified version of a particular element into all characters that contain that element.

The combined result of feature reduction in so many characters with these other forms of simplification was a significant reduction in the number of words that language learners had to master. As of June 2013, the table of general standard Chinese characters included 8,105 simplified and unchanged characters.

A word on Chinese dialects and characters

If you are in the market for Chinese translation services, there is also the question of which Chinese dialect you need. China has 297 living languages. The most common is Mandarin, which is spoken by about 70% of the Chinese population.

Cantonese is the second most spoken Chinese dialect and is an official language in Hong Kong and Macau (alongside English in the former and Portuguese in the latter).

Mandarin and Cantonese can be written in simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

Which one to use and learn?

Are you faced with the question of traditional versus simplified Chinese when it comes to which form of language to use? Or even to learn? If this is the case, don’t worry, you are not alone! Chinese is known to be one of the most difficult languages for French speakers to learn and decisions like this make it seem even more complicated.

Learn traditional and simplified Chinese characters

In reality, the choice of which form of Chinese characters to use or learn will depend on a range of factors specific to you. If you are looking to use Chinese in a business context, you will need to consider the territory where you intend to do business and the form of language used there.

If you are learning Chinese for personal use in a particular country or region, the same applies. On the other hand, if you are learning Chinese simply for the love of the language, without a clear plan of where and how to use it, Simplified Chinese will be the easiest version to learn.

Traditional versus simplified Chinese: final thoughts

The exploration of Chinese, both in its written and spoken form, is a fascinating subject of study. From its ancient roots, contemporary Chinese retains an appeal that is only made more attractive to linguists by its relative complexity.

Your own situation will dictate the reasons for using Chinese, as well as the type of Chinese translation services you are likely to need. This means that the choice of using Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese is not a matter of choice, but of practicality.

Whatever your decision to use Chinese, be aware of the cultural sensitivities associated with the acceptance of Simplified Chinese in different countries and territories. The issue is not without its problems and is worth being aware of, especially in a commercial context, where offending could mean losing out to the competitor who has done their homework better than you!

Finally, don’t forget that the Pop Translation team is always there to advise you. We regularly translate and localise documents into Chinese. If you would like the latest information and advice, we would be delighted to hear from you.

We translate all types of documents:

 

Brochures
Catalogues
Meeting minutes
Contrats
Financial documents
Websites
Packagings
Marketing presentations
Industrial designs
Scripts
Mobile applications
Web app