Traditional Chinese characters

Traditional Chinese characters refer to one of several standard sets of characters used to write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by Taiwan's Ministry of Education, standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters. These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century,[2][3] when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms.[4][5]

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Traditional Chinese
Script type	Logographic
Time period	standardized in Taiwan since 1979
Direction	Left-to-right (modern usage) Top-to-bottom, columns right to left (traditional style)
Official script	Republic of China (Taiwan)  Hong Kong  Macau  United Nations (1945–1971)
Languages	Chinese languages
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Small seal script Clerical script Regular script Traditional Chinese
Sister systems	Simplified characters Kanji Hanja Chữ Nôm Zhuyin Khitan large script Khitan small script Sawndip
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Hant (502), ​Han (Traditional variant)
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Chinese characters
Written Chinese Kanji Hanja Chữ Hán
Scripts and style Precursors Oracle-bone Bronze Seal (Bird-worm Large Small) Clerical libian Cursive Semi-cursive Regular Flat brush Typefaces Imitation Song Ming Sans-serif
Properties and classification Components Strokes (order) Radicals
Collation and standards Character-form standards Jiu zixing Xin zixing Kangxi Dictionary forms (1716) General Standard Chinese Characters (mainland China, 2013) Graphemes of Commonly-used Chinese characters (Hong Kong, 2007) Standard Form of National Characters (Taiwan, 1982) Grapheme-usage standards General Standard Characters (PRC, 2013) Jōyō kanji (Japan, 2010) Other standards Standardized Forms of Words with Variant Forms (PRC, 2002) Nan Min Recommended Characters (Taiwan, 2009) Previous standards Commonly-used Characters (PRC, 1988) Tōyō kanji (Japan, 1946)
Reforms China Clerical reforms Traditional characters Simplified characters (first round second round) Debate Japan Kyūjitai Shinjitai Ryakuji Korea Yakja Singapore Table of Simplified Characters
Homographs and readings Literary and colloquial readings
Variants Graphemic variants Zetian characters
Derived systems Slavonic transcription Nüshu Kana ( Hiragana Katakana ) Man'yōgana Jurchen script Khitan large script Khitan small script Idu script Bopomofo Sawndip Chữ Nôm
Chinese family of scripts (Transliteration of Chinese)
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Simplified characters—as codified by the People's Republic of China—are predominantly used in mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia.[6] As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their Simplified Chinese counterparts. Korean hanja, still used to a certain extent in South Korea, remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic.

There is a long-running debate about traditional and simplified Chinese characters within and between Chinese communities.[7][8] Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being the merger of traditional characters into single simplified representations, which creates ambiguity when converting simplified characters to traditional characters. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets.[1]