Is it better to use simplified or traditional Chinese on the site?

There are two types of characters in the Chinese language: simplified characters, called kantaiji, and traditional characters with many strokes, called hantaiji. Simplified Chinese characters are used in China, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. All Chinese studied by Japanese people, including NHK's radio Chinese language courses, are simplified characters. Traditional Chinese characters, on the other hand, are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, etc.

Regions using simplified Chinese characters] People's Republic of China, Singapore, Malaysia
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau

For travel, industrial, and food websites that serve both Chinese and Taiwanese customers, it is more convenient to switch between simplified and traditional Chinese characters on the website. However, if you have to choose only one Chinese language, it is safer to use simplified Chinese, which has by far the largest number of users.

Please note that the font may be corrupted if you fill in Chinese.

Recently, many companies are using CMS (Contents Management System) such as WordPress to add and edit the contents of their websites, but if Chinese characters are entered as they are, the displayed font style may be corrupted. This is because the website does not support Chinese characters.

Image of broken Chinese characters.

The characters, written in simplified Chinese in places, are thin. It is not unreadable, but from a Chinese point of view, it is difficult to read.

Image with Chinese character set in place

All characters, including the simplified ones, are unified and can be read smoothly by the Chinese.

How to modify Chinese font

The problem can be solved by adding the font for Chinese in style.css. For your information, I added the following CSS.

Example of CSS code entry

Priority is given from left to right.

/*——————————
/* Font Size Chinese
/*—————————-*/
body {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}
h1 {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}h2 {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}

h3 {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}

h4 {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}

h5 {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}

h6 {
font-family: 'Microsoft YaHei','Microsoft JhengHei UI', 'SimSun', 'SimHei';
}

If you are using WordPress, simply changing the CSS may not change the website itself. This is because the website's preferred language is Japanese. If the font does not change, please change theSettings > General > Site languagefrom Japanese.simplified Chinese textto the "A" in the "A" column.

However, the administration screen will all change to Chinese, so those who cannot read Chinese will need to change the site language back to Japanese each time they visit.