Where are the Simplified and Traditional Characters used?
Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China and Singapore and Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities. With Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997 and with the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, Simplified Chinese is gaining popularity in Hong Kong as people have more and more business interactions with mainlanders. Job seekers have advantages if they speak Putonghua (ͨ), which is another name for Mandarin, the official spoken dialect in China. Outside China in Chinese communities and especially in the translation industry, Simplified Chinese is often referred to as Mandarin, and Traditional Chinese, as Cantonese. Strictly speaking, these names refer to the spoken language or dialects and will be quite correct to use if you are looking for interpreters for assignment. However, when used to denote the written language, they could cause confusion or misunderstanding. For example, Mandarin is spoken both in China and Taiwan, and increasingly in Ho
