The history tag has no wiki summary.
12
votes
7answers
4k views
Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?
For those who speak both Chinese and Japanese, would first learning Chinese make it easier to learn Japanese?
Knowing that Japanese Kanji are derived from Chinese characters, how hard is it to do the ...
10
votes
6answers
1k views
Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?
I often see people having a big focus on correct stroke order for writing Chinese characters.
My question is, for most learners, is it important to know the stroke order, and if so, why is it ...
8
votes
1answer
154 views
Geopolitical History of Simplified Chinese
I've always been fascinated about the etymology of languages and believe that we are seeing a significant series of changes within chinese.
There are some fairly good technical references for the ...
6
votes
5answers
483 views
How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?
Before schools started to use pinyin for teaching characters to Chinese children, how and/or what was used to teach it instead? And what about how dictionaries showed the pronunciation of characters?
6
votes
3answers
255 views
Why does Chinese lack some level of abstraction in some idioms? (e.g. 兄弟姐妹)
Example: in Chinese, you can't * speak of siblings in a general term, and in turn you have to enumerate all 4 combinations of sex and age: 兄弟姐妹 ( older brother, younger brother, older sister, younger ...
6
votes
3answers
314 views
Dog radical (犭) for non-Han ethnic groups
As far as I understand, the dog radical (犭) was used for all non-Han ethnic groups before the Chinese Communist Party took power on the mainland. Is there truth to that? If so:
Why did the CCP stop ...
6
votes
1answer
113 views
When was punctuation introduced into Chinese?
Have have seen some old Chinese books. The words flowed from top to bottom on the page and there was no punctuation.
How did readers know when the sentences began and ended?
Were any older forms of ...
4
votes
3answers
291 views
What does it say on the stamp?
I was requested by a friend to find out what this stamp is. Do you know what it says on the stamp?
3
votes
4answers
234 views
Did phonological systems (namely bopomofo) standardize Chinese phonemes?
As far as I know, Zhuyin fuhao, or Bopomofo, is the first system of phonetic symbols devised to aid to write Chinese phonology.
That was in 1910, so we could say very recent in the history of Chinese.
...
1
vote
6answers
620 views
What is 德国 and naming history in China?
Here is what I think and how it is named: In Google translate it says it means "virtue country".
My guess is probably wrong but here it is:
China is an alliy of America, and America boosted up the ...
1
vote
2answers
87 views
What is the significance of the phrase “二十五，糊窗户”？
The phrase “糊窗户” refers to the practice of pasting paper cutouts (similar to the one seen here) on one's windows. There's a common larger saying, “二十五，糊窗户”, which I assume means that this is usually ...
0
votes
1answer
118 views
询问奸雄所见略同的由来 and how does it relate to chinese
The quote"我很想询问奸雄所见略同的由来" seems very interesting to me. And in Google Translate, it translates to "I would like to ask the king's men great minds think alike the origin of." It doesn't seem to make ...
