Simplified vs. Traditional

As China emerges into being an important player in the international political and economic community, the use of its written language has become a debated issue.

There are two Chinese writing systems, simplified and traditional (or the complicated version). The simplified writing was introduced in the 1950s by the Communist government to increase literacy. The traditional version has been around for a couple of thousand years of so. The difference, aside from historical, is that the simplified characters have less strokes than the traditional ones.

I'd learned how to write the simplified version when I was growing up in China. However, after I cam to the U.S. I learned how to read and write the traditional characters. Today, I find myself writing both versions in my limited Chinese. I would prefer to master both styles of writing.

To me, I'm writing Chinese.