Details

<p><b>Introduction</b><b> 1</b></p> <p>About This Book 1</p> <p>Foolish Assumptions 2</p> <p>Icons Used in This Book 2</p> <p>Where to Go from Here 2</p> <p><b>Chapter 1: Wrapping Your Mind around the Chinese Writing System</b><b> 3</b></p> <p>Appreciating the Complexities of Written Chinese 3</p> <p>How the Written Word Unifies China 4</p> <p>What? No Alphabet? 5</p> <p>Which Way Did They Go? The Direction of Characters 5</p> <p>Chinese Language Reform 6</p> <p>Traditional versus Simplified Characters 7</p> <p>Why Learn to Write Chinese? 8</p> <p>Strategies for Learning to Write Chinese Characters 8</p> <p>Set goals 9</p> <p>Write, review, rinse, repeat 9</p> <p>Cultivate your inner character whisperer 10</p> <p>Practice creative visualization 10</p> <p><b>Chapter 2: Understanding the Structure of Chinese Characters</b><b> 11</b></p> <p>Simple versus Composite Characters 11</p> <p>The Six Scripts 12</p> <p>Pictographs 13</p> <p>Simple ideographs 14</p> <p>Compound ideographs 14</p> <p>Phonetic compounds 14</p> <p>Reciprocal characters 15</p> <p>Phonetic loan characters 15</p> <p>What a Radical Idea! The Incredible Radical 15</p> <p>Why all the fuss about radicals? 16</p> <p>How to use a Chinese dictionary without an alphabet 16</p> <p>Deciphering Strokes 17</p> <p>Types of strokes 18</p> <p>Stroke order 19</p> <p><b>Chapter 3: Preparing to Write Beautifully </b><b>21</b></p> <p>From Then to Now: A Brief History of Chinese Writing 22</p> <p>Carving on bone 22</p> <p>From etchings to brush and ink 22</p> <p>Adding bronze carvings to the mix 23</p> <p>Widespread use of brush and ink 23</p> <p>Moveable type and word processing 23</p> <p>The Evolution of Chinese Script 24</p> <p>Oracle bone script 24</p> <p>Bronze inscriptions 25</p> <p>Seal script 25</p> <p>Clerical script 26</p> <p>Running script 26</p> <p>Grass script 26</p> <p>Regular script 27</p> <p>The Four Treasures of Chinese Calligraphy 27</p> <p>Writing brush 28</p> <p>Ink 29</p> <p>Rice paper 29</p> <p>Ink stone 29</p> <p>Tools and Techniques for the Modern-Day Calligrapher (or Writer) 30</p> <p><b>Chapter 4: 100 Chinese Characters</b><b> 33</b></p> <p>Appendix A: The 214 Chinese Radicals 83</p> <p>Appendix B: Compound Words to Practice 91</p> <p>Appendix C: Sentences to Practice 101</p> <p>Appendix D: Blank Grids for Extra Practice 113</p>

<p><b>Dr. Wendy Abraham</b> is an award-winning public speaker who has taught Chinese language, literature, and culture at universities throughout the U.S. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University, and pursued a PhD in Chinese literature at Stanford University. <p><b>Jing Li</b> is a language teacher and researcher at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris.

<p>Practice your way to writing <b>100 CHINESE CHARACTERS</b> with stroke-by-stroke instructions and plenty of space to practice! <p><b>Learn to write 100 common Chinese characters</b> <p>Billions of people worldwide speak Chinese—and now you can learn to write 100 characters in the world's most-spoken language! Whether you're taking a course, looking to get ahead at work, or just want to up the ante when you're communicating with Chinese-speaking family and friends, <i>Chinese Character Writing For Dummies</i> gets you up to speed fast. Speaking Chinese will take you far—and learning to write some of the most common characters will only take you farther! <p><b>Inside…</b> <ul> <li>Grasp how characters are structured</li> <li>Decipher the strokes</li> <li>Know how a Chinese dictionary works</li> <li>Explore the Six Scripts</li> <li>Make sense of phonetic compounds</li> <li>Brush up on calligraphy tools</li> <li>Discover the origins of Chinese script</li> <li>Find bonus words and phrases in the appendixes</li> </ul>

US