Description

FUN WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS Vol. 1 to 3Fun with Chinese Characters (in three volumes) makes learning Chinese characters entertaining and memorable! Every page contains all the information you need to learn a Chinese character: the origin (etymology) of a character, its description and an entertaining illustration by cartoonist Tan Huay Peng. Knowing the origin greatly simplify the recognition the characters. The cartoons which accompany each character are often comical and clever. Examples of how the character is used in compound phrases are offered. First volume contains an in-depth introduction on the genesis of the characters. The third volume contains index of all 480 characters and their location.The characters are written in traditional and simplified characters and has romanized pinyin pronunciation. Stroke orders, definition and example sentence make this book a valuable resource. Learning Chinese characters has never been so much fun!From the PublisherIn this first ever North American Editions, Fun with Chinese Characters help anyone interested in Chinese to learn about Chinese characters in a fun, easy and entertaining way. No background in Chinese is required to enjoy the book. Amazon customers say:”This series is a great aid to memorizing characters. There is one character per page, and for each character there is an accompanying illustration, along with a selection of words and phrases that feature the character, the pin-yin pronunciation and the traditional character, if applicable. In addition, there is an illustration of the evolution of the character over time, from the most ancient form found on the tortoise shells, to the modern form. It is not a scholarly reference book, and is not organized as such. It is meant to be flipped through casually and enjoyed.This series has been in print since the 1970s, so the illustrations ARE somewhat dated, as one reviewer points out below. However, I found the slightly outdated style charming and interesting. Often the illustrations are of people in traditional costume, but there is no compelling reason to take offense! Most importantly, there is intelligent irony to be found in these illustrations, irony that is sensitive to women’s history and other issues. So, if you take offense with depictions of Chinese people in traditional Chinese costume or of silk worms, lanterns, and other things particular to historical Chinese culture (fully within the scope of a book about etymologies), this book is not for you. I say, lighten up and enjoy this wonderful book! “”I found ‘Fun With Chinese Characters’, as well as the rest of Tan’s work, easy to read, informative, and very helpful in learning Chinese.After a brief introdouction to the Chinese language each page deals with one character, providing examples of older forms, a story behind the character, which sometimes gived insight into Chinese culture or proverbs (A word of warning should be given that not all of his explanations are genuine, some are purely mnemonic. However, he never claims anything more.), a cartoon to illustrate the point, several compound words and a simple example sentence.Strong/helpful points are the mnemonic focus of the book (illustraions, stories, historical development, etc.), pinyin, the breaking down of some of the characters into primary components.Weaknesses are that not all of his explanations are genuine and their is nothing to tell you when they are genuine and when they are not, which is the only reason why I only gave it 3 stars. Also I found the referencing to characters to be wanting.If you’re a visual learner and you are in it for ease of learning and memory aid then you will probably enjoy this book.However, if you are after a historical/scholarly work on Chinese characters then you will likely be disappointed. (McNaughton’s ‘Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System’ available in both simplified and traditional characters and Harbaugh’s ‘Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary’ might be better for you.)Remember, the book is called, ‘FUN With Chinese Characters’