Is Tran a Chinese name?

As far as I know, Tran is the Viet Namese transliteration of 陳 Ch’en/Chen, a very common Chinese surname. It’s properly written Trần. When I see someone named Trần, I figure they’re ethnic Chinese from Viet Nam. However, I just checked and 11% of the population of VN is named Trần, so it seems they’re … Read more

What are the most interesting Chinese characters, in your opinion?

It’s 永. The kanji for “永(ei)”, which means long time, contains all eight techniques necessary for calligraphy. It’s called 永字八法(eiji happou). Eight Principles of Yong – Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Demonstration of common strokes in Chinese characters The character 永 , yǒng , “forever”, “permanence” Stroke order animated (left) and in color gradation … Read more

Why do some people say that speaking Cantonese is harder than speaking Mandarin, even though they’re both dialects of Chinese?

They are victim to what we call “data imbalance.” Specifically, Cantonese is WAY less prevalent than Putonghua. You’re far more likely to meet somebody who speaks Putonghua but not Cantonese (1.32 billion people) as opposed to somebody who speaks Cantonese but not Putonghua (0.08 billion people). When Category A outnumbers Category B sixteen to one … Read more

Is Chinese good for technical literature? Do the Chinese use English words for technical terms?

Yes, it is. The Chinese language is capable of writing technical things. These technical terms, for instance, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, could be translated into Chinese. When people learn about these subjects at middle school, they read textbooks written in Chinese. Here are few pictures of a textbook in Physics used in the nineth grade … Read more

I was adopted from an orphanage in China and am curious if the name they gave me (益瑞萍 – yi ruiping) means anything.

益 is your last name. It is an extremely rare last name, so I think you might be mistaken. It might be either 易 or 伊, both are more common last names with the same pronunciation (different tone). 瑞 means Lucky, fortunate. 萍 is a type of water grass. It doesn’t have a root and … Read more