Not to be confused with Simplified Chinese characters.

In Hong Kong, the Chinese language is commonly used in daily life. This article discusses about the simplications performed on written Chinese that could be found in informal communications in Hong Kong.

Background information

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Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the central government has been promoting the use of simplified Chinese characters , which are officially regulated as the standard writing system of the Chinese language from 1956 onwards. However, since Hong Kong was under British rule before 1997 , this regulation did not apply to Hong Kong. Even after Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the PRC in 1997, Hong Kong continues to have its own language policy, in light of the principle of "One Country, Two Systems". As a result, Hong Kong has not been using simplfied Chinese characters, but traditional Chinese characters instead.

However, some traditional Chinese characters are often time-consuming to write. Therefore, for the sake of efficiency, people in Hong Kong often perform some kind of simplification of written Chinese in informal occasions. This kind of simplification is commonly used by restaurants (especially cha chaan tengs) and hawkers.

It should be noted that this kind of simplication of Chinese characters in Hong Kong is not the same as the regulated simplied Chinese characters in the rest of China in general.

This kind of simplification does not have any official regulations. As the method of simplication varies from person to person, it may be incomprehensible to other Chinese readers. The simplication is often regarded as unsophisticated writing used by uneducated people, and should not be used on formal occasions.

Types of simplification

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1. The simplification can be done by replacing a complicated traditional Chinese character with another simpler traditional Chinese character that has a similar pronunciation in Cantonese Chinese.
2. The simplification is often done by using English letters to make up a "word" that sounds like the Chinese word.
3. The simplification can also be done by incorporating regulation simplified Chinese characters into text made up of traditional Chinese characters.

Examples of simplifications

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Chinese character	Simplification	meaning in English
菜	才	vegetable
檸	O	lemon
屎	矢	faeces
茶	T	tea
魷	尤	squid
蛋	旦	egg
麪	丏	noodle
輾	展	muscle
飯	反	rice
餐	歺	meal (mainly used in '歺厅' (restaurant))

See also

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• Simplified Chinese character

Languages of Hong Kong