The Beauty of Chinese Characters
Memes on how Chinese characters build upon each other to produce new characters with interesting meanings.
Folksonomies: chinese characters mandarin chinese
Memes
The Power of the Chinese Ideogram
As everyone knows, the Chinese do not have letters, as we do, but symbols for whole words. This has, of course, many inconveniences: it means that, in learning to write, there are an immense number of different signs to be learnt, not only 26 as with us; that there is no such thing as alphabetical order, so that dictionaries, files, catalogues, etc., are difficult to arrange and linotype is impossible; that foreign words, such as proper names and scientific terms, cannot be written down by so...
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Phonetic alphabets change over time as the sounds of the language drift, by decoupling the sounds of the language from the alphabet, the Chinese have produced a written language that can survive thousands of years.
回饋
The Chinese characters here are 回饋 (made out of black and white sesame seeds). You should recognize 回 if you have been following me on Facebook.回 means return. 饋 means ‘offering food to someone’ or ‘gift’. It is made out of 食 and 貴. 食 means ‘to eat’ or ‘food’. 貴 means something precious or expensive. 回 (return) 饋 (gift)= 回饋 (to give back)回饋 is normally used to express someone returning something good to the society. In this case, I am trying to ...Returning good to society.
加油 as a Term of Encouragement
The Chinese characters say 加油 (Jia1 you2).加 is composed of 力 (power) and 口 (mouth). It means 'to add'油 is made out of 水 (氵, water) and 由(from/ due). It means oil.加（to add） 油（oil）= add oil or make an extra effort
加油 is a terribly common phrase in day to day life. If you want to encourage someone to carry on great work, or in a sports competition, you say 加油! A bit like 'go on!' in English.
Of course another literal meaning of 加油 is to refuel.ShaoLan explains how the symbols break down.
Chinese Character for Star
生 - to be born
日 - Sun
星 = 日 生
水星 - Mercury (Water Star)
金星 - Venus (Gold Star)
火星 - Mars (Fire Star)
木星 - Jupiter (Wood Star)
土星 - Saturn (Earth Star)
海王星 - Neptune (Sea King Star)
天王星 - Uranus (King Star)
冥王星 - Pluto (Deep King Star)
厄里斯 - Eris (Adversity ?????)
notesChinese character for star is "sun to be born" indicating a more sophisticated understanding of astronomy than the West.
Mandarin Character for Electricity
电 is used in many words relating to modern, electrically-powered things. For example, 电影 (electricity - shadow) means "film", 电视 (electricity - to look at) means "TV", and 电脑 (electricity - brain) means "computer". notesDescribes interesting interactions with people in how the word is used in "film," "television," and "computer."
Chinese Perception of the Past and Future
下 can be used to refer to the future, for example 下周 (below week) means "next week". It is as though the past is seen as being above us and the future below. notesInstead of behind and before us, the future is below and the past is above us (verify this).
Is a combinations of the characters for "child" and "palace."
"Word" plus "to get lost"; thus, a riddle is words that you become lost within. The word "to get lost" is also interesting, a combination of "path" and "rice", which reminds us of leaving breadcrumbs to find our way back.
Is to divine by the dagger-axe (an ancient weapon).
The Chinese Civilization is "Wholly Other"
But Chinese civilization has the overpowering beauty of the wholly other, and only the wholly other can inspire the deepest love and the profoundest desire to learn. Which prompts us to want to explore it.
Chinese term for when two people are playing a video game and one kills the other before they even have the chance to act. Also can refer to people snapping up a good deal at the store, leaving others with not-so-good deals.
Mandarin for "USA" is "Beautiful" plus "Kingdom"
美(beautiful) plus 国(kingdom) = 美国 notesPerhaps they were referring to our expansive open spaces and national parks.
Scientifically accurate whether it was intended or not.
Mandarin Character for "Spicy" is "Suffering" "Bundle"
辛 plus 束 = 辣 notesSo foods that are spicy are a bundle of suffering.
The world for World Wide Web in Chinese is literally translated "10,000-dimensional net (or web)".
References
The Problem of China
Chineasy Project Update
The Grand Titration
