Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
The Chinese character 稀 is rare. It is often in the news these days as 稀土 or rare earth (elements). 稀 is xi¹ (like c). Before the character 稀/希 was coined 罕 is often used for rare. It was composed of a net above a forked stick. I think they caught something rarely seen which … Read more
奐 is called “huan” aka Juan which is Spanish for John which is the Hebrew name Yohanan which means “God is gracious 上帝是仁慈的”。奐 (as 换) means exchange or to take the place of. The picture that is 奐 is a man on top of a cave 穴。 The stone cave is where 丙 the tablets … Read more
I believe even basic Chinese learners would know this word. It means “car” and is pronounced “chē”. Except it isn’t. You see, when we recite the word 車 in classical poems and literature, or for the rook in Chinese chess, we pronounce it “jū”. So which one’s right? The etymology book “釋名”, written in the … Read more
There was a joke in China that in a primary school, a Chinese mainlander student and a Chinese Taiwanese student are punished for being naughty. The punishment is for them to transcribe the following sentence (in Chinese obviously) for 100 times. The sentence has the meaning of “A melancholic Taiwanese turtle.” The Taiwanese kid cried … Read more
Some foreigner friends of mine think that Chinese characters are “impossible” to master. What? 50000 characters? The truth is, as other answers have stated, there are only 3500 common characters. As an average Chinese speaker, I had mastered all common Chinese characters before I graduated from primary school, in terms of writing and reading. (You … Read more
To avoid confusing 左/右 as a beginner, I associated the falling fourth tone of 右 yòu / yow and the very last falling stroke of 口 with the meaning “right”: definite, correct and straight to the point. The constantly changing stroke direction of 左 zuǒ / tzuoo is more convoluted (similar to navigating a maze: right, left downward slash, right, down, … 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
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
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
I am not a scholar, but on this question I am 100% certain that I am correct. First of all, I am Chinese, deeply familiar with Chinese characters. Secondly, I am also a calligraphy enthusiast—I have truly written tens of thousands of characters with a brush. Before the invention of paper, and after the oracle … Read more