With the fact that the Chinese market is gradually becoming huge, many international businesses are looking for Chinese (Mandarin) speakers to expand the Asian market, and learning Chinese is becoming more and more popular in business and science. Meanwhile, the beauty of Chinese calligraphy has also attracted many foreigners to choose to learn Chinese.
However, as long as you have read a little Chinese, it is not difficult to find that there are two different Chinese writing styles: traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. This might confuse you and not know which one to learn. To my mind, it is better to learn to read and write in traditional Chinese.
A bit of history
Chinese is considered to be among the most ancient written languages globally, having developed from pictographic symbols over several millennia to become a standardized script that was formalized in the fifth century CE. These characters, commonly referred to as “traditional characters” and known as “繁體字” or “正體字” in Chinese, were the prevalent form of written Chinese until the 20th century.
The People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, and soon the government began a literacy campaign using newly “simplified Chinese characters (简体字) to increase the literacy rates in China. But outside mainland China, other Chinese-speaking places remained using traditional Chinese. Therefore, Chinese characters have developed two writing systems since the 1950s.
The unique Chinese character system
Writing Chinese is like drawing pictures. If you know a bit about hieroglyphs, it would be easier for you to understand the system of Chinese characters. Many Chinese characters originated from pictographic symbols, which means that the character originally resembled the object or idea it represented rather than a sound. For example, the character for “mountain” is 山 which looks like a mountain; “home” is 家 which looks like a pig living under the roof of a farmhouse. By combining different symbols, words with more complicated meanings were created. It is very different from most of the phonetic languages nowadays, but you will find it interesting.
Advantages of learning Traditional Chinese
As mentioned, most of the traditional Chinese characters are hieroglyphic. Hence, they often have deeper meanings and cultural significance that can be lost in the simplified version. Take “love” as an example, in traditional Chinese, it is 愛 with many strokes and a “heart (心)” in the mid of the word, but the simplified character is 爱 which removed the 心 and replaced with “friend (友)”. Love without a heart? Which one of the words do you think can represent “love” more appropriately?
In addition, learning traditional Chinese is useful for people who are interested in Chinese culture and history. Many important texts and documents before 1950 are written in traditional Chinese, especially poems, calligraphy, or classic novels and stories. Understanding traditional Chinese characters can provide a better understanding of Chinese history and culture.
If you are learning just for business purposes, choosing traditional Chinese could also lead you to greater success. Traditional Chinese is the official writing system in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and is popular in Chinese communities in the US or among Southeast Asian countries, which are significant markets for many businesses. By learning traditional Chinese, you will be able to better communicate with potential customers and business partners in these regions.
Some say that traditional Chinese is much more difficult than simplified Chinese because of the complex strokes, but as long as you try to learn the character and symbol structures, you will find traditional Chinese easier to remember and understand. Since traditional Chinese is more complicated, once you are proficient in traditional Chinese, it would be a piece of cake for you to read and understand simplified Chinese.
Traditional Chinese characters have a long and rich history, and many people in Chinese-speaking regions view them as an important part of their cultural heritage. Thus, no matter what reason you want to learn Chinese, starting with traditional Chinese is a more valuable investment in the long run. Not only does it offer a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and history, but it also allows for greater access to written content and improves cognitive skills.
「我愛正體中文！」 “I love traditional Chinese!”
Hoi Fung
Picture: Pexels, Feng Zou