Traditional/simplified Chinese & Taiwanese sets.

General
1

Dear collectors,

For my Psyduck collection I am wondering about the Chinese sets and their languages.
It seems that all of my Chinese Psyducks are printed in traditional Chinese, because the characters look very detailed.
However, I don’t know the characters well enough, so some might just be simplified Chinese.
I also ordered most of them from the same websites so they could all be Traditional while other websites in other regions might sell Simplified Chinese cards…

But I have a few concrete questions that I hope some of you can answer:

  1. Which sets (if any) are printed in simplified Chinese?
  2. Are there Chinese sets that have been released in both traditional & simplified Chinese?
  3. What is the difference with Taiwanese cards? Are these printed in traditional, simplified, both?
  4. Is there an easy way to identify whether a card is in traditional or simplified Chinese? Some marking on the card or just a frequently used character like weakness/resistance/retreat?

Thank you guys, :blush:

Stef

2

I can answer question 3: weakness in simplified is 弱点 but in traditional it’s 弱點

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3

Awesome. That helps a ton, it confirms that all the Chinese Psyducks I have are in traditional Chinese…
And they’re all from Sun & Moon era so now the question is if there are simplified chinese Sun & Moon cards.

4

None. All Chinese Pokémon cards were only printed in traditional Chinese, and Chinese Pokémon cards were never released in mainland China (where simplified Chinese is used).

  • The Base Set was printed in the US, and released in both Hong Kong and Taiwan with traditional Chinese writing.
  • The EX Legend Maker set, Plusle & Minun deck, and promos of 2006 were also printed in the US, and only released in Taiwan (again with traditional Chinese writing).
  • The Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield sets which are still ongoing (Eevee Heroes recently released), starting with the All Stars Collection in October 2019 were printed in Japan, and released in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, again with traditional Chinese writing.

Because the Base Set and EX Legend Maker sets were printed in the US, it’s also using the same cardboard and overall layout.
The Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield era sets use the Japanese cardboard, and also have silver bordered cards instead of yellow. The back of the card is still the international back that’s also used on English cards however.

Greetz,
Quuador

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5

Well that’s pretty much a perfect answer… Got no questions left!

Thanksss & Fijne avond :wink:
Stef

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6

Quuador, is it true that there was only one print run of Chinese EX Legend Maker or were there several?

7

No idea. Print runs usually aren’t too well-known with Pokémon. Could be one or could be five, I honestly don’t know. If there are more than one there at least wasn’t any difference with the cards.

Greetz,
Quuador

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8

Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but the languages are different (Mandarin and Cantonese) I have seldom seen simplified characters used there or stuff from there, unless it’s targeted specifically for mainlanders.

More generally, as opposed to finding standard things written differently, to tell the difference, I believe it would just take experience of knowing one or the other, as such it’s very obvious for any one who can read either forms of Chinese characters. People who understand Japanese and people who have learned Korean Hanja would be able to see the difference.

In short, Asian languages that use Chinese characters are super interesting and knowing one of any is useful for knowing another!

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