Simplified ChineseSimplified Chinese Characters (simplified Chinese: 简化字; Traditional Chinese: 簡化字; pinyin: Jiǎnhuàzì or simplified Chinese: 简体字; traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: Jiǎntǐzì) are one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. They are based mostly on popular cursive (caoshu) forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the "traditional" forms that were used in printed text for over a thousand years. The government of the People's Republic of China has promoted them for use in printing in an attempt to increase literacy. They are officially used in the People's Republic of China or Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United Nations. Characters (simplified Chinese: 简化字; Traditional ChineseTraditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century (during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.) The retronym "traditional Chinese" is used to contrast traditional characters with another standardized set — Simplified Chinese characters, introduced by the government of the People's Republic of China or Mainland China in the 1950s. Traditional Chinese is currently used in the Republic of China or Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally use traditional characters, but simplified characters are often used among mainland Chinese immigrants. However, the majority of the Chinese-speaking world uses Simplified Characters.: 簡化字; pinyinPinyin, or more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Han (Chinese) language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound".Developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the system was initially approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958.The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982,and since then it has been adopted by many other organizations. Since January 1, 2009, it is also the official romanization system in the Republic of China (ROC).It is used to teach Chinese schoolchildren and foreign learners the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese, to spell Chinese names in foreign publications and to enter Chinese characters (hanzi) on computers.: Jiǎnhuàzì or simplified Chinese: 简体字; traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: Jiǎntǐzì) are one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. They are based mostly on popular cursive (caoshu) forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the "traditional" forms that were used in printed text for over a thousand years. The government of the People's Republic of China has promoted them for use in printing in an attempt to increase literacy. They are officially used in the People's Republic of China or Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United Nations.