A Comparative Study Of Simplified Chinese Character Used In Mainland China And Traditional Chinese Character Used In Taiwan

With the increasing interaction between mainland China and Taiwan, the differences between simplified Chinese characters used in mainland China and trandtional Chinese characters used in Taiwan has increasingly become the stumbling block to cross-strait exchanges. We compared the two tables of basic characters used in mainland China and Taiwan to show their differences, and tried to extend the scope of our research by conducting a questionnaire survey and interview to figure out peoples’ recognition of such difference.This paper consists of four chapters. The introductory chapter outlines the research background, method and objective. In the second chapter, we presented eariler researches and their findings. In the third chapter, we introduced the language policies of mainland China and Taiwan and made a comparison between the two tables of basic characters issued by the two sides, and listed in detail the same characters, slightly different characters, tradtional chatacters and simplified chatacters, variant Chinese characters in these two tables. In the fourth chapter, we tried to find out what people think of the similarities and differences via questionairing and interview. In the fifth chapter, we gave a brief summary and pointed out the inadequacies of this paper.