Chinese have been among the fastest-growing and highest-spending U.S. visitors in recent years. In 2013, 1.8 million Chinese tourists visited the U.S., contributing $21.1 billion to the U.S. economy and supporting more than 109,000 U.S. jobs, the White House said.

According to U.S. government data, China accounts for more than 14% of all US non-immigrant visa applications worldwide, i.e. the most around the world. Chinese visitors have accounted for one-fifth of the growth in overseas travel to the US since 2008. Official data also shows Chinese visitors spend about $7,000 per person in the U.S., compared with the average of $4,500 for all overseas visitors.

“China is the fastest-growing outbound tourism market in the world,” the White House said in a November statement. “A competitive visa policy will help us meet projections that suggest as many as 7.3 million Chinese travelers will come to the US by 2021, contributing nearly $85 billion a year to the US economy and supporting up to 440,000 US jobs.”

After the change of visa policy, Chinese swarm for the new 10-year US visas. In December 2014 and January 2015, the US issued 351,650 business and tourist visas to Chinese citizens. That is a year-over-year increase of 68.2%.

New York City has already experienced 300% increase of Chinese visitors over the past five years, with about 646,000 in 2013 and 743,000 in 2014. With the significant growth of visa issued, more increase is expected. Related businesses, including hotels, retail, entertainment, dinning and transportation are gearing up to cater to their important guests.

There are two forms of characters in Chinese language: traditional and simplified. Simplified character forms were created in the late 20th century by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters.

Traditional Chinese characters are currently used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. While traditional characters can still be read and understood by many mainland Chinese, Singaporeans and Malaysians, these groups generally retain their use of Simplified characters.

So, which form should you use in the U.S.?

In general, overseas Chinese communities tend to use traditional characters. Major Chinese newspapers in the United States targeting all Chinese are all in traditional Chinese. However, media that primarily target mainland Chinese immigrants are in simplified Chinese.

Most of the websites that serve Chinese from various origins offer both traditional and simplified forms. It doesn’t require additional translation or data storage. Each traditional character has its corresponding simplified or unchanged form. Thus, content can be stored in traditional form; and the system can convert it to simplified form if website visitors choose to view in simplified Chinese.

Do NOT do the opposite though. Many simplified characters represent more than one traditional characters. Therefore, the reverse does not always convert right.

How about printed materials?

That depends on your target audience and the nature of the content. When all eyes are in China, people would naturally think simplified Chinese is the way to go. Nevertheless, if the material is intended for the larger Chinese audience overseas, traditional Chinese should be considered seriously. Any decorative contexts such as shop signs and calligraphy should always be in traditional Chinese.

It is okay, but most of the time unnecessary to print material in both forms side by side. Just make sure not to have it half and half, for example having the headline in traditional and the body in simplified or vice versa. That would be very unprofessional.

* Chinese characters are adopted by Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. There are less characters are used in those languages.

The U.S. government defines Hispanic as people “who trace their origin or descent to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America (except for Brazil), and other Spanish cultures.” This includes Spain, which is the origin of Spanish culture. While Hispanic shares the same language and similar culture, each country has its own dialect and subculture.

There are Chinese all over the world. Like Hispanic, Chinese in different region has its own dialect and subculture. Mainland Chinese has quite different lifestyle and mentalities from Chinese in Taiwan or Hong Kong. They even have different character forms in writing. (See Traditional and Simplified Chinese)

Though population of China (1.37 billion) represents 19% of the world population (7.23 billion), marketers should not ignore Chinese from other regions. It is not just because the sizable population of Chinese outside of China. It is more about the exposure of your marketing materials to the other Chinese groups.

Unless your marketing communication is within mainland China, you should avoid images, assumptions and expressions that may cause any misunderstanding or displeasure to Chinese in other areas. For instance, the flag of the People’s Republic of China should be used to represent the country only, not the overall Chinese race or the language. Traditional characters should be used for advertisements on the traditional Chinese newspapers. 窩心 (woxin) means heartwarming and loving in Taiwan, but heartbreaking and aggrieved in China.

Do not scared by the variances of Chinese subgroups. In fact, they have more similarities than differences. Consult with local Chinese marketing professionals who understand the mix of your target audience. It is particularly important in the United States since it has Chinese from everywhere, visiting and staying. Do not count on Google or one Chinese-speaking intern to do the right work.

There are dozens of Chinatowns in United States. Just Greater New York already has at least nine of them.

Chinese American is more highly concentrated in metropolitan areas in the United States. The top three metro areas with the largest Chinese American populations are the Greater New York (about 735K in 2012), the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area (about 629K), and the Greater Los Angeles (about 567K).

In certain part of United States, Chinese American population is so high that Chinese becomes the second language in the areas. For instance, almost half of the population in Monterey Park of Los Angeles, CA is Chinese, 47.7% to be exact.

Continuing significant immigration from Mainland China, both legal and illegal, has spurred the ongoing rise of the Chinese American population. From 2000-2010, Chinese American population grew 40%. It increased in every state. 34 states experienced more than 50% increase. North Dakota and Nevada had even doubled the Chinese American population, 133% and 108% respectively.

In addition to the populations recorded by census, there are also a large number of Chinese visitors traveling in the United States. See Chinese Visitors in the U.S. [link to corresponding blog post]

(Source of all data above is U.S. Census www.census.gov)