The character of characters

The Chinese written language, which uses graphs instead of an alphabet, is a perennial source of fascination, but also frustration. Here are two books that minimize the frustration and invite English-speaking children (and their adult hangers-on) into that language.


Christoph Niemann's The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters reminds me of PBS' "Wordworld" program. Niemann selects Chinese characters with strong pictographic qualities and then merges the characters with the illustration. Thus, the two bold strokes of 人 overlap the image of the book's heroine, Lin, providing the reader with a visual association for the Chinese word for "person." Lin and her pet dragon take the reader through a world populated by similar character-image associations. Some work easily. For example, 木，林，森 represent the environment made of tree, woods, and forest in which Lin and the dragon play. Others are a stretch, like 長 as a hand touching the forehead in a gesture of seeing far into the distance to the Great Wall.


Niemann doesn't pretend to teach Chinese. (The book avoids pronunciation, for example.) Rather, his aim, as expressed in his "Dear Reader" letter, is to inspire us and our kids to take a class and learn Chinese. His story may at times seem constrained, but his clear, graphic illustrations do make the learning easy and fun.


If you enjoyed The Pet Dragon, and want another book to take you a bit further, try Peggy Goldstein's Lóng is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children. Again, there is the ubiquitous dragon promising excitement, power, and auspiciousness, but Goldstein's book does not unfold as a story. It is, instead, instructional, and in a mere 30 pages, she covers enormous historical, cultural, and linguistic ground. Here, we see in more detail the evolution of select characters from more pictorial, archaic forms to standard, modern ones. She discusses strokes and provides stroke order for writing characters ourselves. Then, she adds pronunciation (using the pinyin Romanization system). She loses no time and begins building on these basics showing us how characters may be combined to form new ones. Place an ear 耳 near a door 門, and you get 聞, which means "to listen." Or, juxtapose fire 火 with mountain 山 to form the compound word for volcano 火山. By the book's end, Goldstein has us writing (and translating) a sentence, and appreciating the auspicious, four-character phrases that typically adorn Chinese homes, restaurants, and commercial establishments. She concludes by bidding congratulations 恭喜 to her readers for their progress in learning Chinese. Goldstein should be congratulated, too, for her fine instruction.


Christoph Niemann
The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters
Green Willow Books, 2008

Peggy Goldstein

Lóng is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children

China Books & Periodicals, Inc., 1991