Making Chinese easier by dissecting its pictographic roots

Throughout Asian history, Jade has been more prized than silver and gold both monetarily and spiritually. The building block for Jade (玉)is comprised of a bottom stroke representing Earth, a top stroke representing Heaven and a middle stroke representing Heaven’s essence on Earth.[Photo/chineasy.org]

Chineasy's website and facebook page go into great detail on the origin of each character, but not everyone can be authenticated, the character for "idiot" being a prime example. "I simply could not find why a ‘mouth' on top of a ‘tree' means ‘idiot'," Shao Lan said.

A new way to learn Chinese goes back to pictographic roots

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When this happens, Chineasy offers lighthearted explanations that are obviously jokes — a talking tree sounds very idiotic, or if you open your mouth wide to try and swallow a tree, that looks very idiotic.

Character origins also betray cultural heritage. The character for "woman" traditionally is the outline of a figure kneeling on the floor, showing subservience. "I am very frustrated by the origin of this character," she said.

Put two "woman" characters together and it means "argument". "By Chinese tradition, even nowadays, a lot of families have three or four generations living under the same roof. And because only sons are important, daughters are not, every family wants to preserve their lineage and the mother-in-law will always consider the daughter-in-law someone who wants to steal their children away from them. So inevitably there's always a little conflict in the family."

She insists that the language barrier is "overrated".

"How many languages are there in the world whose ancient forms are similar to their modern forms?" Shao Lan asks. Chinese seems to be the only one, not counting Greek and Sanskrit, of course.

"Why can it last for such a long time and why can 1.3 billion people learn it and the rest of the world can't? I don't believe it." Any language with that kind of legs and staying power "has to be so easy that it can be carried on and used and modified", she argued.

Utility is not the immediate goal of Chineasy. "I'm trying to put something together that is literature, culture, social, history, art. I'm not here to serve the purpose of like Sesame Street or Rosetta Stone."