The Language of Wuhan
The Wuhan dialect is often described as a “southwestern mandarin variety” of Chinese. For over a century foreigners, especially missionaries who liv...
Category: Language
Classical Chinese for Everyone
Looking for a fun book? Look no further! Bryan Van Norden’s Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners is it. This is a book for anyon...
Pinyin is coming to get you!
Here is a CIA report on Pinyin from, I think, 1961 or so. They lay out the history of pinyin as a method of romanization (or latinization) of Chinese, and from ...
Seek truth from facts
The Atlantic has a post by Matt Schiavenza entitled “What’s with the Chinese Communist Party and Slogans” It’s a nice little piece on th...
Sweaty Traitors – Character Simplifications That Just Weren't Meant to Be
I had an old instructor of Chinese language many years ago who took every opportunity to pick fun at the evil Reds on the mainland. I think he fled China in 194...
How do you say that in Changsha?
I found a couple of cool language tools. Both are hosted by the Russian site Tower of Babel, which appears to be run by some serious linguists who have complied...
Old Friends in New Contexts
One of the fun things for me about the “Rise of China” and the prominence it continues to gain in Western media, economics and culture, is reconnect...
Does learning Chinese bring about world peace?
China Law blog asks an interesting question, and as they specifically call us out for a response, I thought I would say something. The question they asks is ...
No need for Clever Speech
It is recorded in the Han chronicles that when Emperor Wen visited his pleasure park he went to the area called Tiger Garden. There he questioned the official i...
Earliest Chinese Writing?
People’s Daily Online is reporting that 7000 year old characters have been found which seem to be direct precedents to known Chinese characters. [via] The...
Hightower Obituary
If you’re an H-Asia reader, you already saw this, but if you’re not, it’s an interesting look at the 20th century history of Asian literary st...
danger + opportunity
This entry on pinyin.info looks at the misunderstanding of the construction of characters. This tendency – particularly among the writers of motivational/...
7/7 and a Wartime Dictionary
While I’m spending the summer studying Korean in Seoul, one of the books I brought with me for some recreational reading is a Chinese wartime dictionary (...