Written Chinese
Written Chinese () comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language. Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly logosyllabic; that is, a character generally represents one syllable of spoken Chinese and may be a word on its own or a part of a polysyllabic word. The characters themselves are often composed of parts that may represent physical objects, abstract notions, or pronunciation. Literacy requires the memorization of a great many characters: educated Chinese know about 4,000. The large number of Chinese characters has in part led to the adoption of Western alphabets as an auxiliary means of representing Chinese.
List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters
The List of Graphemes of Commonly-used Chinese Characters () is a list of 4762 commonly used Chinese characters and their standardized forms prescribed by the Hong Kong Education Bureau to be taught in primary and Middle schools in Hong Kong. The list was last updated in 2007, included as an appendix to the "Hong Kong Chinese Lexical Lists for Primary Learning" (). In 2012, the list was published as a hardcover book, with Cantonese and Putonghua pronunciations and simple English explanations for every character.