Learn to Write Chinese Characters

by Johan Björksten

Book Overview

Chinese characters are one of the most fascinating aspects of the language and occupy a prominent place in Chinese culture. Good handwriting is also very important in learning Chinese: the strokes... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300057717
• ISBN13: 9780300057713
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 123 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful for Learning to Write Chinese

This book is wonderful! It contains useful beginning lessons on writing materials, stroke names with information of writing them (showing examples of common mistakes), and stroke order. It then gives advice on the best ways to practice, and it even has a poem to study at the end of the book. The catalog of characters is wonderful by showing the stroke order in both traditional and simplified forms, with pinyin (with a guide at the end on pronunciation).This book is a "must have" for anyone beginning to learn to write Chinese characters.

Start with this book.

This book teaches the principles of sound and beautiful writing - the names of the strokes, the order in which they are written, aesthetic principles, and the common radicals. Then it provides a famous poem to practice with, and a list of a hundred common characters, sorted by frequency of usage. When the simplified character differs from the traditional, both are given. Transliterations are in pin-yin. This is far and away the best book I've found for learning to write the characters. I regretted the transition away from this book to other resources, principally because other resources usually use the printed form that ignores the aesthetic principles and turns beauty into ugliness. That sounds harsh, doesn't it? But it's true! If you're going to learn to write, start with this book, so you won't have to go back later to correct bad habits.

A book perfect in its kind

This book should be at the head of everyone's list, since it is devoted to a skill which almost all sinologists neglect, whether professional or amateur, and yet is one that is the source of enormous pleasure and gratification - the ability to form Chinese Characters (Jpn. kanji) well. It is a short manual of just 122 pages which, after a brief account of the history and structure of characters, some instruction on how to look them up in a dictionary, and a little about their aesthetics, goes on to teach the user all of the main strokes by using the radicals as models. The book ends with a short list of suggested readings, and a brief guide to Chinese pronunciation. Unlike most other manuals of Chinese Calligraphy, which teach the student how to write with the traditional brush, this teaches the art of writing with a pen, and the models Bjorksten provides for copying, unlike those in many other manuals written for Westerners, are excellent. A book perfect in its kind, and not to be missed.

Excellent for the first time caligrapher

I skimmed this book then had the good fortune to take a lesson in Chinese caligraphy from a native artist and caligrapher. This book followed exactly the master's method and guidelines. Mr. Bjorksten has written a very clear explanation about the construction of Chinese characters with easy to follow guidelines on how to do Chinese caligraphy.