Abstract： Objectives To identify the cortical areas engaged during Chinese word processing using func tional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and to examine the reliability and repr oducibility of fMRI for localization of functional areas in the human brain.Methods FMRI data were collected on 8 young, right-handed, native Chinese speakers duri ng performance of Chinese synonym and homophone judgment tasks on two different clinical MRI systems (1.5 T GE Signa Horizon and 1.5 T Siemens Vision). A cro ss correlation analysis was used to statistically generate the activation map.Results Broca's area, Wernicke's area, bilateral extrastriate, and ventral tempo ral cortex were significantly activated during both the synonym and homophone activities. There was essentially no difference between results acquired on two different MRI systems.Conclusions FMRI can be used for localizing cortical areas critical to Chinese language proc essing in the human brain. The results are reliable and well reproducible acros s different clinical MRI systems.