Simplified ↔ traditional Chinese converter. Supports mainland (cn), Taiwan (tw), and Hong Kong (hk) variants. Powered by OpenCC — the open-source gold standard.
Simplified ↔ Traditional Chinese Converter (简繁转换)
How to use
Pick "From" and "To" variants
Choose cn (mainland simplified), tw (Taiwan traditional), hk (Hong Kong traditional), or t (generic traditional) — 6 conversion directions.
Enter Chinese text
Either form accepted. Conversion is live as you type — no manual button needed.
See smart vocabulary conversion
OpenCC goes beyond character-level swaps — it handles vocabulary differences (e.g. Mainland 软件 ↔ Taiwan 軟體 ↔ HK 軟件).
Copy or swap direction
Hit Copy to grab the output; hit ⇄ Swap to instantly reverse direction.
Simplified vs. Traditional: Two Writing Systems, One Language
Simplified and traditional Chinese are not "two languages" — they are two writing systems for the same language. Any educated Chinese speaker adapts to the other within 1-2 days (with some fumbling). The difference lies in character complexity: simplified characters average ~7.5 strokes; traditional average ~11.5. The biggest changes hit the highest-frequency common characters — 龍/龙, 邊/边, 體/体, 學/学.
The three main variants: cn / tw / hk
cn (simplified, Mainland China + Singapore): the result of the 1956 "Hanzi Simplification Plan". Singapore adopted a similar system in 1969. tw (traditional, Taiwan): preserved the pre-1949 forms with some standardisation (the MoE\'s "Standard Characters"). hk (traditional, Hong Kong): similar to Taiwan but with subtle differences — HK has its own "Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set" (HKSCS) covering local place names and colloquial characters.
OpenCC is more than character substitution
Naive character-by-character substitution (via lookup table) produces wrong results. Example: simplified 干 maps to traditional 乾 (dry), 幹 (main, trunk), or remains 干 (modal particle) — depending on context. OpenCC uses vocabulary-level context analysis to pick the right variant. This is why it powers Wikipedia, the New York Times Chinese site, Apple\'s system conversion, and other professional-grade tools.
Vocabulary differences: tw vs. cn vs. hk
The same concept has different words across the three regions: 软件 (cn) / 軟體 (tw) / 軟件 (hk) for "software"; 视频 (cn) / 影片 (tw) / 視頻 (hk) for "video"; 因特网 (cn) / 網際網路 (tw) / 互聯網 (hk) for "internet". OpenCC auto-converts these in cn↔tw and cn↔hk modes — something pure character-substitution tools can\'t do.
This tool is powered by OpenCC-JS (MIT licence) — the conversion dictionary runs entirely in your browser. No text is ever sent to our servers. Privacy-safe.
10 Facts about Simp/Trad Conversion
Simplified characters were officially promulgated in 1956 by the PRC. The first batch simplified 515 characters. A second batch (1977) was proposed but eventually shelved due to public confusion.
Simplified characters save ~35-40% of strokes on average. This is a key reason in the educational debate — mainland claims its students "master 3,500 characters in 6 years (primary school)" vs. Taiwan's 8-9 years.
Not all simplified forms were PRC inventions. Many simplified forms predate 1956 — they appear in classical calligraphy, manuscripts, and Yuan-era dramatic scripts. The PRC merely canonicalised them.
OpenCC is open-source (MIT licence). Its dictionaries are crowdsourced + human-reviewed, covering 6,500+ characters and 70,000+ word-level mappings. 20K+ stars on GitHub.
Singapore uses simplified characters but with some local-policy details. Singapore issued its own simplification lists (1969, 1974, 1976) closely tracking the PRC. This is why Singapore newspapers and textbooks all use simplified.
Malaysia also uses simplified characters in its Chinese-language education. HK/TW/Macau/pre-Cultural-Revolution overseas Chinese use traditional. This is Southeast Asia's biggest "writing tradition split": SG/MY vs. HK/TW.
"干" is the most notorious polysemous character. Simplified 干 can map to traditional 乾 (dry), 幹 (trunk/main), 干 (retained as particle/surname), or 乾 (as a surname Qián). OpenCC handles this via word-level context; pure substitution tools fail.
OpenCC isn't 100% perfect. Vocabulary-context analysis handles ~95-98% of cases correctly, but obscure characters, regional place names, and personal names may still trip it up. Professional publishing requires human proofreading.
Unicode unifies simplified and traditional separately. Each character has its own codepoint — but simplified 门 (U+95E8) and traditional 門 (U+9580) are distinct characters. This is why conversion is "character swap" not "style swap".
Pairs with RT-CHN-031 (Chengyu Dictionary), RT-CHN-033 (Character Frequency), and RT-CHN-038 (Punctuation Converter) — the complete Chinese text-processing toolkit.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. OpenCC-JS runs entirely in your browser — the conversion dictionary loads once (~1.1MB), after which all conversion is client-side. No text is ever sent anywhere. Privacy-safe.
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From side: cn (simplified, Mainland + SG/MY), tw (traditional, Taiwan), hk (traditional, HK), t (generic traditional, no regional bias). To side: depends on target audience. Email to Taiwanese reader → tw; HK reader → hk. cn↔t for a quick test.
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About 2,200 characters differ between simplified and traditional. But ~70,000 vocabulary items have different forms or word orders. Complexity well exceeds character substitution — hence OpenCC over a naive lookup table.
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This tool handles plain text only. Document conversion requires dedicated tools (OpenCC CLI + Pandoc, etc.). But you can paste large chunks — conversion is instant even for thousands of characters.
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The dictionary is ~1.1MB. OpenCC packs 6,500+ chars and 70,000+ vocabulary mappings — that's inherent size. Once loaded, conversions are instant. Subsequent visits benefit from browser cache — no re-download.
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Match your registered identity. Name registered in Mainland → simplified. In Taiwan → tw. In HK → hk. Overseas Chinese typically use their ancestral region's convention. Personal preference, but business documents should match official records.
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Usually OpenCC's handling of rare characters is incomplete. For public publication, proofread manually. For important documents, cross-verify with another tool (e.g. Baidu's converter).
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Singapore uses simplified (since 1969). Pick cn. But SG/MY vocabulary sometimes differs from mainland (e.g. 德士 for taxi, 巴刹 for market) — these aren't adjusted by OpenCC.
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An open-collaboration international project. Originally founded by Carbo Kuo (BYVoid). Maintainers come from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese communities. MIT licence — anyone can contribute.
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We periodically sync with upstream OpenCC-JS releases. Currently using v1.3.1 (2024). New versions typically include fresh vocabulary (e.g. recent web slang) and fixes for rare polyphones.
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