Take a Minute to Learn About the HSK’s New Ch anges

On July 1, 2021, China released a new set of HSK rules and standards. This document describes the updates:

Learners’ Chinese proficiency is divided into "three levels and nine levels", which mainly includes four basic language elements: syllables, Chinese characters, vocabulary and grammar. Speech communication ability, topic task content and language quantitative indicators form three evaluation criteria. Chinese listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation are the five language skills, and these are all assessed so as to accurately calibrate learners’ Chinese level. The overall difficulty of HSK9 was also further improved.

1. How has the HSK changed overall?

Everyone is very concerned about whether the vocabulary in this document is within the scope of HSK. In reality, the syllables, Chinese characters, vocabulary, and grammar outline in this document should be the goals for developing proficiency for all foreign learners of Chinese. The scope of HSK takes into consideration the specific situations of Chinese education in various countries. As it currently stands, the HSK 1-6 basically meets the needs of foreign Chinese learners at the elementary and intermediate levels. However...