Chinese Writing

Chinese writing is the oldest system of writing in the world and has changed very little in over 4,000 years. The earliest form is believed to have begun as pictures that were written on bones about 2,000 BC. Some of these early Chinese characters took the appearance of the objects the were meant to represent.

Chinese writing has always been very important to the people and culture of China, and has served to bind the people together. There are many different dialects spoken throughout China, but the written language is the same. Without the ability to communicate through a single written language it would be very difficult for Chinese people from different parts of the country to communicate.

There are about 80,000 Chinese characters that make up the written language, though you need learn only about 4,000 to be able to read satisfactorily. Due to the fact that many of the characters are seldom used in everyday life the average person would not even recognize many of the characters.

 

The Two Main Versions of Chinese Writing

Traditional Chinese Writing - Traditional Chinese is practices mainly in Taiwan and Hong Kong, though it is used in some other places as well. Traditional Chinese writing differs very little from the form used in Mainland China.

Simplified Chinese Writing - Many of the more commonly used words have been "simplified" to improve literacy. Though simplified characters have been used since ancient times they were only officially adopted by the government of China in 1958.

 

Romanization of Mandarin Chinese

Pinyin - Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet in a phonetic manner to translate Mandarin Chinese into "words" that may be read more easily by people in Western cultures that use the Latin alphabet.  Pinyin is also used in China to enter Chinese text into computers, as it would be impossible to create a keyboard containing thousands of characters.

 

Learn More About Chinese Writing

To learn more about Chinese writing and the art of calligraphy try a search on one of the major search engines. There are many Websites, books and other resources dedicated to these topics. You can also find many helpful sites that provide information allowing you to practice speaking Chinese, which may come in handy if you ever visit China.