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.

Selected Links on President Hu's Visit

Kelly McKee of Lake Forest High, who participated in the NCTA seminar in 2004 and has been active ever since, has selected useful links which covered President Hu's visit and showed how US-China relations have evolved. Thanks Kelly!

• Nicholas Kristoff, “Rise of the Chinese Cheneys,” NY Times (January 20, 2010). A rundown on the "security dilemma," that is, the danger of distrust in China feeding distrust in the US, creating an unnecessary confrontation.

• James Warren, “Chinese President’s Visit Proclaims a Rising Chicago,” NY Times (January 20, 2011).

• China State Visits: A Look Back At 30 Years Of U.S. Relations With China (Photos)(Huffington Post (January 20, 2011)

• Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “China in 2010: A 13-Link Retrospective Huffington Post (January 13, 2011). Wasserstrom lists and briefly describes articles on the big social and political issues of 2010.

Two more:

• Article about Hu at Payton, President Hu Visits Asia Society School, from the Asia Society website (January 21, 2010).
• A video of Hu at Payton from Hanban, the agency in China which oversees overseas activities.

Year of the Hare... um.. Rabbit?

February third is the Lunar New Year, celebrated in East Asia as the New Year or Spring Festival.

The Reuters article "Chinese Ready for Upheaval, Sex in Year of the Rabbit" is a lively explanation that each year in the Chinese system has its own character. Since the Year of the Rabbit is full of motion and excess, the article predicts lots of sex scandals. Since both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were born in rabbit years, the article says they would be well advised not to tie the knot next year.

The Wikipedia article "Lunar New Year" leads to articles on holidays observed according to lunar systems, including Rosh Hashanah. The Chinese New Year article is long and full of more details than most of us would need, but the principal menace to humanity is that following the links will take you to so many fascinating places that the rest of the morning is shot.

Traditionally New Year lasted for fifteen days, ending with the Lantern Festival. When I lived in Taiwan my landlord explained that New Year is when the rice bin gets emptier and the outhouse get fuller.


But I'm still not sure why it's "rabbit" and not "hare."

Spring NCTA Seminar

Friends --

We are now recruiting for another National Consortium for Teaching About Asia Seminar.

We will meet Wednesdays 6:00-9:00 January 12 to March 23, with March 30 as a backup in case of weather cancellation.

The East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University, Bloomington, organizes this seminar on behalf of the National Consortium on Teaching about Asia (NCTA), a national initiative supported by the Freeman Foundation of Stowe, Vermont. This year we are again hosted by the Confucius Institute, Chicago.

For more information, see the Indiana University East Asian Studies Center Center’s website:

http://www.iub.edu/~easc/outreach/educators/seminar/index.shtml

All Look Same?

The edgy blog, All Look Same: The Difference is in the Eye of the Beholder, runs commentary on cultural and current issues.

One of its intriguing features is The Exam Room, a test for the ability to tell if something is Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. There are pictures from New York street scenes, traditional architecture, travel photos, food, and some others, asking you to say which is which.

Try it!

Happy Tiger!

All around Asia it is "Chinese" New Year -- well, lunar new year. By the workings of the lunar calendar, 2010 has a double whammy: Chinese New Year on Saturday the 13th, then Valentine's Day on Sunday!

The US-China Institute of the University of Southern California puts out Talking Points, which pulls together background informati0n on breaking news, as well as information on art shows, talks, and other events in LA and around the country.

The Feb 10-24 issue has a great collection of New Year's postage stamps from all over the world, mostly, Asia which is colorful and also shows different styles.

If you're already nostalgic for last year, there is also a link to Year of the Ox stamps.

Browsing through earlier posts on this blog, I found a Scholastic Instructor page on Chinese New Year. There are pdf "reproducibles for calligraphy and other activities.

China Rising? The Dragon Wakes Again

"Beware of China, for when the dragon wakes she will shake the world." Napoleon? That's what we're told, but actually there's no evidence that he ever said it.

But over the last decade a lot of "China Rising" talk has been going around, getting more intense in the last couple of years.

History News Network has a collection of recent posts gathered from the internet, "HNN Hot Topics: China Rising."

China Beat, our second most favorite blog (after this one) has run a powerful set of pieces on "Big China" books, that is, books that loudly hail or bemoan China's rise or menace. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, has roundup, "Six Takes on Martin Jacques," a follow up to his piece in Time Magazine online blog (Feb 8, 2010), "Big China Books: Enough of the Big Picture." Jeff skewers the Olympic scale conclusion jumping in a gaggle of these books, especially Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World : The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.

Another recent well informed and provocative piece is Richard Rigby's "The Challenge of China" at East Asia Forum.