Why do we need to develop the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?

The Government has developed an open and common Chinese language interface for users who prefer to communicate electronically in Chinese. A pivotal element of this initiative is the adoption of the ISO/IEC 10646 and the HKSCS to address the problems arising from the existence of different coding standards and insufficient characters in some Chinese character sets used on computers.

Many popular operating systems, database software, office automation (OA) suites, web browsers, e-mail clients and input devices already support the ISO/IEC 10646. Hence, computer users could make use of HKSCS characters when they use products that are compliant with the ISO/IEC 10646.

When was the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) developed?

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region developed the HKSCS in collaboration with the Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee (CLIAC) in September 1999. In December 2001, the Government released Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set - 2001 (HKSCS-2001). In May 2005, the Government released Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set - 2004 (HKSCS-2004). In December 2009, the Government released Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set - 2008 (HKSCS-2008). The latest version of the HKSCS is the HKSCS-2016 that was published in May 2017.

What contents are updated in the HKSCS?

The HKSCS-2016 has included 24 new characters. It expands and replaces the HKSCS-2008. HKSCS-2016 also technically aligns with the ISO/IEC 10646:2014/Amd 2.

The HKSCS-2008 has included 68 new characters. It expands and replaces the HKSCS-2004. HKSCS-2008 also technically aligns with the ISO/IEC 10646:2003 and its Amendment 1 to Amendment 6 which include all characters of the HKSCS-2008. The code allocations of such characters in the HKSCS-2008 have been adjusted accordingly.

The HKSCS-2004 has included 123 new characters. It expands and replaces the HKSCS-2001. HKSCS-2004 also technically aligns with the ISO/IEC 10646:2003, and its Amendment 1, released by the International Organization for Standardization in April 2004, and in November 2005 respectively. The ISO/IEC 10646:2003 and its Amendment 1 include all characters of the HKSCS-2004. The code allocations of such characters in the HKSCS-2004 have been adjusted accordingly.

The HKSCS-2001 has included 116 new characters. It expands and replaces the HKSCS released in 1999. HKSCS-2001 also technically aligns with the ISO/IEC 10646-2:2001, released by the International Organization for Standardization in November 2001. The ISO/IEC 10646-2:2001 includes 1,622 additional characters from the HKSCS. The code allocations of such characters in the HKSCS-2001 have been adjusted accordingly.

What characters are included in the HKSCS?

Breakdown of HKSCS characters:

The HKSCS-2016 contains a total of 5,033 characters, most of which are Chinese characters ( 4,591 characters or 91%). Many of these characters can be found in major dictionaries (including Kangxi Dictionary, Hanyu Dazidian, Hanyu Dacidian and Zhonghua Zihai). Since an individual Chinese character can be used for different purposes, there is no detailed classification of the characters in the HKSCS-2016. Nevertheless, these characters can be broadly classified into the following categories:

• Proper names, such as names of persons, places or companies
• Characters used in the Cantonese dialect
• Scientific terms
• Radicals and shapes

These characters are mainly proposed by government departments (such as the Companies Registry, the Department of Justice, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Immigration Department, the Inland Revenue Department, the Judiciary, and the Lands Department), academic bodies, educational institutions and members of the public.

The remaining 442 characters are various symbols, such as components of Chinese characters, Hanyu Pinyin symbols, international phonetic alphabets, Japanese Katakana and Hiragana, etc.

Can the general public and private organizations apply for inclusion of characters in the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?

Yes. The general public, government departments and other private organizations can submit applications for inclusion of characters in the HKSCS to the Secretariat of the Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee. Information like glyph, pronunciation and meaning of the characters should also be provided. Submission of other information like the origin and usage with examples of the characters are also highly recommended.

What are the principle of inclusion of characters in the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?

The basic principles of inclusion of characters in the HKSCS are that the origins of the characters should be known and the characters should be required for use by government departments or the public. Since the HKSCS is gradually becoming part of the ISO/IEC 10646, the relevant rules of the ISO/IEC 10646 are taken into account when considering the inclusion of characters in the HKSCS.

What are the procedures for inclusion of characters in the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?

The procedures and principles for inclusion of characters in the HKSCS can be found at the Inclusion of New Characters in the HKSCS.

The Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee will consider applications for inclusion of characters in the HKSCS.

Have all characters in HKSCS been included in the ISO/IEC 10646?

The ISO/IEC 10646:2014/Amd 2 includes all characters of the HKSCS.

What is the relationship between the Government Common Character Set and the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set?

To facilitate electronic communication between government departments, the Hong Kong Government developed in 1995 the Government Common Character Set (GCCS) that contained characters specific to Hong Kong for supplementing the Big-5 character set. In 1999, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region developed and published in collaboration with the Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee (CLIAC) the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) which replaced the GCCS. In December 2001, the Government released Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set - 2001 (HKSCS-2001). In May 2005, the Government released Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set - 2004 (HKSCS-2004). In December 2009, the Government released Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set - 2008 (HKSCS-2008). The latest version of the HKSCS is the HKSCS-2016 that was published in May 2017.

Why does the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) include characters of the Cantonese dialect or even foul languages?

Characters of the Cantonese dialect included in the HKSCS came from the Judiciary, the Hong Kong Police, the Department of Justice, the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Some of these characters can be found in the dictionaries of Cantonese dialect or academic articles. One of the reasons of including these characters in the HKSCS is to facilitate the Judiciary in recording legal proceedings and the Hong Kong Police and other law enforcement agencies in taking statements. Besides, the study of Cantonese dialect is an academic subject. Many members of the linguistic societies, teaching staff and students of tertiary institutions are conducting research in this area. If characters of the Cantonese dialect are not included in the HKSCS, it will be difficult to a certain extent to publish academic journals or articles on Cantonese dialect.

Why does the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) contain characters not found in dictionaries?

Some characters in the HKSCS cannot be found in dictionaries. Except a few characters of Cantonese dialect, most of them come from databases of the Immigration Department, the Companies Registry, the Inland Revenue Department and the Lands Department. It has been confirmed that these characters are still being used in names of persons, companies and locations. These characters appear in various kinds of certificates, contracts and legal documents. In view of operational needs and legal requirements, the HKSCS includes these characters.

Where can I obtain the information of the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?

The HKSCS documents and related information can be found in the "What is Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?" of the Common Chinese Language Interface Website

Are the HKSCS documents released previously still available?

The documents for the previous HKSCS releases are available on the Common Chinese Language Interface Website for the reference of the public and IT suppliers.

What will be the changes in assigning code points to newly included HKSCS characters with effect from 31 March 2008?

With effect from 31 March 2008, the Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee will only continue to assign ISO/IEC 10646 code points to newly included HKSCS characters. All HKSCS characters already assigned with code points before the effective date will not be affected although progressive migration from Big-5 coding to ISO/IEC 10646 coding is encouraged.

This is a further step to promote the wider adoption of the common Chinese language interface in the community and to facilitate electronic communication in Chinese. This is also in line with the adoption of the ISO/IEC 10646 and the HKSCS for IT Development. Members of the public may refer to the latest principles for the inclusion of characters in the HKSCS at the Common Chinese Language Interface Website.

How can I download and install the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) to display and input locally specific Chinese characters?

Currently, all characters in the HKSCS are included in the ISO/IEC 10646 international coding standard. As most of the prevailing computer operating systems already support the ISO/IEC 10646 standard, HKSCS installation is not necessary.

Have all commonly used characters in Hong Kong been included in the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)?

To facilitate electronic communication among government departments, the then Hong Kong Government developed in early years the Government Common Character Set (GCCS) which contained locally specific Chinese characters required for use on computers by government departments for supplementing the Big-5 character set. Locally specific Chinese characters from various sectors of the community were later collected by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for inclusion in the GCCS, and the extended GCCS was renamed as the HKSCS for public use. Many commonly used characters in Hong Kong have already been included in the Big-5 character set and therefore are not required to be incorporated into the HKSCS.

My computer fails to display a glyph of the character shown on my identification document, do I need to submit an application for inclusion of the character in the HKSCS with the glyph concerned?

A: How glyphs are displayed on computer depends on the system font files, which have already included the glyphs commonly used in Hong Kong. However, these glyphs may look different from those shown on the Hong Kong identification documents. In formulating the Chinese character encoding standard, a set of rules have been applied to accommodate glyph differences among variants. Computer systems process electronic information simply by using codings of characters . Characters with basically the same meaning but slight differences in shape that generally do not affect the glyph structure are considered unifiable. In this case, it is not necessary to submit an application for inclusion of characters into the HKSCS.

Please refer to the video on finding the ISO/IEC 10646 coding of Chinese characters (Chinese only) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEvJqfUZwcE).

Does the Cantonese Pronunciation List of the Characters for Computers provide a standard for Cantonese pronunciation for local use?

The Cantonese Pronunciation List of the Characters for Computers (the Pronunciation List) contains a set of Cantonese pronunciation of Chinese characters in the ISO/IEC 10646 international coding standard and HKSCS. The Pronunciation List is suited for application in Hong Kong. It is designed for general reference and can enable the development of computer products that support Cantonese phonetic information to meet local needs, with a view to facilitating the use of information technology by the disabled and the elderly. However, the Pronucation List is not a mandatory standard, it is intended for reference only.