Andy is 13 years old. She started learning Chinese simple words 5 years ago. 

At that time, Andy lived with his parents on Long Island, New York, and the only Chinese school nearby taught traditional Chinese characters. 

In order to prevent her daughter from "forgetting all the lessons", her mother, Mrs. Wei, decided to send her to this Chinese school despite some reluctance. 

According to Mrs. Wei, Andy had a hard time learning Chinese and was even a little afraid. 

It was not until his family moved to Queens and transferred to another Chinese school 

that taught Chinese simple words that Andy finally felt that learning Chinese was still possible. 

Similar to Andy’s experience, many children of immigrants from mainland China have had it. 

Currently, Chinese schools in the United States are basically divided into two categories: 

one is traditional Chinese teaching promoted by Taiwan in the United States, 

and the other is simplified Chinese teaching, which mostly uses textbooks compiled by Chinese officials. 

In the early years, there were more Chinese schools with traditional Chinese characters, 

but now with the increasing number of immigrants from mainland China and the characteristics of Chinese simple words that are easy to learn, 

easy to remember, and easy to master, 

there are more and more Chinese schools focusing on simplified characters.

For Chinese parents who send their children to Chinese schools, 

they actually have ample choices between learning traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters. 

However, it is not that simple for Chinese schools, because it involves not only cultural factors such as background and philosophy, 

but also teaching costs. After all, the two systems of traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese are an objective existence. 

The reality is that hundreds of American Chinese schools must make a choice between traditional Chinese and Chinese simple words. 

Many heads of Chinese schools lament that it is difficult to have both “supporting simplified” and “supporting traditional” Chinese teaching.

The early Chinese schools were basically founded by immigrants from Taiwan, and naturally used traditional Chinese teaching. 

However, with the increase in immigrants from mainland China, many Chinese schools had to "advance with the times." 

For example, in New York, some long-established Chinese schools have been using Chinese phonetic notation and traditional Chinese characters. 

In 2007, during the debate on "traditional and simplified", some schools took a compromise route and used Chinese pinyin for teaching, 

but still retained the traditional fonts. of traditional Chinese characters. 

However, there are also some American Chinese schools that adopt "one country, two systems" in Chinese teaching. 

Students from mainland China and students from Hong Kong and Taiwan are taught separately.

There have always been two ways to inherit traditional culture, namely direct inheritance and indirect inheritance. 

Direct inheritance is carried out by experts and scholars who study Chinese simple words. 

They have rich professional knowledge and can directly read ancient books and conduct research on the traditional culture recorded in ancient books, 

absorbing the essence and removing the dross. 

Then write their research results into books of varying degrees of depth for readers of different levels in society. 

Indirect inheritance refers to inheritance by reading various works written by experts and scholars who have compiled, selected, annotated, modernized and analyzed ancient books handed down from ancient times. 

The vast majority of people learn traditional culture through indirect inheritance. 

Wouldn't it be better to do direct inheritance? That is neither necessary nor possible. 

If all the people study characters, phonology, and exegesis, and read ancient books, but do not engage in production, how can society develop? Only knowing traditional Chinese characters does not allow you to directly read ancient books and inherit traditional culture.

Simplified characters are more efficient than traditional characters and are easier to learn and use. However, some people think that in order to be able to read ancient books, they should give up simplified characters and return to traditional characters. 

You must understand that people who know traditional Chinese characters do not mean they can read ancient books. If we abandon simplified Chinese characters and return to traditional Chinese characters, we will not only lose the simplified Chinese characters, 

but the ancient books will still be unreadable. Wouldn’t this be a double defeat?

Society is developing, and culture is also constantly evolving. A hundred years ago, Chinese language life was very backward. At that time, Chinese characters were complicated and there were many illiterates. 

After several generations of efforts, especially since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese characters were simplified and organized, and the traditional "school opening" with 28 strokes was simplified into the simplified "school start" with only 12 strokes. 

China has prepared language conditions for entering the information network era. Such simplification is a smooth path for the development of the Chinese language. It is the right path, not the wrong path.

As for some people blaming the simplification of Chinese characters for mixing the "hou" in "queen" and the "hou" in "later" into the same character, in fact this is not something that happened only when Chinese characters were simplified, but has existed since ancient times. The traditional Chinese text of "The Great Learning", one of the Four Books, begins with: "Knowing to stop can lead to concentration, concentration can lead to tranquility, tranquility can lead to tranquility, tranquility can lead to consideration, and contemplation can lead to gain." These five "afterthoughts" "" are all "after" of "later", there is no need to have any "regrets".

Some people who criticize simplified characters argue that the inheritance of traditional culture and the promotion of simplified characters are in opposition. That is, we need traditional culture, not simplified characters. In the preface written by Hu Shi for "Guoyu Monthly·Chinese Character Reform Issue", he said: "I have a historical obsession; 

I firmly believe that language is an extremely conservative thing, and the reform of language and characters cannot be achieved overnight. But When I studied the history of spoken and written languages, I once discovered a general rule: in the history of the evolution of spoken and written languages, ordinary people are often the innovators while scholars and literati are die-hards. 

From this general rule, we can derive a supplementary rule: Promote the innovation of spoken and written languages, scholars and literati need to understand that their job is to observe the language trends of ordinary people, select their reform proposals, and give them formal recognition."

Overall, mainland China’s efforts to promote simplified Chinese characters are quite effective. Unsuccessful simplified Chinese characters certainly exist, but simplified Chinese characters reduce the strokes of Chinese characters by nearly half;

Making Chinese characters easier to recognize and write, reducing the learning burden of primary and secondary school students, and its role in popularizing Chinese literacy and improving cultural and educational levels is inestimable. If it takes 10 years to restore the simplified Chinese characters to Chinese simple words, it will not only waste people and money, but also cause unnecessary confusion. In any case, it is a retrogression, and retrogression has no way out.