Reforming the forms of 44 characters

On August 12, 2009, Li Yuming, deputy head of China’s State Language Commission and head of the Ministry of Education’s language information department, said that lengthy academic discussions had produced a draft...

The draft proposes changing the written forms of 44 Chinese characters. The changes are described as cosmetic and are as follows:

• The fourth stroke of 琴, 瑟, 琵 and 琶, and the final horizontal stroke of the "王" component in “徵”, change from a horizontal stroke (横) to a rising stroke (提).
• The last stroke of the right-hand component of 魅, and of 籴, 汆, 褰 and 衾, changes from a left-falling stroke to a dot.
• In 巽, 撰, 馔 and 噀, the vertical stroke that turns horizontal and ends in a hook (the last stroke of the "巳" component) becomes a vertical stroke that turns upward.
• The vertical hook stroke in the "木" component of 亲, 榇, 杀, 刹, 脎, 铩, 弑, 条, 涤, 绦, 鲦, 茶, 搽, 新, 薪, 杂 and 寨 becomes a vertical stroke without a hook.
• The horizontal-turn-hook stroke (横折钩) in 恿, 瞥, 弊 and 憋 becomes a horizontal-turn stroke without a hook.
• In the proposed new form of 唇, the "厂" component extends the full length of the character. This also applies to 蓐, 溽, 缛, 褥, 耨, 薅, 唇 and 蜃.
• A horizontal stroke is added above the "车" component in 毂.

In addition to these measures, the proposed reform will restore the following characters to widespread use: 氾, 叚, 絜, 釐, 仝, 邨, 扞, 吒, 飏, 升, 并, 迳, 乃, 钜, 秘, 升, 桠, 赀, 脩, 砦, 堃, 喆, 蒐, 椀, 苏, 淼, 犇, 肴, 甯, 缐, 札, 麹, 溪, 瓌, 龢, 凓, 勠, 菉, 曏.