Chinese Currency: Yuan, Kuai, and RMB
To bi or not to bi?
Have you ever been confused between the Chinese Yuan and the Renminbi (RMB)?
Then read on.
The name for the Chinese currency, the “yuan” (元/圓), comes from the word for circle. After all, China has minted circular coins since 221 BC. The traditional character, 圓 is used in Taiwan to denote the New Taiwan Dollar, while its simplified counterpart, 元, is employed in mainland China. In both regions, the yuan is further divided into 10 jiao (角) or 100 fen (分).
The character for yuan was also adapted into the Japanese yen (円) and became the word for the Korean won (원), underlining the influence of Chinese currency on its neighboring countries.
In daily transactions across China, ‘kuai’ (块) is often preferred for its conversational ease and relatability, whereas ‘yuan’ is typically used in formal contexts, such as banking and official pricing. Kuai literally means “piece”, as in a ‘piece of meat’. In terms of money, this is similar to a ‘piece of eight’ in English, or ‘peso’ in Spanish — (where peso refers to weight), or ‘two-bits’ which became equivalent to a quarter dollar in American English.
