Anyone knows Chinese characters here?

[gunnut]

Instead of 屡战屡败, use 屡败屡战. Sounds more like a doer rather than a loser.

Mao was born on Christmas?

I think I'm getting old. That writing style is way better than articles in the newspaper using the contemperary style. The simplified still kills me.

[chakos]

Instead of 屡战屡败, use 屡败屡战. Sounds more like a doer rather than a loser.

Mao was born on Christmas?

I think I'm getting old. That writing style is way better than articles in the newspaper using the contemperary style. The simplified still kills me.

You can read Chinese???? WTF? I have this mental impression of you as the shotgun wielding, flannelet shirt wearing, SUV driving redneck type (and i mean that in the nicest possible way ) sitting on a porch drinking goon shooting empty cans off your front fence

Where does speaking/reading Chinese come into it???

[gunnut]

You can read Chinese???? WTF? I have this mental impression of you as the shotgun wielding, flannelet shirt wearing, SUV driving redneck type (and i mean that in the nicest possible way ) sitting on a porch drinking goon shooting empty cans off your front fence

I don't drive an SUV (I drive a station wagon). But all other points are pretty much right on.

Where does speaking/reading Chinese come into it???

I learned it when I was about 18 months old.

I'm a registered democrat too. :))

[chakos]

Odd...

Trying to destroy the party from the inside eh?

[xunil]

Has this turned into a food thread?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chow_mein

I prefer a good plate of beef hor fun, if the chef knows his stuff.

Chao mian. I like it.
I remember Charles Barkley called Yao Ming 'Chow mein' in his TV show and swear he would kiss Kenny's ass if Yao Ming gets 19 points in a game.

[Tomluter]

Maybe we should make this thread a Chinese character thread. Give us non-Chinese speakers/readers the basics; a lesson a day or so. Just characters and English translations...no pinyin. Yeah, maybe? :))

That must be interesting.Ok, I go first.

Firstly, We must know ,Chinese character is the only kind of hieroglyph in the world,that was still used.

So,I think maybe it is interesting to analyze the structures of it.

let us see a characters' evolveing : "日" mean "the sun"


In the pic, the first character is a ancient character,that from 3000 years ago. Last one is now.

what does it look like? ....yes, It likes the "sun" , ancient one more.

So, let's see another Chinese character : "月" , means "moon"


And what is it look like?

My question is, Is there a Chinese character was constituted by those two charatcters ? 日+月=?, (sun+moon=?)

yes, there is, that is: "明", means bright.

I take the number characters to give another example : "一" means one. "二" ,means two. "三",means three.

In fact, Chinese characters' structures are not always so simple. with the thousands years evoleing, Chinese character is not kind of pure hieroglyph.

Now, most of them with constituted structure, showing shape and meaning, also some part of it showing pronunciation.

So, Chinese characters is in some middle stage of evolveing form hieroglyph to spelling words. But our ancient were so fascinated to the esthetic sensibilities of it, that hold back its development.

this is the pic of the oldest mature Chinese characters: the inscription on oracle bones, that is from more than 3000 years ago.

[gunnut]

Odd...

Trying to destroy the party from the inside eh?

As Gun Grape calls it, operation chaos.

[xinhui]

Instead of 屡战屡败, use 屡败屡战. Sounds more like a doer rather than a loser.

Mao was born on Christmas?

I think I'm getting old. That writing style is way better than articles in the newspaper using the contemperary style. The simplified still kills me.

Yup

Mao Zedong (simplified Chinese: 毛泽东; traditional Chinese: 毛澤東; pinyin: Máo Zédōng; Wade-Giles: Mao Tse-tung) pronunciation (help·info) (December 26 [O.S. December 14] 1893 – September 9, 1976)


gunnut, the last classic I have to read in college was "Discourses on Salt and Iron" 盐铁论, The Han Dynasty economic debate. Enough is enough, there are few things in the world that would drive a man insane and that was one of then.

[gunnut]

My Chinese is only elementary school level. I wouldn't dream of reading long and complicated paper...in any language.

[Squall]

If a Chinese writer want to write something about Western Nations, he/she has to master English first.
But it seems most western writers or journalists write articles about China without a basic Chinese capacity.
So they can only get information from educated chinese people and official source.

[gunnut]

If a Chinese writer want to write something about Western Nations, he/she has to master English first.
But it seems most western writers or journalists write articles about China without a basic Chinese capacity.
So they can only get information from educated chinese people and official source.

That depends on your audience.

A Chinese writer need not master English to comment about the west if his audience is in China.

A Western writer need not master Chinese to comment about China if his audience is in the west.

[Inst]

So you're saying that people can be bad journalists / sociologists, as long as their target audience doesn't realize it?

By the way, what's the comparison between Qin Shi Huang standardizing Chinese characters and Mao Zedong simplifying them?

[snowhole]

Qin Shi Huang standardizing Chinese characters to make people from different regions intelligible to each other. The PRC government (not Mao) simplified Chinese character to have higher literacy rate in the mass.

Simplifying Chinese character is a procedure that had begun within the people long time ago, some caused by calligraphy (like 草書, "Cursive script" or "grass style" and 行書, "Semi-cursive script" or "running style").




Here's a brief history.

汉字简化简史

简体字是汉字演变的逻辑结果。汉字从甲骨文、金文变为篆书，再变为隶书、楷书，其总趋势就是从繁到简。隶书 是篆书的简化，草书、行书又是隶书的简化，而简体字正是楷书的简化。楷书在魏晋时开始出现，而简体字已见于 南北朝（４－６世纪）的碑刻，到隋唐时代简化字逐渐增多，在民间相当普遍，被称为“俗体字”。我们今天使用 的许多简化字，在这时候就已经开始出现，例如“营”、“寿”、“尽”、“敌”、“继”、“烛”、“壮”、“ 齐”、“渊”、“娄”、“顾”、 “献”、“变”、“灯”、“坟”、“驴”，等等。唐代颜元孙著《干禄字书》和王仁［日句］著《刊谬补缺切韵 》，都收了极多的俗体字。宋代以后，随着印刷术的发明，简体字由碑刻和手写转到雕版印刷的书籍上，从而扩大 了简体字的流行范围，数量大大增多。根据《宋元以来俗字谱》，宋元明清１２种民间刻本中所用的简体字多达６ ２４０个，合为繁体字共１６０４个，平均每个繁体字有３．９个不同的简化字，与今天使用的简体字完全相同的 有“实”、“宝”、“听”、 “万”、“礼”、“旧”、“与”、“庄”、“梦”、“虽”、“医”、“阳”、“凤”、“声”、“义”、“乱 ”、“台”、“党”、“归”、“办”、“辞”、 “断”、“罗”、“会”、“怜”、“怀”等等共达３３０多个。１９０９年，陆费逵在《教育杂志》创刊号上发 表论文《普通教育应当采用俗体字》，这是历史上第一次公开提倡使用简体字。 １９２２年，陆费逵又发表论文《整理汉字的意见》，建议采用已在民间流行的简体字，并把其他笔画多的字也简 化。１９２２年，钱玄同在国语统一筹备委员会上提出《减省现行汉字的笔画案》，得到陆基、黎锦熙、杨树达的 联署。这是历史上有关简体字的第一个具体方案，主张把过去只在民间流行的简体字作为正体字应用于一切正规的 书面语。它提出的八种简化汉字的方法，实际上也就是现行简体字的产生依据，影响深远。１９２８年，胡怀琛出 版《简易字说》，收简体字３００多个。１９３０年，中央研究院历史语言研究所出版刘复、李家瑞合编的《宋元 以来俗字表》，反映了一千年来简体字的发展情况。１９３２年，国民政府教育部公布出版国语筹备委员会编订的 《国音常用字汇》，收入不少简体字，并指出：“现在应该把它（简体字）推行，使书写处于约易。 ” １９３４年，中国图书馆服务社出版杜定友的《简字标准字表》，收简体字３５３个。徐则敏在《论语半月刊》发 表《５５０俗字表》。钱玄同在国语统一筹备委员会提出《搜集固有而较适用的简体字案》。１９３５年，钱玄同 主持编成《简体字谱》草稿，收简体字２４００多个。同年８月，国民党政府教育部采用这份草稿的一部分，公布 “第一批简体字表”，收字３２４个，虽然在第二年的２月又通令收回，但毕竟是历史上由政府公布的第一个简体 字表。也就是在这一年，上海文化界组织“手头字推行会”，发起推行“手头字（即简体字）”运动。１９３６年 １０月，容庚的《简体字典》出版，收字达４４４５，基本上本自草书。同年１１月，陈光尧出版《常用简字表》 ，收字３１５０个，约一半本自草书，一半来自俗体字。１９３７年，北平研究所字体研究会发表《简体字表》第 一表，收字１７００个。抗日战争爆发，简体字运动才被迫停顿，而主要在共产党统治区继续发展。共产党夺取政 权后，立即着手继续推行简化汉字。１９５０年，中央人民政府教育部社会教育司编制《常用简体字登记表》。１ ９５１年，在上表的基础上，根据“述而不作”的原则，拟出《第一批简体字表》，收字５５５个。１９５２年２ 月５日，中国文字改革研究委员会成立。１９５４年底，文改委在《第一批简体字表》的基础上，拟出《汉字简化 方案〔草案〕》，收字７９８个，简化偏旁５６个，并废除４００个异体字。１９５５年２月２日，《汉字简化方 案〔草案〕》发表，把其中的２６１个字分３批在全国５０多种报刊上试用。同年７月１３日，国务院成立汉字简 化方案审订委员会。同年１０月，举行全国文字改革会议，讨论通过《汉字简化方案〔修正草案〕》，收字减少为 ５１５个，简化偏旁减少为５４个。１９５６年１月２８日，《汉字简化方案》经汉字简化方案审订委员会审订， 由国务院全体会议第２３次会议通过，３１日在《人民日报》正式公布，在全国推行。以后这个方案根据使用情况 而略有改变，１９６４年５月，文改委出版了《简化字总表》，共分三表：第一表是３５２个不作偏旁用的简化字 ，第二表是１３２个可作偏旁用的简化字和１４个简化偏旁，第三表是经过偏旁类推而成的１７５４个简化字；共 ２２３８字（因“签”、“须”两字重见，实际为２２３６字），这就是今天中国大陆的用字标准。而在其他使用 汉字的国家，同样也在简化汉字。新加坡：１９６９年公布第一批简体字５０２个，除了６７字（称为“异体简化 字”），均与中国公布的简化字相同。１９７４年，又公布《简体字总表》，收简体字２２４８个，包括了中国公 布的所有简化字，以及１０个中国尚未简化的，如“要”、“窗”。１９７６年５月，颁布《简体字总表》修订本 ，删除这１０个简化字和异体简体字，从而与中国的《简化字总表》完全一致。马来西亚：１９７２年成立“马来 西亚简化汉字委员会”，１９８１年出版《简化汉字总表》，与中国的《简化字总表》完全一致。泰国：本来规定 华文学校一律不准用简体字教学，在联合国以简体字为汉字标准后，宣布取消原来的限制，于１９８３年底同意所 有的华文学校都可教学简体字，发行简繁对照表手册，并在小学课本上附加简繁对照表。日本：日本使用汉字已有 近两千年的历史，在民间也长期流行一些简体字。１９４６年日本内阁公布《当用汉字表》，收字１８５０个，其 中有１３１个是简体字，与中国简体字相同的有５３个，差不多相同的有９个。南朝鲜：１９８３年《朝鲜日报》 公布第一批简体字９０个，在《朝鲜日报》上使用，与中国相同的有２９个，差不多相同的有４个。

[LongshotSNN]

While we're at it, did anyone read about the Max Planck Society's boo-boo over their journal cover design when they mistakenly put in a burlesque advertisement featuring young housewives?

Language Log's link . My superiors circulated this as a warning to the office on cover design etc.

[LongshotSNN]

While we're at it, did anyone read about the Max Planck Society's boo-boo over their journal cover design when they mistakenly put in a burlesque advertisement featuring young housewives?

Language Log's link . My superiors circulated this as a warning to the office on cover design etc.