The Chinese writing system dates back to the Shang dynasty (1250 - 1050 BCE); however, research suggests that character creation dates back even further. And over (a lot of!) time, Chinese characters were standardized during the Qin dynasty (221 - 206 BCE). 

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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. 

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The Traditional Chinese Harry Potter books read right to left and are published in Taiwan by Crown. These translations are quite different from their Mainland China Simplified Chinese counterparts; they also have different translators and publishers than the Simplified Chinese translations as well. So, if you're wanting to collect a complete set of Harry Potter translations, you cannot just have one or the other Chinese translations, but both Simplified and Traditional translations. 

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To hear the 1st paragraph of the Traditional Chinese translation of the first book, Click Here.

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To read more about the history of Traditional Chinese, Click Here, Here, and Here.

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