Chinese Calligraphy Made Easy

Fold-out front and back covers include examples of lettering.

My First Book of Chinese Calligraphy is a fun and engaging introduction to one of China's most popular arts and crafts for kids. Calligraphy—the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush—has been around for thousands of years. In this fun calligraphy for kids book, readers will follow along with Mimi, an eight year old, who takes her first steps towards learning this magical art. Dive in, and explore: The Evolution of Chinese Writing—how Chinese characters first began, thousands of years ago, and how they have evolved The Order of the Strokes—learn how to write the strokes in the correct order The Radicals—what are they, and how to unlock their secrets The Four Treasures of Calligraphy— the four essential tools to get started Movements and Position—how to master your mind's focus, your breathing and even how to move The Five Styles of Calligraphy—Zhuan Shu (seal), Li Shu (clerical), Kai Shu (regular), Cao Shu (cursive), and Xing Shu (running) The Eight Strokes— how to draw the 8 strokes; with them, you can write anything Writing a Character in Calligraphy—create an entire character in calligraphy

This highly-visual book introduces an effective new method for learning Chinese characters using visual stimuli and pictographs. Learning the necessary characters used to write even simple Chinese sentences can be a long and arduous process. Chinese Characters Made Easy makes the learning process fun and easy by presenting the 1,000 most common characters using a new mnemonic approach that associates each character with a memorable visual and verbal clue--making memorization easy. The character for person, for example, is superimposed over a sketch of a man representing "a person standing on two legs"—drawing the reader's attention to the distinctive shape of the character and associating the sketch with the character's meaning. The Chinese characters are presented in groups or clusters all sharing common elements and meanings, for context and ease of identification. These groups of characters all share common root symbols known as radicals or relate to a particular theme or topic such as colors, numbers, animals, or body parts. Pronunciations, meanings and vocabulary compounds are provided for each character in the group. Key features of Chinese Characters Made Easy include: An introduction to the history and structure of the Chinese writing system 1,000 characters and over 3,000 words for beginning learners of Chinese This Chinese character book's visual approach is a powerful learning tool. It can be used by serious students and is entertaining and useful to general readers who are curious about how the Chinese writing system works and how it developed.

Written Chinese can call upon about 40,000 characters, many of which originated some 6,000 years ago as little pictures of everyday objects used by the ancients to communicate with one another. To convey more abstract ideas or concepts, the Chinese stylized and combined their pictographs. For instance, the character for “man”—a straight back above two strong legs—becomes, with the addition of a head and shoulders and arms held sternly akimbo, the character for “official.” This book, modeled after a classic compilation of the Chinese language done in the 18th century, introduces readers to the 214 root pictographs or symbols upon which this writing system, whose rich complexities hold a wealth of cultural meaning, is based. These key characters, called radicals, are all delightfully presented in this volume, with their graphic development traced stage-by-stage to the present representation, where even now (in many of them) one can easily make out what was originally pictured—with the author’s guidance. Centuries ago, when the Japanese took up writing, they also adopted these symbols, though they gave them different names in their own spoken language.

As one of the most fascinating artistic form in the world, Chinese calligraphy has long been an area of interest to both novices and researchers. This easy-to-use guide introduces all the basic elements of the standard Chinese calligraphy script, Kaishu, with step-by-step instructions and diagrams for each of the 8 basic strokes.The purpose of this book is two-fold. On one had, it contains a short history of Chinese calligaphy and an introduction to Kaishu style, which embodies the very essense of the "Eastern arts" for those who find themselves interested in the arts of the Asian countries. On the other hand, for those who know about Chinese calligraphy and want to try their hand at it, the book, with Kaishu as a starting point, introduces the basic skills of the ancient and exquisite art of Chinese calligraphy. The rules and methods contained in the book will make the learning process easier with clear diagrams and images.

Suitable for college and high school students and those learning on their own, this fully illustrated coursebook provides comprehensive instruction in the history and practical techniques of Chinese calligraphy. No previous knowledge of the language is required to follow the text or complete the lessons. The work covers three major areas: 1) descriptions of Chinese characters and their components, including stroke types, layout patterns, and indications of sound and meaning; 2) basic brush techniques; and 3) the social, cultural, historical, and philosophical underpinnings of Chinese calligraphy—all of which are crucial to understanding and appreciating this art form. Students practice brush writing as they progress from tracing to copying to free-hand writing. Model characters are marked to indicate meaning and stroke order, and well-known model phrases are shown in various script types, allowing students to practice different calligraphic styles. Beginners will find the author’s advice on how to avoid common pitfalls in writing brush strokes invaluable. Chinese Writing and Calligraphy will be welcomed by both students and instructors in need of an accessible text on learning the fundamentals of the art of writing Chinese characters.

Chinese Mǐ Zì Gé 米字格 Notebook: Cool Black Soft Matte Cover with Classic Chinese Dragon Image and Characters 1st Page with Sayings in English, Chinese Characters and Pinyin for: "Nothing is impossible to a willing heart." 2st Page with Sayings in English, Chinese Words and Pinyin for: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Interior Page Design Layout: classic Mǐ Zì Gé - Rice Grid Style, the grid resembles Chinese character for rice, 米 mǐ. one top line for date and subject with classic Chinese quotes on each page bottom with page numbers 12 x 12 Cells Per Page 160 Pages Page Size: 8.5 x 11 inches (21.59 x 27.94 cm) A4 Paper Quality: Standard Amazon Thick White Book Paper Printing Feature: black and white, double-sided printing Perfect for : Mandarin Chinese beginners Intermediate Chinese Learner Advanced Chinese Learner Learning Chinese Pinyin, Alphabets, Letters, Characters, Words, Phrases and Sectences. Chinese Grammar Practice Chinese Vocabulary Building, Self-Study Chinese HSK (1,2,3,4,5,6) Test Preparation Confucius Institute Courses and Homework Chinese Essay Writing and Translation Exercises Chinese Handwriting and Calligraphy Practice Traditional Chinese Characters Practice (Taiwan and Hong Kong) Simplified Mandarin Chinese Characters Writing (Mainland China) Unique Cool Gifts for Loved Ones Who is learning Chinese

Reinforce your written Chinese with this practice book for the best-selling Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters. Learning Mandarin Chinese Characters helps students quickly learn the basic Chinese characters that are fundamental to the language. Intended for self-study and classroom use, this character workbook presents 178 Chinese characters and over 534 common words using these characters. These are the characters and words students need to know if they plan to take the official Chinese government HSK Level 1 Exam or the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture Exam. Each character is presented in a very simple and clear way. A step-by-step diagram shows how to write the character, and boxes are provided for freehand writing practice. The meaning and pronunciation are given along with the key vocabulary compounds and an example sentence. Review exercises reinforce the learning process and an index at the back allow you to look up the characters according to their English meanings or romanized Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation. Key features of this Chinese workbook include: Designed for HSK Level 1 and AP exam prep Learn the 178 most basic Chinese characters Example sentences and over 534 vocabulary items Step-by-step writing diagrams and practice boxes