The People’s Republic of China will be issuing a modified list of simplified characters for its written system.

Vice-director of the Institute of Linguistics, Wang Ning, stated in a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conference that the editing of the new list was complete and changes would be published next year, according to Xin Hua News Net (www.xinhua.net). She did not give an exact publishing date. When released, the new simplified characters will be incorporated into Chinese curriculum textbooks and in classrooms.

The character modification will have an impact on Chinese classes. “This change will make characters easier to learn,” Chinese teacher Yu Li said. “Currently, first-time Chinese students generally all prefer using simplified characters rather than traditional. It is easier to use and easier to understand.”

The changes were necessary as the current simplified characters caused difficulties, according to Xin Hua News Net. Wang stated in an interview with Xin Hua News that the “over-simplification of some characters actually made them even harder to understand in some cases, which is the problem we are trying to address here.”

In 1986, the State Language Commission issued a list of 2,235 simplified Chinese characters as a way to standardize the written form of the language.

Vice-director of the State Language Commission Wang Dengfeng stated that “the new list would involve a rather small number of changes to characters currently in use.” Changes include different strokes in the characters, new definitions and combined characters, according to the Window of China, an internet site that provides basic information about Chinese history, business, economics, tourism, and culture (www.china-window.com).

The latest character modification has nothing to do with restoring traditional characters, according to Wang Ning and Wang Dengfeng. “I don’t think there is any need to switch back to traditional Chinese characters, nor to make current ones even simpler,” Wang Ning stated. “Our top priority is to improve and standardize the simplified Chinese characters.”

Students generally had mixed reviews regarding traditional and simplified character use. “Traditional characters preserve Chinese culture and history,” senior Mayton Xu said. “But it is best to learn both since mainland China mostly uses simplified characters.”

Junior Tina Zeng thinks students new to learning Chinese should learn simplified. “Simplified characters are easier to read, they have less strokes, and most people in mainland China use them,” she said. “It saved me a lot of time when I first started learning Chinese.”

Zeng hopes the new modifications will make simplified characters easy to learn, yet still relate to Chinese culture. “Some of the current simplified Chinese characters are completely different characters compared to their traditional counterparts.”