Promoting the use of Standard Chinese by the government does not require that the complex and alternative forms of Chinese characters are banned from all public areas, but rather, the aim is to limit the use of the complex and alternative (traditional) forms within certain circumstances. Therefore, the "National Law on Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language" prescribes six conditions under which the complex and alternative forms can be preserved and used.

On the basis of the regulations made by National Law, and according to the relevant requirements of the national language work evaluation standards, the city government has specific requirements for name boards with complex and alternative characters owned by legal persons or other organizations.

Section 12 of the "Regulations for Implementation" stipulates: "the support of the use of Standard Chinese characters for the handwritten characters of inscriptions and signboards. Legal persons and other organizations with handwritten complex and alternative characters in their name boards should place a name board in Standard Chinese in an appropriate position. These regulations are mainly for the purpose of stressing the legal status of Standard Chinese characters in our country, and so far, the measure has been satisfactorily implemented in Shanghai".