section_path: Reform and standardisation
section_name: Reform and standardisation
paragraph_text: Reform and standardisation
  
  Attempts to reform and standardise the use of characters—including aspects of form, stroke order, and pronunciation—have been undertaken by states throughout history. Thousands of simplified characters were standardised and adopted in mainland China during the 1950s and 1960s, with most either already existing as common variants, or being produced via the systematic simplification of their components. After World War II, the Japanese government also simplified hundreds of character forms, including some simplifications distinct from those adopted in China. Orthodox forms that have not undergone simplification are referred to as traditional characters. Across Chinese-speaking polities, mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore use simplified characters, while Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau use traditional characters. In general, Chinese and Japanese readers can successfully identify characters from all three standards.
  
  Prior to the 20th century, reforms were generally conservative and sought to reduce the use of simplified variants. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an increasing number of intellectuals in China began to see both the Chinese writing system and the lack of a national spoken dialect as serious impediments to achieving the mass literacy and mutual intelligibility required for the country's successful modernisation. Many began advocating for the replacement of Literary Chinese with a written language that more closely reflected speech, as well as for a mass simplification of character forms, or even the total replacement of characters with an alphabet tailored to a specific spoken variety. In 1909, the educator and linguist Lufei Kui (1886–1941) formally proposed the adoption of simplified characters in education for the first time.
  
  In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution toppled the Qing dynasty, and resulted in the establishment of the Republic of China the following year. The early Republican era (1912–1949) was characterised by growing social and political discontent that erupted into the 1919 May Fourth Movement, catalysing the replacement of Literary Chinese with written vernacular Chinese over the subsequent decades. Alongside the corresponding spoken variety now known as Standard Chinese, this written vernacular was promoted by intellectuals and writers such as Lu Xun (1881–1936) and Hu Shih (1891–1962). It was based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, as well as on the existing body of vernacular literature authored over the preceding centuries, which included classic novels such as Journey to the West (c. 1592) and Dream of the Red Chamber (mid-18th century). At this time, character simplification and phonetic writing were being discussed within both the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party, as well as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1935, the Republican government published the first official list of simplified characters, comprising 324 forms collated by Peking University professor Qian Xuantong (1887–1939). However, strong opposition within the party resulted in the list being rescinded in 1936.