Transcend clients frequently ask us whether to use Cantonese or Mandarin for their Chinese documents. Well, the best answer is: neither. China has many distinct oral languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghaiese, and others). But the writing system is ideographic, that is to say, a Chinese character generally represents an idea and is not a phonetic representation of a sound or part of a word. Therefore these "ideographs" represent concepts that can be universally understood.

There are however, two distinct writing systems used by Chinese speakers. In mainland China, simplified characters are used. This more simplified system of writing was introduced after the Communist revolution as a tool for increasing literacy in the general population.

But, in the rest of the Chinese speaking world, Taiwan and Hong Kong, traditional characters are used. The characters that are best for your document depend on where it will be used. Here are some guidelines:

U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwan
Traditional Characters

Mainland China, Singapore
Simplified Characters

To learn which Chinese might be right for you, click Here.

Audio scripts vary from these guidelines since phonetic characters would be introduced to localize the speech to the targeted population.