chinese is an official language in both sar's, but unlike mainland china where mandarin is the main spoken language and simplified chinese is the main written language, cantonese is the most spoken language and traditional chinese is the main written language in these areas. the vagueness of simply stating chinese as the official language allows this to happen. also, english and portuguese, the main languages of the nations that controlled hong kong and macau in the past in respective order, are also official languages in the respective sar's.