Abstract
This survey is instrumented through a specifically designed character set targeted at undergraduates in both Hong Kong and Singapore. A sampling of about a hundred respondents each from the two cites are asked to identify the test set of both simplified and traditional Chinese characters. Results show that under independent condition, the competency level is close with Hong Kong measured 68.2 whereas Singapore, 68.1. Those characters which are difficult to be recognized due to the difference in form occupy less than one-third of the total. When given in a context, Hong Kong respondents perform much better and the gap is widened to 10.2. The survey also attests the co-relation between recognition rate and character frequency as well as recognition rate and the type of transformation between the two character forms. These co-relationships are positive with the education level of the Hong Kong respondents but appear negative with that of the Singapore respondents. Base on the findings, the paper makes recommendations to language policy and pedagogy in the two cities.
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