{"id":6973,"date":"2025-09-20T22:43:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T05:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/troubadourworks.com\/tiandi\/meotw\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2025-09-27T10:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:22:49","slug":"fanti%e2%80%90zi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/troubadourworks.com\/tiandi\/meotw\/2025\/09\/20\/fanti%e2%80%90zi\/","title":{"rendered":"f\u00e1nt\u01d0\u2010z\u00ec"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tf\u00e1nt\u01d0<\/span>\n(f\u00e1n\u00b7t\u01d0\ncomplicated; complex; difficult \u00b7 {body \u2192 [style] \u2192 [typeface; font]} \u2192<\/span> [traditional Chinese]<\/span>\n\u7e41\u4f53\n\u7e41\u9ad4<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/span>\n(characters<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span> \ud83d\udc48\ud83c\udffc Tap\/click to show\/hide the \u201cflashcard\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

[This is a reposting of a post<\/a> that was originally posted on November 30, 2020. I took the opportunity to flesh out the original post and this repost with additional material.]<\/p>\n

For a long, long, long time, Chinese characters were just Chinese characters. Then, in 1956, the Communist government of mainland China issued what came to be known as the First Chinese Character Simplification Scheme<\/a> (a second round of Chinese character simplification<\/a> was later attempted and ultimately rescinded), and official simplified<\/em> Chinese characters came into the world. (Some characters had been unofficially simplified and used for various purposes, both everyday and artistic, before that.)<\/p>\n

Name?<\/h4>\n

To distinguish these newfangled official simplified Chinese characters from the Chinese characters that had existed before, and that continue to be used by many people in many parts of the world, retronyms<\/a> were coined to refer to these pre-existing Chinese characters, just as the term \u201cacoustic guitar\u201d was coined to refer to a regular non-electric guitar after electric guitars came along.<\/p>\n

In the English-speaking world, the pre-official simplification characters have come to be called \u201ctraditional Chinese characters\u201d, as opposed to the \u201csimplified Chinese characters\u201d. In the Chinese-speaking world, as is true of many things regarding Chinese characters, the situation is\u2026complicated. Wikipedia<\/a> summarizes the situation thusly:<\/p>\n

Traditional Chinese characters (the standard characters) are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially calls traditional Chinese characters standard characters<\/strong> or orthodox characters<\/strong> (traditional Chinese: \u6b63\u9ad4\u5b57; simplified Chinese: \u6b63\u4f53\u5b57; pinyin: zh\u00e8ngt\u01d0z\u00ec<\/i>; Zhuyin Fuhao: \u3113\u3125\u02cb \u310a\u3127\u02c7 \u3117\u02cb).[source]<\/a><\/sup> However, the same term is used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard, simplified and<\/em> traditional characters from variant and idiomatic characters<\/a>.[source]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In contrast, users of traditional characters outside Taiwan, such as those in Hong Kong, Macau and overseas Chinese communities, and also users of simplified Chinese characters, call them complex characters<\/strong> (traditional Chinese: \u7e41\u9ad4\u5b57; simplified Chinese: \u7e41\u4f53\u5b57; pinyin: f\u00e1nt\u01d0z\u00ec<\/i>; Zhuyin Fuhao: \u3108\u3122\u02ca \u310a\u3127\u02c7 \u3117\u02cb). Users of simplified characters sometimes informally refer to them as “old characters” (Chinese: \u8001\u5b57; pinyin: l\u01ceoz\u00ec<\/i>; Zhuyin Fuhao: \u310c\u3120\u02c7 \u3117\u02cb).<\/p>\n

Users of traditional characters also sometimes call them “full Chinese characters” (traditional Chinese: \u5168\u9ad4\u5b57; simplified Chinese: \u5168\u4f53\u5b57; pinyin: qu\u00e1nt\u01d0 z\u00ec<\/i>; Zhuyin Fuhao: \u3111\u3129\u3122\u02ca \u310a\u3127\u02c7 \u3117\u02cb) to distinguish them from simplified Chinese characters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In my experience in the Chinese fields in Canada, I have always heard traditional Chinese characters referred to using this week\u2019s MEotW, \u201cf\u00e1nt\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(f\u00e1n\u00b7t\u01d0\ncomplicated; complex; difficult \u00b7 {body \u2192 [style] \u2192 [typeface; font]} \u2192<\/span> [traditional Chinese]<\/span>\n\u7e41\u4f53\n\u7e41\u9ad4<\/span>)<\/span>\u2010z\u00ec<\/i><\/span>\n(characters<\/span>\n\u5b57)<\/span>\u201d. For reference, this is also the term used on jw.org<\/strong><\/a> when referring to Mandarin written using traditional Chinese characters:<\/p>\n

\"jw.org<\/p>\n

jw.org<\/strong><\/a> refers to traditional Chinese characters as \u201cf\u00e1nt\u01d0<\/i><\/span>\n(f\u00e1n\u00b7t\u01d0\ncomplicated; complex; difficult \u00b7 {body \u2192 [style] \u2192 [typeface; font]} \u2192<\/span> [traditional Chinese]<\/span>\n\u7e41\u4f53\n\u7e41\u9ad4<\/span>)<\/span>\u201d characters.<\/p>\n

Beloved by Traditionalists and Purists, But Complicated<\/h4>\n

Many feel that traditional characters are the best characters of all, since, in their estimation, the official simplified characters have lost some of the heart and soul of characters. As a symbolic example, some point to how the simplified character for \u201clove\u201d, \u201c\u7231\u201d, omits the \u201cheart\u201d radical<\/a> (\u201c\u5fc3\u201d), which is appropriately in the traditional character for \u201clove\u201d, \u201c\u611b\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c\u7231\u201d is the Simplified Chinese character for \u201clove\u201d. It\u2019s simpler, but omits the \u201cheart\u201d radical (\u201c\u5fc3\u201d), and has been \u201cfriend\u201d (\u201c\u53cb\u201d)-zoned. \ud83d\udc94<\/p>\n

— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) February 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n