You are looking to grow your company into Chinese-speaking markets. What's the difference between traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese, and which should you choose for your translation?
The Chinese-speaking world represents a huge market potential for global companies. There are more Chinese speakers than any other language in the world.
The challenge is that there are also different types of Chinese. There are two major writing systems: traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese.
How can you tell which writing system to translate your content into?
Here is an introduction to these two variants of written Chinese…
Is traditional or simplified Chinese more common?
One question companies ask when looking to translate content into Chinese is which of the written variants is most commonly used.
By sheer numbers, simplified Chinese is more common. As we will see below, this is because it is used in regions of the world where there are many more people.
However, just because more people use the simplified system doesn't necessarily mean that you should only translate into simplified Chinese and ignore traditional Chinese. You could be missing out on significant market opportunities by ignoring either of the writing systems.
The question you should ask yourself is…
Do we need to translate into only one variant or both to achieve our desired global growth?
And if only one, which one?
How does simplified Chinese relate to traditional Chinese?
It's worth understanding where the two different variants of written Chinese came from.
Until around the 1950's, the people of all Chinese-speaking regions of the world wrote using traditional Chinese. However, literacy rates were very low in Mainland China (only around 20%). In a move to modernize the country and increase literacy rates, simplified Chinese was born.
As the name suggests, simplified Chinese is easier and quicker to write than traditional Chinese. The characters use fewer strokes which made them more accessible for learners.
These days, some people argue that simplified Chinese is not as important as it used to be. Computers make both writing systems equally as easy to use. But, the different systems are already deeply entrenched in different cultures.
As a global company, both writing systems represent significant market opportunities so you shouldn't ignore either of them. Some Chinese-speaking countries use the simplified system and others use the traditional system.
Examples of traditional vs simplified Chinese
What do traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese look like in practice?
There are 2 key differentiators between the two writing systems:
- Simplified characters use fewer strokes than traditional characters.
- Simplified characters have simpler stroke forms than traditional characters.
For example, the traditional character for "book" is 書. It takes 10 strokes to write this character by hand. By contrast, the simplified character is 书. This takes just 4 strokes to write. The strokes are also easier to draw.
How are the characters simplified?
There is a whole series of different changes to simplify a traditional Chinese character for simplified Chinese.
Some examples of these changes are:
| Method of simplification | Example |
|---|---|
| Two characters that usually sound the same are merged together. | 髮 ("hair" pronounced "fà") and 發 ("to develop" pronounced "fā") becomes 发 ("hair" or "to develop" pronounced "fā") |
| The basic outline or shape of the original character is preserved but simplified. | 龜 becomes 龟 ("tortoise") |
| Entire components of the written character are omitted to simplify it. | 習 becomes 习 ("surname") |
| An uncommon character that represents a particular sound is replaced by a more common character for the same sound. | 曆 becomes 历 ("calendar" both pronounced "lì") |
| A component of a character is replaced with a simple arbitrary symbol. | 這 becomes 这 ("this") |
In practical terms, you probably don't need to become very familiar with the two systems to use them in your company's translated content.
As long as you are using the right character encoding in your content and your fonts support Chinese characters, you can display both equally well. Unicode supports both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Should you translate into traditional or simplified Chinese?
The decision of which of the two variants you should translate into will depend heavily on your global expansion strategy.
A good place to start is to look at the markets that you are moving your company into.
Markets where Chinese is an official language are:
- People's Republic of China
- Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
- Taiwan
- Singapore
- Macau Special Administrative Region
Let's have a look at which writing systems each of these countries use…
Does China use traditional or simplified Chinese?
Mainland China (or People's Republic of China) is the most populous country in the world with 1.4 billion people. That means Mainland China is a huge opportunity if you want to grow your company abroad.
Today, simplified Chinese is used for most purposes in Mainland China. Traditional characters are sometimes used for specific purposes, such as for emphasis of particular characters, company logos, or religious texts.
If you want to sell your products in Mainland China, you'll need to use simplified Chinese.
Does Taiwan use traditional or simplified Chinese?
Taiwan has a population of 23.57 million and uses the traditional Chinese writing system. Political tensions have long existed between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, which also affects the translation process.
One important factor to remember is that traditional Chinese may be required by law or strongly encouraged for some types of content, such as for some government documents and education.
If you want to sell your products in Taiwan, it's likely you'll need to use traditional Chinese.
Other countries and regions that use Chinese
The other regions that use Chinese each tend towards a particular writing system.
Other regions where Chinese is an official language are:
- Hong Kong and Macau — Traditional Chinese is the legal written form in both these markets but simplified Chinese is increasingly used to accommodate tourists. If you want your content to connect emotionally with people in these markets, traditional Chinese may be the best option.
- Singapore — In Singapore, writing tends to be in simplified Chinese only.
There is a huge Chinese diaspora across the world, so there are many other countries where Chinese is spoken even though it is not an official language.
Examples of markets with some of the highest distributions of Chinese speakers include:
- Thailand — Thailand has one of the largest Chinese communities in the world and there is a growing population of people that have learned to speak Mandarin for business reasons. Many people will understand simplified Chinese.
- Malaysia — There is also a significant Chinese-speaking population in Malaysia. As the language is taught using simplified Chinese, this tends to be the system they are most familiar with.
- Philippines — There is a significant Chinese Filipino community with a long history in the country. Both systems are used, with a shift towards the simplified system in younger generations.
- USA — There is also a significant Chinese population in the United States of America. As many immigrated before the introduction of simplified Chinese, it is common for traditional characters to be used.
How to choose the right Chinese variant for you
The first step when choosing a variant of written Chinese is to decide which markets you want to reach.
Even with the same writing system, the translations may also vary for different markets. For example, you may need slightly different translations when using traditional Chinese for Macau than you would for Taiwan.
Many people in your situation find it helpful to talk to a global content strategist. They can help you to decide which languages you will need to translate into and provide tips on getting the most from your translation budget.
If you'd like help in choosing the right version of Chinese for you, just get in contact with one of our strategists and we will gladly help you out.