It seems a shame to get rid of China's character system when there's such a vast, fascinating history behind it. I actually started learning Chinese because I liked the characters. The "radical" system is nifty, adding extra meanings to a character. For example, "po" (break) includes the radical for rock: I can just see an ancient Chinese using a rock to break open a clam shell. And "jue" (decide) includes the radical for ice, suggesting the liquidity of deliberation freezing into the solidity of decision.

You know, besides the writing system, Chinese isn't tough in all respects. Its grammar system is fairly simple and straightforward. And in some ways Japanese is harder: there you put a preposition at the end of a clause instead of the beginning.

Oh, goody, another Chinese cookbook I probably need to add to the three dozen or so I currently lug around (not counting another dozen survey 'Asian', half a dozen covering various SE Asian styles, and at least a dozen on Indian cuisine).

Is it still in print of should I start checking the out-of-print sites?

My own nominee for the equivilent of "Joy of Cooking' as an indroduction to the cuisine of China is Irene Koo's 'The Key to Chinese Cooking' for it's clear expositions on ingredients and technique augmented by lovely line drawings and a complete absense of 'foodie porn' photos. I currently have a battered, burnt and spattered copy, as tends to happen to well-used cookbooks propped open near sources of heat and hot oil, as well as a pristine copy for reference.

Ni3men dou1 shi4 fei2chang1 ben4 de bai3ren2. Fei2chang1 ben4 de. Mei2 you3 yi4si!!! Who gives a flying crap unless you're a supercaucasoidal snowflake who has worked in an office way to damn long with that smug thought like "Gee, I'm so special. I'm white and I learned Chinese." Wow! Join the club, buddy. It's not chic anymore. People just learn it now because China is taking over anyway once the US turns into Haiti.

So just stay the hell away from linguistics from now on or I'll beat you with my 200-tonne tongue.

I'm sorry, that was fei1chang2, I do believe. My bad. Damn, my shameless tonal metathesis.

I can recall a history class in which the professor was writing some terms on the board, and a student interrupted him, saying something like the correct spelling is Guangzhou not Gwangjyou, or whatever; and the professor responding that no, the actual spelling is like this: [he then rather impressively drew the characters from memory].

-- Language is above all else a tool, and should be respected as such, rather than degraded as a political statement. While I sympathize with France's efforts to resist Americanisms (futile though those efforts might be), I just don't understand Taiwan's refusal to accept simplification -- despite the beauty of the old characters. Christian Europe didn't reject the so-called Arabic numerals because they arrived via Islam.

-- I just saw the movie "Three Times" (I think the true title is more like "The Best Times"), which is set entirely in Taiwan; and I realized I had never seen anyone type or text in an Asian language. But if the film's depiction of the ease and speed with which characters can be text'd is accurate, then I have no doubt Chinese writing will survive and flourish.

is out of print, but still generally available.

The Chinese language, including its rewritten form, is an intrinsic part of the culture. Many parts of the culture, for example writting instruments(which are commonly objects of lovely design), arts(specifically painting and calligraphy), and even folk traditions like riddles and idioms, are linked to the script. Whenever I hear arguments about abandoning the character script and replacing it with an alphabet based one, I always wonder what do these linguistic reformers propose to replace all the connected parts in the Chinese culture.

I am watching all those ultra-cheesy variety shows they still put on television on the holidays. I'm in Suzhou.

This was a cool...and off-the-wall...post. Don't think many people will be interested in it. I'm not very interested in it, but that is because I only know pinyin. I can't read much Chinese...speaking is most important to me. I'm just not a scholar like you.

I have never heard of anyone talking about replacing Chinese characters and the idea sounds pretty far-out. Sort of like Benjamin Franklin discussing scrapping English for Classical Greek...its just not going to fly. I don’t know why you say it stifles creativity and promotes illiteracy though. I failed Spanish in high-school – too much conjugation – and I find Chinese to be very easy. Again…I said I don’t really read much…I have difficulty reading every character in my son’s “Winnie the Pooh” book. But many peasants can read at least a little. Whereas if you are illiterate in a non-symbolic character language (English), then you really can’t read anything (I think…I’m not an expert or scholar as I have said). It may be difficult to teach Chinese to adults, but Chinese children pick up reading quickly. Chinese definitely read faster than Westerners too. As for creativity… I can’t see how someone can make the claim that Chinese writing influences that. There are so many other factors.

BTW, as you are talking about a place in Mainland China, you should have said he got that Red Umbrella from XIAMEN University.

I snagged the last copy Powells.com had in stock. A bargain at $12.50 in decent condition.

There's a web site with a sampling of recipes, too.

There's a slender little volume, probably also out of print, which I think is truly essential to understanding the underpinning of Chinese cuisine: 'Chinese Gastronomy' - Hsiang Ju Lin & Tsuifeng Lin [ISBN 0-15-617095] my first soft cover edition is 1977, which gives you some indication how long my obsession with this most remarkable of all the world's cuisines has been in force. It's not strictly speaking a cook book but there are excellent recipes illustrationg the concepts discussed.