Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese

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Q: What is the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese?

A: Simplified Chinese is perhaps more widely known as Mandarin. It is the way of writing the Chinese language that is used in most of Mainland China for business and administrative purposes and therefore it is the form of Chinese taught in British schools.


Traditional Chinese, as its name suggests, is an older form of writing still used in places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese communities in Malaysia and is known also as Cantonese. The Chinese government introduced the Simplified form in 1949 in an effort to speed up literacy.

 

A selection of Snowflake Books titles are available both in Simplified and Traditional editions.

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In our catalogue, English-Traditional versions are indicated by (T) and English-Simplified (Mandarin) versions by (S).