Simplified vs Traditional Chinese: which should you learn?

Chinese is written in two standard character sets. Simplified characters, 簡體字 (简体字) jiǎntǐzì, are the standard in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. Traditional characters, 繁體字 (繁体字) fántǐzì, are the standard in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The spoken language is the same either way: a sentence read aloud in Beijing and in Taipei sounds like the same Mandarin.

Kungfucius's advice is short: learn to read both, at least for the 1,000 most common characters. Pick one set to start with and to type in, according to where you will use the language, and then teach your eyes the other. Reading both is far less work than it sounds. Writing both by hand is a hobby, and an optional one.

Where each script is used

Place	Script in daily use	Notes
Mainland China	Simplified	Traditional appears in calligraphy, shop signs, temples and old books
Singapore	Simplified	Adopted in stages from 1969, aligned with the mainland set in 1976
Malaysia	Simplified in schools and most media	Adopted in 1981; Traditional is still common on signboards
Taiwan	Traditional	Officially called 正體字 zhèngtǐzì, "standard characters"
Hong Kong and Macau	Traditional	Mostly used to write Cantonese-flavoured Chinese; a few standard forms differ from Taiwan's, such as 裏 for Taiwan's 裡
Overseas Chinese communities	Both	Older Chinatowns lean Traditional, newer communities Simplified

Japanese kanji are a third story. Japan simplified some characters on its own after the war, so 国 and 学 match the mainland forms while others match neither set.

A short history of simplification

Simplified characters were not invented from nothing in the 1950s. Handwritten short forms had circulated for centuries, and many official Simplified characters are old cursive or popular variants made standard.

The Republic of China tried first: in 1935 its Ministry of Education published a list of 324 simplified characters, and withdrew it in 1936 after opposition inside the governing party. The People's Republic then made simplification a literacy policy. The Chinese Character Simplification Scheme of 1956 introduced 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified components, and the General List of 1964 applied those components across the vocabulary, which brought the total to more than 2,200 characters.

A second round in 1977 went further, was widely disliked and was formally withdrawn in 1986. Since then the system has been stable. The current official list, published in 2013, contains 8,105 characters.

How different are they really?

Less than the two camps on the internet suggest. A large share of everyday characters were never changed: 人, 我, 你, 好, 大, 小, 中, 不, 是 and 有 are identical in both sets. Kungfucius's rough estimate, not a counted figure, is that about a third of the most common characters look different, and most of those follow a small number of regular patterns.

Type of change	Traditional	Simplified	Pinyin	English
A component is simplified everywhere	說, 話, 語	说, 话, 语	shuō, huà, yǔ	to say, speech, language
Same idea, another component	門, 問, 間	门, 问, 间	mén, wèn, jiān	door, to ask, between
Same idea, another component	飯, 餓	饭, 饿	fàn, è	meal, hungry
Cursive shape made standard	書, 車, 馬	书, 车, 马	shū, chē, mǎ	book, vehicle, horse
Part of the character removed	電, 飛, 開	电, 飞, 开	diàn, fēi, kāi	electricity, to fly, to open
Old short form adopted	國, 學, 體	国, 学, 体	guó, xué, tǐ	country, to study, body
New, simpler construction	聽, 愛, 龍	听, 爱, 龙	tīng, ài, lóng	to listen, to love, dragon
Very common words	這, 個, 麼, 們	这, 个, 么, 们	zhè, gè, me, men	this, (measure word), (suffix), (plural)

The first three rows are the good news. Learn that 言 becomes 讠, 門 becomes 门 and 飠 becomes 饣, and hundreds of characters convert in your head for free. The last four rows are the ones you simply have to meet a few times.

The merged characters

The one real trap is that simplification merged some characters that Traditional keeps apart.

Simplified	Traditional forms	Meanings
发	發 fā, 髮 fà	to send out, to prosper; hair
后	後 hòu, 后 hòu	behind, after; empress
面	麵 miàn, 面 miàn	noodles, flour; face, surface
干	乾 gān, 幹 gàn, 干 gān	dry; to do; shield, to concern
里	裡 lǐ, 里 lǐ	inside; a Chinese mile, neighbourhood
只	隻 zhī, 只 zhǐ	measure word for animals; only

This is why going from Traditional to Simplified is a matter of recognition, while going the other way needs a decision each time. It is also why automatic converters occasionally turn hair, 頭髮 (头发) tóufa, into the nonsense 頭發.

Words differ too

The characters are only half the difference. Taiwan and the mainland sometimes use different words, in whatever script you write them.

Meaning	Taiwan	Mainland
taxi	計程車 jìchéngchē	出租车 chūzūchē
software	軟體 ruǎntǐ	软件 ruǎnjiàn
internet	網路 wǎnglù	网络 wǎngluò
bicycle	腳踏車 jiǎotàchē	自行车 zìxíngchē
pineapple	鳳梨 fènglí	菠萝 bōluó

Is Traditional Chinese harder?

Harder to write by hand, yes. 龜 (龟) guī, turtle, and 鬱 (郁) yù, as in depression, make the point without further argument. If you plan to handwrite a lot, Simplified saves real time.

For reading, the difference is much smaller than the stroke counts suggest. You recognise a character by its overall shape and its components, not by counting strokes, and Traditional forms often keep a helpful clue: 愛 contains 心, heart, and 聽 contains 耳, ear, while 听 is built with 口, mouth. Since almost everyone now types, reading is what matters most, and that was already Kungfucius's position in the old days of this site: recognition first, handwriting later or never.

Can Traditional readers read Simplified, and the other way round?

Mostly yes, in both directions, after some exposure. Educated readers in Taiwan and Hong Kong can usually work through Simplified text, and mainland readers handle Traditional subtitles and karaoke lyrics without lessons, because context fills the gaps. In Kungfucius's experience the step from Traditional to Simplified is the easier one, since the merged characters only cause trouble in the other direction.

For a learner the same holds. Once you know about 1,000 characters in one set, the other set is a few weeks of reading practice, not a second language.

Typing: input methods for both scripts

You do not type strokes. You type sounds or components, and the keyboard offers characters.

• Pinyin input is standard on the mainland and works for both scripts. Every phone and computer offers a "Pinyin, Simplified" and a "Pinyin, Traditional" keyboard. If you know Pinyin, you can type either set today.
• Zhuyin (Bopomofo) input is what most people in Taiwan use. It produces Traditional characters from the 37 Zhuyin symbols.
• Cangjie and Quick (速成) are shape-based methods common in Hong Kong. They are fast for natives and a serious project for learners.
• Handwriting and voice input exist for both scripts and are useful for looking up a character you cannot pronounce.

Dictionaries are no obstacle either. Pleco shows both forms in every entry and lets you choose which one leads.

Which should you start with?

Your goal	Start with
Living, working or studying in mainland China, Singapore or Malaysia	Simplified
Living, working or studying in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau	Traditional
Taking the HSK	Simplified
Taking the TOCFL	Traditional (the test is also offered in a Simplified version)
Learning Cantonese as well	Traditional
Classical texts, calligraphy, or Japanese kanji later	Traditional
No particular plan	Simplified, because more apps, courses and graded readers use it

The last row repeats the advice of the old Kungfucius post on this question, and it still stands: without ties to Taiwan or Hong Kong, Simplified is the practical first choice. The exams are compared under HSK vs TOCFL.

Marry one script, but stay on good terms with the other.

What to do next

1. Choose your starting script from the table above and set your phone keyboard and your dictionary to it.
2. Learn your first few hundred characters in that script, with their radicals, since the regular conversions run through the components.
3. From about 500 characters on, switch your dictionary to show both forms and glance at the other one every time you look something up.
4. Read something short in the other script each week: subtitles, a menu, a news headline. LingQ and similar readers let you import texts in either set.
5. Keep going until you can read both for at least the 1,000 most common characters. That is Kungfucius's whole recommendation: write in one, read both, and no part of the Chinese-speaking world is closed to you.