SL Lee responded well to your email.

While I shared your feeling, I must say I have different experience from yours.

I was educated all my life under a British system and I learned this term " Chinese " since day 1. I moved to Canada more than 20 years ago and I am very proud to tell my Canadian friends that I am a Chinese. I have never encountered any instance that people insulted me with the term " Chinese " nor have I had any complaints from my friends in Canada with this term.

The term "Chinaman" is different though. This term has been recognized by foreigners, (British, Canadians, Americans ) that it has a connotation of downgrading the Chinese people and they are very careful these days not to use this term to address the Chinese.

The use of simplified characters was viewed as a necessity to minimize illiteracy and speed up education. In fact, many simplified characters have been in use during the Nationalist era and there was a movement to overhaul the complex system prior to 1949. However it did not get implemented because of frequent wars. The only systematic step was taken by mainland China during the 1950s. Although Mao had a lot to do in the initiation, the implementation was done by a committee of scholars. Ironically, Mao himself seldom used the simplified characters except in the CaoShu sytle. It has the same meaning/purpose as the evolution of Zhuan to Li, and Li to Xing/Kai. Many of the abbreviations actually existed and used as a popular tool for a long time starting from Han dynasty. The committee only revitalized them. Others were simplified by consensus of the committee. There were several phases and sets of abbreviated characters. I believe the first one was adopted in 1953 and the second 1957-58. However, there are also non-standard abbreviations that have been used regionally, and even in printed matters. These are discouraged by the government. Very interestingly, the word Ác (complex) as used to refer the complex characters never had a good abbreviation substitution. Some used ·Ð to substitute for it but it does not make much sense. The word Ác does need some simplification ! :)

Sorry, there was an error in Dr. Lee's address - this one should now be correct!

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Cooya asked:

I am doing a research paper which is about the evolution/ develpment of chinese characters from the original creation to current development,the simplified and tranditional. Also, please tell me when has the China government adapted the simplified characters. I appreciate any comments and sources. FROM:cooya - Saturday, August 29, 1998 at 03:19:04 (PD

------------------------------- The following article is very informative.

http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/yihe/novels/history/chmedicine.html

I have begun to read this novel, and plan to read The Tale of the Water Margin and The Scholars, too, and was wondering if there were any particular translations you might recommend?

I have started out with the 1979? David Hawke (I think) translation in 5 volumes, but for 1700's anywhere, the language and air seem rather modern. Is this an aspect of the novel itself, or might it simply be the translation?

You asked whether Liu Yong is a son of Liu Bei and what happened to him after Shu was conquered ?

I don't have an "official history" book on Shu but I looked up the book of the Three Kingdoms which of course is a fiction. In Chapter 80, there is a very brief mention that Liu Yong ¼B ¥Ã is indeed the second son of Liu Bei. It appears that Liu Bei has a third son by the name of Liu Li ¼B ²z .

I did not translate this poem. If you look carefully, I merely provided a link to another website which has this peom.

------------------------

It is hard to identify a Chinese poem by its English translated title. If you post the full text, perhaps you may get some comments.

You have my blessings to use some gif's as supplements to your new page.

Let me know when it's done.

I suspect that many young children think that Snow White is invented by Disney. Mulan is headed toward the same fate. :-(

Kristy,  an English word translates into a Chinese *word*. In ancient times (and in written language!) a Chinese *word* generally was one syllable, i.e. one character (or "symbol" as you call it). In modern Chinese there also are *symbols*, each one representing one syllable (and also carrying a certain meaning), but most of Chinese *words* aren't monosyllabic, hence composed by more than one (two, three, four etc.) characters. So, often even "simple" words (like e.g. 'people'='renmin' ¤H¥Á) are polysyllabic, the more are composed/compound words like 'airport', 'insurance company' or the famous joky German word 'Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaen'. An easy monosyllabic English word as 'bus' for instance, in Chinese is composed by four characters (=syllables): pronounced 'gonggongqiche' and written ¤½¦@¨T¨® ('public collective steam car').

Good luck for further interest!

I have not seen the movie Mulan yet. From what you described in the email, it is definitely not a common practice to apply white make-up on a girl for a match making meeting.

China is a big country with over 5,000 years of recorded history. Its culture, customs, dialects, beliefs differ from one place from the other. While I have never read or come across the above custom, it doesn’t mean that it won’t exist in certain parts of China or during certain periods in the past.

Incidentally, if you watch how opera actors/actresses do their make-up, you will notice that they apply the white stuff first and then finish their final facial make-up with other colors. It is highly unlikely that a girl would meet a stranger, especially a young man, with a "white" face. It is not such a beautiful sight, isn’t it ?

I was told that Disney has done extensive research when they made this film. I hope somebody can enlighten us as to where such a custom practices. Good observation from you, BigTree.

The Chinese translation of the Bible has been in print for many, many years with millions of copies in circulation. The "Chinese names" of Adam and Eve are known to more Chinese than nearly any other. We can no more change the translation than how Confucius is spelled.

Julius has given the correct names, which are clearly stated in 3:20 of the Chinese bible. The translation of 3:9 is not a literal translation. Close reading of 3:9 show that though the English uses the proper names, the Chinese translation did not.

My idea of going back to the Bible may not be such a practical solution after all. If I have a friend named Adam, and he wants a Chinese name, I probably would tell me to choose a modern name rather use the biblical translation.

Pierce, I'm not sure about the exact meaning/sense of the word you're looking for; perhaps it might be "¦³·NÃÑ" or rather "ª¾Ä±". But this is *modern* Chinese. As you are speaking of  "character",  you might be searching for *one* Chinese symbol standing for your expression. That far you should tell , what you exactly want to say with it.

Bernadette, I think, red is *the* lucky colour in China. I guess, you can't be wrong with red flowers.

Welocme back. Did you have a good holiday at Alaska ?

The Chinese translation for Abel as ¨È §B is not a good translation as it has the same meaning as "uncle".

Ming, your advice to Abel was a good idea: I found a very good online-bible (Chinese-English), so I can tell Abel to go there. Cain's younger brother's name in Chinese characters is written: ¨È§B (ya4 bai3= Abel).
Abel, go there and choose chapter 4 (verses 1, 2 etc.); you can read it without any Chinese software. Be sure, that this spelling has no certain meaning in Chinese, it is just to imitate the sound of the name. The "names" Adam and Eve, on the other hand, had been translated in this text with their meaning "¨º¤H" and "¥L©d¤l" (that man and his wife).

After reading the poetry, I really very like the translated what you did it.

Let me find out the beautiful of words.

so, may I ask you a question?

I read the poetry of Ma Chih-Yuan from THE POETRY OF CHINA , PART 2. It name is The sky is so clear . I knew the most meaning in English, but I forgot the meaning of Chinese. ^_^ .....

I would check some books , but can not find out it . Than....if you can , would you please send to me the poetry in Chinese? I will very appreciate your help.

By the way, if you can read Chinese, next time I write a letter to you , I would like to use Chinese . After all, writing English letter is a little difficult to me...he!

My name is Clare Smith, may I take this opportunity to congratulate you on a brilliant Web site it was just the thing I was looking for.

Although I was wondering if you could recommend a book of some sort and where to get it from on Writing in chinese (a kind of Caligraphy book, with different symbols and the meanings). Sorry if this sounds a bit silly but I have looked everywhere (I live in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire). Its part of a personnal project I'm working on.

Thankyou for your time hope to hear from you soon.

I know little about cloisonne. However, if you click here, go to the bookstore's homepage, type in the word cloissone , then you will get a list of some ten books.

You have rightfully raised the question about using the word "zen" in place of "chan" in describing the branch of buddhism developed in China. There is no question that the correct spelling is "Chan".

I have thought about this point while writing this page, and could not find a good way to deal with the problem.

When one writes in English, one has to pay attention to the practice and usage and "fashion" of what the readers expect. Often times, corrupt forms gain so much popularity that they become the accepted forms of usage. :-(

For example, "Confucius" is the accepted English translation of the Sage's name in English, and there isn't much you can do about it. Thus, we have Confucianism - an uglier word than it is hard to find.

I believe that, for the vast majority of the poeple, the key word used by people to search on the Internet is "zen" and not "chan."

Many older books from Europe use the word "Chan." But somehow, especially in the U.S., the current usage is "zen."

IMO, the task is to publicize the contributions, and the significant development of Buddhism in China, which establishes the new branch of Buddhism commonly known in the U.S. as Zen Buddhism. Spelling of the word is of lesser importance.

I have changed the title of the Zen Buddhism to include both spellings.

Thank you, Hong, for your comments. I would welcome that you, and everyone else, to discuss the point , or to write an essay about the topic.

There is lovely story about the Turtle and the crane. The greate calligrapher Mi Fi's writing of this is in the Palace Museum.

You can see a copy of it in this page.

The collected poems are one of the most important books in Chinese classics. The Chinese title is ShiJing. The English translation is often titled "The Book of Songs."

To buy the book, click here and scroll to the book.

The Chinese words for peace is ©M ¥­ ¡C

The Chinese words for harmony is ©M ¿Ó

I enjoy your webpage very much, and am hoping you can help me. Would you know the Madarin Chinese Character/s for "peace" or "harmony?" ANy assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your time!

During the period of what historians called South and North Dynasties, the Chen Dynasties was one of the four South Dynasties. It ruled southern China between AD 557-589.

The easiest way to get some knowledge of this Dynasty is to go to a library or bookstore to buy a Chinese history book.

You may buy the book online from several bookstores.
For this book, click here and you will find the title and author. Order by clicking.

I looked up the words and put them in a gif file. Click here to see them.

There is a English-Chinese dictionary on the Internet for just this purpose. You type the English word "tiger", and get back the Chinese translation of it. Very simple!

Just go to there and find out.
Click here.

i'm working on a character that represents the word "tiger", but am having some difficulties. do you have an example gif/jpeg of such a character? any help will be greatly appreciated.

sincerely,