Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy, and their use in ordinary circumstances on the mainland has been encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s.

In the wake of the Cultural Revolution, a second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977—largely composed of entirely new variants intended to artificially lower the stroke count, in contrast to the first round—but was massively unpopular and never saw consistent use.

For example, prior to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) the character meaning 'bright' was written as either 明 or 朙—with either 日 'Sun' or 囧 'window' on the left, with the 月 'Moon' component on the right.

[12] The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) that inherited the Qin administration coincided with the perfection of clerical script through the process of libian.

Though most closely associated with the People's Republic, the idea of a mass simplification of character forms first gained traction in China during the early 20th century.

[14] Recent commentators have echoed some contemporary claims that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time.

In 1935, the first official list of simplified forms was published, consisting of 324 characters collated by Peking University professor Qian Xuantong.

Over the following decade, the Script Reform Committee deliberated on characters in the 1956 scheme, collecting public input regarding the recognizability of variants, and often approving forms in small batches.

Parallel to simplification, there were also initiatives aimed at eliminating the use of characters entirely and replacing them with pinyin as an official Chinese alphabet, but this possibility was abandoned, confirmed by a speech given by Zhou Enlai in 1958.

[19] The second-round simplifications were unpopular in large part because most of the forms were completely new, in contrast to the familiar variants comprising the majority of the first round.

In addition, slight modifications to the orthography of 44 characters to fit traditional calligraphic rules were initially proposed, but were not implemented due to negative public response.

[23] Also, the practice of unrestricted simplification of rare and archaic characters by analogy using simplified radicals or components is now discouraged.

Unlike in mainland China, Singapore parents have the option of registering their children's names in traditional characters.

While there is an observable pattern involving the replacement of 𦰩 with 又 as seen in 漢 → 汉, 難 → 难, 癱 → 瘫, 嘆 → 叹, 灘 → 滩, when observing that 歎 → 叹, 歡 → 欢, 勸 → 劝, 灌 (not simplified) and 罐 (not simplified), an inconsistency arises.

They appear very sparingly in texts originating in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities, although they are becoming more prevalent as mainland China becomes more integrated globally.

As part of the one country, two systems model, the PRC has not attempted to force Hong Kong or Macau into using simplified characters.

The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters.

Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers; the inverse is equally true as well.

Textbooks, official statements, and newspapers show no signs of moving to simplified Chinese characters, including state-funded media.

Traditional characters are widely used by older Singaporeans, and are widespread on billboards, stall menus, and decorations, as well as in newspapers and on television.

[citation needed] Traditional characters are also widely used by older people and are likewise widespread on billboards, to a greater extent than in Singapore.

The conference member pointed out that many, especially young people, have difficulties with traditional Chinese characters; this is especially important in dealing with non-mainland communities such as Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The educational authorities did not approve the recommendation, saying that it did not fit in with the "requirements as set out by the law" and it could potentially complicate the curricula.

Traditional characters are usually only taught to those taking up calligraphy as a co-curricular activity or Cantonese as an elective course at school.

For practical reasons, universities and schools prepare students who will be able to communicate with mainland China, so their obvious choice is to use simplified characters.

In the United Kingdom, universities mainly teach Mandarin Chinese at the undergraduate level using the simplified characters coupled with pinyin.

However, they will require the students to learn or be able to recognise the traditional forms if they are studying in Taiwan or Hong Kong (such as taking Cantonese courses).

It is theoretically possible to use Big5 code to map to the smaller set of simplified character glyphs, although there is little market for such a product.

Unicode deals with the issue of simplified and traditional characters as part of the project of Han unification by including code points for each.

He wrote a dedicated column entitled "Simplified Characters are Unreasonable" in the Chinese edition of the Financial Times.