There are two distinct versions of written Chinese. In the mid-twentieth century, in an effort to increase the literacy rate, the People’s Republic of China began a process of simplifying written Chinese. As a result, two versions of written Chinese came into being: traditional and simplified. Simplified Chinese is predominantly used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, whereas traditional Chinese is primarily used in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Learn more about when, where and how to use both traditional and simplified Chinese.

Chinese is the oldest written language on the planet and is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. In the 1950s, a form of simplified Chinese was developed. Today, this system continues to be used in mainland China, while the traditional version remains in use in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. 

• With nearly 1.3 billion native speakers worldwide, about 15% of the world’s population speaks a dialect of Chinese as their native tongue.
  
• Written Chinese dates back over 3,000 years. It consists of more than 20,000 distinct characters.
• Chinese is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, along with Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
• The Chinese language has seven major dialect groups, and each has its own variations. Mandarin dialects are spoken by 71.5 percent of the population.