Questions about the identification of Chinese characters, especially characters seen in photos and other visual materials.
4
votes
1answer
75 views
What are the characters on this seal?
What are the characters on this seal?
Flipped image for easier reading:
1
vote
2answers
156 views
Can someone translate this Chinese calligraphy into English?
This was written by a relative of mine, Ahn Jung-Geun
4
votes
1answer
140 views
What is this character? How to identify it?
Came across this etching in a ABAC pattern as the A:
The more complicated ones were easier to identify, but this one is kind of tricky.
One guess was that it was the character for 今, but that doesn'...
1
vote
1answer
52 views
Translate the characters in this sign
I have tried to find the characters in this sign in order to translate them but with no luck for the 2nd character.
This restaurant's French name is "Le bonheur" which in English is roughly "...
1
vote
1answer
37 views
Does this box in the movie 妖猫传 (Legend of the Demon Cat) say 鳳栖樓 on its lid and 私人必死 inside, and what do they mean?
I'm watching the movie 妖猫传 (yāomāo zhuàn) = Legend of the Demon Cat. About 10 minutes into the movie, a man secretly enters a room named 御宬 (yùchéng) = "imperial storage" (I think) and searches for a ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
untranslated characters and their meaning
I recently seen a movie where this appeared and unfortunately this was the only part that wasnt translated. could anyone tell me what does it say? ty
1
vote
1answer
134 views
Can I translate “still alive” as 还活着?
if I have to translate "still alive" can I write it like this 还活着 or are there better ways to say it? I have to use it as a title of a poem, so it doesn't have a context or a phrase where it should ...
4
votes
2answers
196 views
Help please me find out what this means
I’m looking to find out what this means. Please help was handed down to me from my family
2
votes
4answers
260 views
What does this seal stamp on Chinese painting mean?
Is this seal the name of an artist or poet? How can I find him?
[![enter image description here][1]][1]
Is this translation okay?
[![enter image description here][3]][3]
Thank you for every answer....
1
vote
1answer
147 views
What are these characters on old brass stamps?
These brass stamps were found by a relative in China ~1917.
I'm wondering what the inscriptions mean.
The smaller one in the likeness of an elephant is worn and discolored.
0
votes
1answer
81 views
What character can “□” [fei3] meaning 呕吐 be?
I've got this entry from 《广安方言与民俗词典》which goes as follows:
□
fei3
指呕吐。例：他中午吃醉酒了，fei3了一地。
□ is as Wiktionary states:
Used as a placeholder for an unknown hanzi.
There's a good chance ...
4
votes
3answers
219 views
Is there any evidence that 90% of characters are phono-semantic compounds?
I've heard this claim a lot, from Chinese teachers in real life, and on this Wikipedia page, where the claim "At present, more than 90% of Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds" lacks a ...
0
votes
1answer
115 views
Can you please help me translate this title and signature?
I am trying to translate this signature from a watercolor painting I bought many years ago at a thrift store. I've tried google translate along with searching Asian artist seals, but no luck.
1
vote
1answer
97 views
What is the variant bā character for 巴掌?
I'm working through the entry for 耳巴 in《四川方言词语续考》and I don't have my paper copy around.
The problem is I only have my crappy OCR'd digital version which is giving me �� where a proper character ...
6
votes
3answers
959 views
Only two characters but I have no idea what they signify
I was given a pair of gold cufflinks by my grandfather who was in Shanghai 100 years ago. Each shows a Chinese character (Mandarin, I guess) and I would like to know what these mean. However I have ...
3
votes
2answers
233 views
What's this character that looks like 七 with a ～ in the middle? And what's its history?
Having a hard time figuring out what this guy is:
The equivalent Wikisource page for the material I'm working with says that it is:
甚
Perhaps it is
Which zisea says it is:
同【甚】字。
If it is 七 +...
1
vote
3answers
149 views
How can I search for a Chinese character when I see it on a picture?
Like, when I see a Chinese character in this picture:
What is the best way to find more information about this character (unlike English, there're only 26 letters, and I can type them and google. ...
1
vote
1answer
79 views
Three Chinese characters (?) on the entrance of the History Museum of Ho Chi Minh city
Since visiting the museum, I've been very curious about these three characters (shown below). I've unsuccessfully tried to search it on the Internet. Their pretty calligraphic style is one of the ...
0
votes
1answer
62 views
Can you help identify the artist for these Taizong horse rubbings?
Can you help identify the artist? The art was framed back in 1952 by the Jean Bohem Gallery in New York City. These are on scroll paper which is attached to something (cloth/ linen?) Beautiful ...
0
votes
2answers
47 views
Please help to identify the character [duplicate]
My hobby is to collect the wind chimes and the one I have recently bought had a pretty complex character on its pendant. I've tried to look it up by the radical 辵/辶, but to no avail.
At first I ...
3
votes
2answers
475 views
Are these chinese characters understandable?
I am designing a logo for my company, starting from a chinese word (which i am not mentioning not to influence you, i am including it below in a spoiler).
I simplified the ideograms a lot and I ...
1
vote
2answers
203 views
Character difference between 'buy' and 'sell'
The characters for 'buy' and 'sell', seem to have a subtle difference in the character.
買/买 (buy)
賣/卖 (sell)
I want to know, what's the significance of the radial on top of the sell? How does ...
0
votes
1answer
59 views
What does the 3rd symbol on this sword label mean?
I have an century+ old sword which has this label:
A Chinese friend at work said she understood 光雲一刀 = "Light cloud [something] sword" but she couldn't figure out the third character, some kind of ...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
Word translation
Can someone please help me identify these chinese or japanese characters and what they translate in english?
If you could please answer in such a way to clearly distinguish between the large word and ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
What are these characters from this chopsticks packaging?
What are the characters shown in the following chopsticks packaging?
I've no idea what the first character is and the Chinese speakers at the restaurant at which I was given this package couldn't ...
0
votes
1answer
110 views
What is this handwritten character?
I'm trying to identify the first character in this image:
If it helps, the pronunciation is meant to be "pong" (the whole phrase is Cantonese "pong hau kei"). I've tried looking through some Jyutping ...
0
votes
2answers
121 views
Can someone translate me this to english?
I have an image that is something wrote in chinese I think. Can someone translate it please? Thank you.
0
votes
1answer
51 views
ID the Artists signature
I have two watercolours (Birds & flowers blossom) but have not been able to find anything regarding who painted them.
-1
votes
2answers
190 views
0
votes
2answers
206 views
Has Unicode included these Classical Chinese characters?
I've found these characters in an old dictionary about Classical Chinese / Sino-Vietnamese / Vietnamese. Although they can be analyzed pictorially (I don't know better words), I personally can't find ...
0
votes
1answer
57 views
Which is correct when referring to stroke count: 畫 or 劃?
In the context of the audio on the page at http://stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw/characterQueryResult.do?word=%E7%95%AB which reads out 共十二畫/劃, which is more correct when referring to stroke ...
10
votes
4answers
6k views
How to look up seal script characters?
When we know a modern Hanzi, finding its seal script equivalent in a dictionary is not a problem. However, a more common case is that we have an existing seal script character we cannot identify, and ...
3
votes
2answers
141 views
What is the name of the university in this seal?
I was able to read the second half (大學圖書), but not the actual name of the university.
The image is cropped from a book posted here.
0
votes
1answer
71 views
What are the characters in the image?
I need to find the actual text characters in this image.
I tried an online OCR and this is what I got.
万正嬴体简体
万正赢体简体
万正搔体简体
万正粗们简体
MS P二儡彭、y′又
1
vote
2answers
193 views
What does this mean in English, very few words (Screenshot inside)?
What does this mean in English if you translate it? And what does this mean in pinyin, please tell me its very important!
3
votes
1answer
127 views
How to determine if character can be used separetely?
This question might be weird, but I haven't been able to find an answer to this.
Some characters seem to be used only in combination with other characters. For instance, I believe 儿 cannot be used ...
2
votes
2answers
87 views
What does the following phrase mean: 故虽有珉之雕雕,不若玉之章章——《荀子》
The character 珉 from the original phrase is said to mean "an apple of Sodom"...is that true? If so, what does that even mean? I though the character 珉 meant a jade-like stone as it has the particle ...
0
votes
3answers
246 views
Help me identify this Chinese word?
I was in Shanghai on a business trip several weeks ago. One evening, while my coworker and I were walking down Nanjing Road on the way back to our hotel, we were accosted my many ladies of the night ...
-1
votes
1answer
132 views
Cannot find Japanese kanji in Chinese dictionary
I do not have any historical dictionaries installed (yet) in Pleco. I am trying to look up a character I found in the handle of a contributor on the Japanese SE, but could not find it in Pleco.
Don't ...
0
votes
1answer
74 views
Character Identification [closed]
What do the following characters say in english.
Forgive me but I can't put them into google translate because it is an image.
0
votes
1answer
328 views
Phrase said thirty seconds to mars from yesterday
What phrase is said at the beginning of this music video?
There are no subtitles https://youtu.be/RpG7FzXrNSs?t=41s and here
https://youtu.be/RpG7FzXrNSs?t=49s
It sounds like he says mi shong ying ...
1
vote
1answer
99 views
Meaning of 嫑 and its middle radical
The entire character 嫑 seems to be pronounced or translated to "bao". What does this character 嫑 mean?
Specifically, I'd really like to know the meaning of the middle symbol on its own as well. The ...
1
vote
1answer
75 views
Is this a rare/variant character, or not really a Chinese character?
This character is on the label of a riceball sold at 7-11 in Taipei. I believe this kind of riceball is originally Japanese.
It seems to be some kind of variant of 糰 / 团 but is actually composed of 米 ...
1
vote
1answer
73 views
What is the third character on this sign seen in Taipei?
I saw this sign in Taipei. What is the third character?
The sign says "不夠_車" - "Not enough ? (vehicle)"
Is it the character 丩, in which case what does it mean?
Is it a bopomofo character? - I found ...
1
vote
2answers
111 views
Translation of “繟”
In a version of the Dao De Jing that I found on Gutenberg.org, this character appears: 繟. I've done multiple searches of the web and of several dictionaries online, but wasn't able to find a ...
1
vote
2answers
88 views
The character 双 in the dish name 炒双冬。
How did the character 双 in the dish name 炒双冬 come to mean "bamboo shoots"? Isn't 双 just a character meaning "pair"? Also, why 冬(winter)?
0
votes
2answers
159 views
沒地X, what is the third character?
I was watching a TV show, and some of the dialogue is giving me trouble.
The father is teasing his son's love intrest (the pictured girl). At least I think that's what's happening. They as her if she ...
1
vote
3answers
201 views
Why are there four ways of writing 黄?
My keyboard does not allow me to input them all but I have found four (similar) ways in total of writing the Chinese character for yellow (黄). Why is this and how have these four forms come to differ?
1
vote
2answers
257 views
Are the characters for sleep and feel the same?
I am learning Simplified Mandarin using Memrise. I just learned the character 觉, to feel. However, I'm pretty sure I learned earlier that 觉 meant to sleep. Is there a difference between the characters?...
0
votes
1answer
118 views
Stamped Chinese characters on a banknote [closed]
I cannot translate, it would be great if you guys could. It's a stamp on a Hong Kong banknote from 1941.
