The Traditional Chinese writing system, which dates back over 3,000 years, has its origins in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE) with the development of oracle bone script, used for divination and communication with ancestors. The system evolved over time, with characters becoming more standardized during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) and eventually solidified in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) when the seal script was refined. These early forms of writing were primarily logographic, meaning each character represented a word or morpheme. Over the centuries, the script underwent further changes, evolving into the clerical script and later into the standard forms seen in modern calligraphy.

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Traditional Chinese characters are known for their complexity, featuring a large number of strokes. Unlike phonetic alphabets, where sounds are represented by letters, each Chinese character is a visual representation of a concept or word. The structure of the script allowed it to remain relatively consistent across different Chinese-speaking regions, even when spoken dialects diverged. In the mid-20th century, China simplified many characters to promote literacy, leading to the creation of Simplified Chinese. However, Traditional Chinese characters, which are still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, continue to be a symbol of cultural heritage and a key aspect of Chinese identity, as they preserve historical and artistic elements of the language.

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Traditional Chinese characters are a set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages, and was the main writing system in use quite a long time. However, in the mid-20th century, certain countries began creating and standardizing simplified sets of Chinese characters. Simplified Chinese is now found in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore, while Traditional Chinese is still in use in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and other (usually) overseas Chinese communities. ​​​