Simplified Chinese characters

Simplified Chinese
Script type	Logographic
Published	1956 1964 1977 1988 2013
Period	1956–present
Direction	Left-to-right Top-to-bottom, columns right-to-left
Official script	China Singapore
Languages	Chinese
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Small seal script Clerical script Regular script Simplified Chinese
Sister systems	Traditional characters Kanji Chữ Nôm Hanja Khitan large script Khitan small script Bopomofo
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Hans (501), ​Han (Simplified variant)
Unicode
Unicode range	Not in Unicode
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	简化字
Traditional Chinese	簡化字
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiǎnhuàzì Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄢˇ ㄏㄨㄚˋ ㄗˋ Wade–Giles Chien3-hua4-tzŭ4 Tongyong Pinyin Jiǎn-huà-zìh IPA [tɕjɛ̀n.xwâ.tsɹ̩̂] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gáan faa jih Jyutping Gaan2 faa3 zi6 IPA [kan˧˥ fa˧ tsi˨]
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	简体字
Traditional Chinese	簡體字
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiǎntǐzì Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄢˇ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ Wade–Giles Chien3-tʻi3-tzŭ4 Tongyong Pinyin Jiǎn-tǐ-zìh IPA [tɕjɛ̀n.tʰì.tsɹ̩̂] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gáan tái jih Jyutping Gaan2 tai2 zi6 IPA [kan˧˥ tʰɐj˧˥ tsi˨]

Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their widespread adoption during the 20th century was part of efforts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy. Today, they are the standard forms used in mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore, while traditional characters are officially used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Simplification of Chinese script typically involves reducing a character's total stroke count or streamlining which strokes appear in a given component. By systematically simplifying radicals, large swaths of the character set are altered at once. Many simplifications were drawn from popular cursive forms, while variant characters with identical pronunciation and meaning were consolidated into a single standardized form, usually the simplest available. Many characters were left untouched and are thus identical in both orthographies.

The PRC government has never officially declared the simplification process complete. A second round of simplified characters, promulgated in 1977 in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, was largely composed of artificial new variants designed to reduce stroke counts rather than drawing on existing cursive forms. It proved unpopular and confusing before being retracted in 1986. In 2013, China's State Council implemented the List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters, listing 8,105 characters including a small number of revised forms.