Chinese Traditional Subtitling Services

Traditional Chinese characters (traditional Chinese: 正體字/繁體字; simplified Chinese: 正体字/繁体字; Pinyin: Zhèngtǐzì/Fántĭzì) are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong and Macau or in the Kangxi Dictionary. The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century (during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.) The retronym “traditional Chinese” is used to contrast traditional characters with Simplified Chinese characters, a standardized character set introduced by the government of the People’s Republic of China on Mainland China in the 1950s.

Traditional Chinese characters are currently used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau; as well as in Overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia, although the number of printed materials in simplified characters is growing in Australia, USA and Canada, targeting or created by new arrivals from mainland China. Currently, a large number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia in official publications. The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities.

Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, there is no prohibition against the informal use of traditional characters . Traditional characters are used informally primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear. Nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters.

Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by Government of the Republic of China. The use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have been incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. Similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times.

In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, the appearance of simplified Chinese characters in Hong Kong and Macau has become increasingly common. Today, even government websites use simplified Chinese. This has led to concerns by many local residents to protect their heritage of traditional Chinese characters.