Chinese Characters and Japanese Kanji

Chinese characters are known in Chinese as Hanzi -- "Han" as in Han dynasty, "zi" means "written character. And in Japanese "Hanzi" is pronounced "Kanji."

You can find links to websites which I have come across on my Delicious listing: Chayford Chinese.characters. Unfortunately the links appear in the order in which I added them, so it's hard to tell which are useful for you.

As is often the frustrating case, the Wikipedia article "Chinese Character" is too long and wooly, but full of detailed information and good illustrations.

But there is a recent series of three posting on the blog "Seeing Red in China" by "Tom" -- whoever he is, he's good at explaining things clearly in an informal way, with good visuals:

• "It's Easy to Learn Chinese -- Really" Explains some of the basic principles of Chinese language.
• "Why 10,000 Characters is Easier Than It Seems" Shows how characters are not random strokes but built up from known elements.
• "Compound Words, More of a Puzzle Than a Problem." Most words in modern Chinese are formed by putting two or more characters together.

From time to time I'll add some more -- maybe you have suggestions.