As a Chinese native who’s trying to learn English on my own, I stumble upon this fascinating article about Chinese. It’s really a shame of me never doubt the etymology of the Chinese character 家, which I always thought comes from a pig under roof.
I totally agree that early using of pinyin may have a bad effect on children’s reading skill. So when teaching Chinese to my children I prefer reading the character and displaying the stroke of character to them.
Thanks for this heuristic article.
BTW, there is a mistake about your handwriting in the photo at the bottom of the article. The character 顽 and 损 both have a component of 贝, but you writes 见.
Meanwhile, many thanks for such an enlightening and inspiring essay.
Perhaps we should say that for centuries the effort strenuously made to try to get the meaning (or the signified, to use a jargon in general linguistics) out of a Chinese character in most cases has proved useless, or unfortunately more than useless, namely, misleading.
As I argue in my forthcoming essay on Chinese, in Chinese (to be published by 《人文中国》,
Thanks for the flattering comment! And thank you for pointing out those typos! Very embarassing. I will fix them right away. And 人文中国 looks interesting!
What a great musing on 汉子， pigs, children and home, and the impact of technology on learning. Many studies regarding reading and writing in English have also shown that handwriting is important for remembering the stuff you are writing down. I've had people tell me they have forgotten how to write certain more complicated 汉子 because they never handwrite any more, just text. That's so interesting about the neurostudy about reading and writing. Now, back to shuffling my bamboo slips with my yarrow sticks. 😀
Don't know where else to put this to let the author know: Canceling all my Substack subscriptions including this one due to Substack's policy to support Nazis. Nazis need to be punched not coddled. Recommend authors leave Substack.
I wonder if there is any analogue in the decline of script. I’m always still surprised by, e.g., hand “written” thank you notes from (polite!) teenage relatives that are in block letters and not cursive. The latter is simply no longer taught in the age pf the keyboard.
Thanks for posting this fascinating piece, Andrew. It's true — my Chinese friends tell me they feel like they are losing the ability to write Chinese characters — because nowadays they never do.
A quick aside: How many native speakers of English are aware that the word home comes from the Old English /ham/, Proto-Germanic /*haimaz/, old Norse /heimr/ and thence from Proto-IndoEuropean (PIE) /*(t)koimo-/? Or that its meaning in English and other closely related Germanic languages is not fully captured by any single word in most other Indo-European languages, not to mention closest equivalents in Chinese or other non-Western tongues?
How many speakers of English and other languages employing our alphabet would be aware that the letter “D”/“d”, corresponding to the Phoenician and Hebrew /daleth/ and Greek delta /Δ/, Is thought to have originally been based on an early Pictograph, possibly Egyptian, which indicated the folding door (made from a skin or fabric) of a tent, yurt or ger.
As English speakers, all of us use words without much concern for their etymology or derivation, nor are we much concerned as writers with the origins of the graphemes (letters) representing phonetic elements of our languages.
When I was first studying Chinese (many years ago), I was entranced by the story that the character for “East” (東). /dong1) represented an image of the sun caught in the branches of a tree, as it might appear when rising in the east.
Later, of course, I came to understand that Chinese speakers do not think of stories like this one, whether true or apocryphal, nor the image of a pig under a roof) when reading or writing the words 東 or 家, no more than we would be distracted by thoughts about the derivation of our letters or the etymology of the words we use when we think, say, hear or read the words “east” or “home”.
As a Chinese native who’s trying to learn English on my own, I stumble upon this fascinating article about Chinese. It’s really a shame of me never doubt the etymology of the Chinese character 家, which I always thought comes from a pig under roof.
I totally agree that early using of pinyin may have a bad effect on children’s reading skill. So when teaching Chinese to my children I prefer reading the character and displaying the stroke of character to them.
Thanks for this heuristic article.
BTW, there is a mistake about your handwriting in the photo at the bottom of the article. The character 顽 and 损 both have a component of 贝, but you writes 见.
：）
Haha. 不好意思. Thank you for reading!
…More than any other tool, is has helped me to engage with Chinese culture…
Typo—“is” should be it.
the t first line of Laozi’s Daodejing
The t above should not be there, apparently.
Meanwhile, many thanks for such an enlightening and inspiring essay.
Perhaps we should say that for centuries the effort strenuously made to try to get the meaning (or the signified, to use a jargon in general linguistics) out of a Chinese character in most cases has proved useless, or unfortunately more than useless, namely, misleading.
As I argue in my forthcoming essay on Chinese, in Chinese (to be published by 《人文中国》,
…上文说“即使说‘马’（馬）字在一开始还勉强可以说是一种象形文字”，这里所谓的“还勉强可以说”是暗示一个可以通过简单的科学试验验证的事实，这就是，写出“馬”字给一个完全不懂汉语的英国人，尼日利亚人，印尼人，阿根廷人看，问他们这个字能让他们想到什么。这里的明显的大概率是，他们十之八九不一定想到这个字是代表什么动物；即使是其中十个人当中有一两个人由“馬”字想到了四脚兽，大概率也是十之八九想不到马，而是想到羚羊，山羊，豺狗，郊狼，骡子，驴子...。由此可知，最接近象形文字的汉字“馬”字的表意性实际上也是一种查无实据的臆想。
Thanks for the flattering comment! And thank you for pointing out those typos! Very embarassing. I will fix them right away. And 人文中国 looks interesting!
What a great musing on 汉子， pigs, children and home, and the impact of technology on learning. Many studies regarding reading and writing in English have also shown that handwriting is important for remembering the stuff you are writing down. I've had people tell me they have forgotten how to write certain more complicated 汉子 because they never handwrite any more, just text. That's so interesting about the neurostudy about reading and writing. Now, back to shuffling my bamboo slips with my yarrow sticks. 😀
Don't know where else to put this to let the author know: Canceling all my Substack subscriptions including this one due to Substack's policy to support Nazis. Nazis need to be punched not coddled. Recommend authors leave Substack.
I wonder if there is any analogue in the decline of script. I’m always still surprised by, e.g., hand “written” thank you notes from (polite!) teenage relatives that are in block letters and not cursive. The latter is simply no longer taught in the age pf the keyboard.
I think there are some similarities. But our ability to use the alphabet seems to still be intact!
Thanks for posting this fascinating piece, Andrew. It's true — my Chinese friends tell me they feel like they are losing the ability to write Chinese characters — because nowadays they never do.
A quick aside: How many native speakers of English are aware that the word home comes from the Old English /ham/, Proto-Germanic /*haimaz/, old Norse /heimr/ and thence from Proto-IndoEuropean (PIE) /*(t)koimo-/? Or that its meaning in English and other closely related Germanic languages is not fully captured by any single word in most other Indo-European languages, not to mention closest equivalents in Chinese or other non-Western tongues?
How many speakers of English and other languages employing our alphabet would be aware that the letter “D”/“d”, corresponding to the Phoenician and Hebrew /daleth/ and Greek delta /Δ/, Is thought to have originally been based on an early Pictograph, possibly Egyptian, which indicated the folding door (made from a skin or fabric) of a tent, yurt or ger.
As English speakers, all of us use words without much concern for their etymology or derivation, nor are we much concerned as writers with the origins of the graphemes (letters) representing phonetic elements of our languages.
When I was first studying Chinese (many years ago), I was entranced by the story that the character for “East” (東). /dong1) represented an image of the sun caught in the branches of a tree, as it might appear when rising in the east.
Later, of course, I came to understand that Chinese speakers do not think of stories like this one, whether true or apocryphal, nor the image of a pig under a roof) when reading or writing the words 東 or 家, no more than we would be distracted by thoughts about the derivation of our letters or the etymology of the words we use when we think, say, hear or read the words “east” or “home”.
It's fun though.
Oh wow… I love that reverse mirror recontextualization. And yes, it is fun!
This is a fantastic dive. (You are right about your Chinese handwriting, though.) — KK
Ha. Last night’s martini didn’t help.