Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
chinesespeaking 
Ok, I’ll try to unpack this as best as I can but please bear in mind that we are talking about 5,000 years of human history here, so this is going to be a very abridged history, or we could be here for weeks, so my apologies if I skip over anything important Firstly, what we think … Read more
A lot of answers here are excellent already. I’m just here to summarize: – It’s true that Chinese characters can be more cumbersome to write, than English. – But the Chinese language can be written in a staggeringly concise manner, hence makes up for the disadvantage. For example, compare the length of the two sentences: … Read more
I have to make a little clever remark here! To some extent this is a pseudo-question. Zhao Mengfu’s Huangting Jing — every single character in it is so beautiful it breaks your heart. But since you insisted it must be limited to seven characters, there’s only one choice! “中华人民共和国！” (People’s Republic of China) Exactly seven Chinese characters 🙂 … Read more
The symbol “々” represents the repetition of the previous character in both Chinese and Japanese. Back in the days when writing was done entirely by hand—such as when I was in school—this was a very common practice, mainly to save time while writing. For example:、 The Chinese phrase “寥寥数笔” (“only a few strokes”) could be … Read more
When I was young, there were books with characters printed vertically. One of my classmates told me that he enjoyed the vertically printed books because he could read a book with one hand, holding the book curled in his palm. It was very convenient when he was pooping in a squat toilet while reading a … Read more
The original meaning of this character is “respect.” However, this meaning is rarely used today. Nowadays, it’s mainly used for recording time and divination. “寅” is the third zodiac sign in the order of the Earthly Branches. The twelve earthly branches are：子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥。 “寅” represents 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM; “寅” represents the northeast-east direction; “寅月” … Read more
The cause of your confusion stems from the behavioral change in reading Chinese during the past centuries. The dominant modern reading behavior is a silent one, but back in the old days, reading Chinese texts was a much louder affair. In “读” or “讀”(traditional Chinese), you will see the left side is “讠” or “言”, … Read more
As a language, Chinese is largely monosyllabic and doesn’t have a fixed grammar, so learning it is really quite easy — easier than English. If you only need everyday communication, about 3,000 common characters are usually enough. The easiest way to learn Chinese is to spend time in Northeast China or Hebei, where people tend … Read more
Very common, especially in Beijing Hu Tong (胡同, small alley) culture. Old Beijing (老北京) people ask “吃了吗” (have you eaten yet?) as we say “how are you”. It’s a common casual greeting between friends and neighbors. Food is one of the main theme for all Chinese, regardless rich or poor, regardless of their social status. … Read more
