Since China announced the “Chinese Character Simplification Scheme” in 1956, two sides of the straits have had different usage of Chinese characters, which is Traditional or Simplified. This situation has been there for 60 years and we have noticed that, although simplified characters make it easy to remember and write, some original concepts of the characters, such as Chinese culture or how the character was created, have been lost. As Chinese characters consist of “format”, “sound”, and “meaning”, which are closely connected with one another, simplified Chinese have made it inconsistent with the original Chinese characters as they have become simple lines and symbols. When people are learning Chinese, they are not able to understand the close relationship between the format and the meaning or the rich Chinese culture carried by the character. The research motive is from the trend in the survey of university students about their concepts of the usage of traditional and simplified characters. The research will further explain how the format and the meaning of ancient Chinese characters were closely connected.

• 李淑萍(中央大學中文系專任副教授；教育部國語辭典編輯委員會委員) | Shuping LEE