Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival (春节; pinyin: Chūn Jié), is the most important Chinese holiday. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring, the festival is the longest holiday of the year. Festivities can go on for as long as sixteen days, and the first seven days are public…
The traditional Chinese culture is very family oriented with an individual’s family being of the utmost importance. The character for family or home is 家 pinyin: jiā. The construction of this character is quite interesting. Over the top of the character is a roof. The rest of the character is 豕 pinyin:shǐ which is a…
Chinese Pinyin English 我不明白 Wǒ bù míngbái I don’t understand. From the title of this blog you may wonder whether this blog is about understanding the Chinese language or understanding the Chinese people. In English the word Chinese could refer to either. It is unclear. 不清楚 (Bù qīng chǔ). Actually, to really understand the people…
Considering getting a Chinese tattoo? 小心 – xiǎo xīn – Be careful Written Chinese can be quite beautiful. In fact, Chinese calligraphy is one of the four great arts that were required anciently of accomplished Chinese scholar-gentlemen. Usually spoken of together they are: 琴棋書畫 – qín qí shū huà Chinese Pinyin Meaning 琴 qín qín…
Fall and Winter means that a lot of big holidays are coming up in Western countries, and in this global day and age, a lot of those holidays are also celebrated in Chinese-speaking countries now as well. The first big holiday coming up in November is Thanksgiving. You may be wondering, why is there a…
One of the hardest things for non-native Chinese speakers is learning to read, not only because of the need to memorize characters, but because of the differences between spoken and written Chinese. There are only two written forms, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Both are character-based writing. While there is a whole lot we could…
The following is a guest post from eChineselearning Quintessential Customs of Double Ninth Festival 重阳节 (chóng yáng jié) The date of “重阳节 (chóng yáng jié)” is September 9th of the Lunar Calendar, and in English which it is called the Double Ninth Festival. As shown in previous articles, Tomb-sweeping day, New Year’s Eve, Zhongyuan Festival…
One of the lesser-known (to foreigners) Chinese holidays is the Double Ninth or Chung Yeung Festival (重陽節). The Double Ninth Festival takes place every year on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. In 2020 that will be October 25th. Although it is a popular holiday celebrated in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan,…
One of the best ways to improve your Chinese is through watching TV shows. If you have a Netflix subscription you’re in luck because there are a lot of Chinese TV Shows on Netflix. There are both Netflix originals and shows that Netflix has purchased the rights for. This list is up to date as…
Do you find it difficult to order food in China? Have you ever had to eat very spicy food just because you didn’t know how to express the level of spice you wanted? Let’s learn how to order food in Chinese. In this lesson, we learn how to call for the waiter, specify the level…
