Character amnesia
It is difficult to establish exactly how many different Chinese characters are in use today; the new HSK, a widely used proficiency test for Standard Chinese as a second language, tests over 2,600 different characters, whilst in 1988 the People's Republic of China published the "List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese" which contains 7,000 different characters. In Japan, where a smaller set of characters are in general usage, the Japanese Ministry of Education prescribes the teaching of 2,136 kanji in primary and secondary school in a list called the jōyō kanji, meaning "regular-use Chinese characters".
Naming laws in the People's Republic of China
There are over 70,000 known Chinese characters, yet approximately only 32,232 are supported for computer input, including both Traditional and Simplified characters (see GBK (character encoding) etc.). As the government database of personal names is maintained digitally on government networks, input of rarer characters becomes virtually impossible, thus creating an irremovable restriction on permitted names. All citizens within the People's Republic of China must have their details registered on the government computer network, while those over the age of 16 must carry an identification card, known in China as a Resident Identity Card at all times. As these processes are all done electronically, having a name which is not supported by electronic input makes government registration and the management of ID cards much more difficult.