Reading and Writing Chinese

For more than three decades, students and teachers of Chinese have used this guide as a standard. Why? Because via cleverly condensed grids, it places at your fingertips the essential 1,725 characters' up-to-date definitions, derivations, pronunciations, and examples of correct usage. These characters are the ones officially prescribed by the Chinese government for the internationally recognized test of proficiency in Chinese, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). Key features of this newly-expanded edition include: More mnemonic phrases and etymologies to help you remember the characters. Completely updated/expanded English definitions. Updated and revised compounds, plus 25% more vocabulary now offered. Coded to assist those who are preparing for the AP exam or the HSK exam. Traditional characters (still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) are also included, making this a complete reference. Convenient quick-reference tables of radicals are included too, along with an extensive introduction, alphabetical index, and index according to stroke count and stroke order. Reading & Writing Chinesefocuses on the simplified characters now universally used in mainland China and Singapore. Traditional characters (still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) are also included, making this a complete reference.

Jiageng Fan specializes in the linguistic relationship between the Chinese and Japanese languages and scripts, focusing on the etymology of characters. He has lived, studied and taught Chinese, Japanese and/or English in China and Australia and has traveled extensively. After obtaining a B.A. at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, then working as a magazine editor, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he earned a First Class Honours Degree from the University of Canterbury.

William McNaughton was the founding teacher of Chinese at Oberlin College. From 1986 he taught at Hong Kong's City University, where he was the founding program leader of the BA (Honours) program in Translation and Interpretation.