We already know of a few really great Mandarin learning sites and dictionaries but Lexicalist is our latest fancy. It's a Chinese/English dictionary and those we have a'plenty. However aside from the denotation, it also shows you how the usage of the character fares by province and by gender. more ›

Hard to tell from the raucous clamor of Shanghai streets, but apparently the most Chinese character is 和 ("peace") according to a study from China Heritage. Not all that evident as old ladies push and shove their way to the front of any line, but he does appear as the first character in two government slogans: 和谐社会 (hexie shehui) meaning "harmonious society" and 和平崛起 (heping jueqi) or "peaceful rise." Let's not also forget the expo and the splattering of posters around the city with people coming together to hug Haibao as well as the Beijing Olympics banner touting "One World, One Dream." At the same time, also topping the list is tan (贪 ), the character representing greediness...perhaps a little more reflective of actual society than the much more philosophical concept of harmony. more ›

It's been a while since we've seen any netizen Chinese character creations - the last instance was in May during that whole Grass Mud Horse fiasco - so we're liking this new Hecaitou post (translated by the unfortunately blocked China Digital Times). more ›

If you ever find yourself in Ningbo (about a two hour distance from Shanghai), check out their zoo. The staff have reportedly trained a sea lion to write a word in Chinese. Peter, a six-year-old male, can now write 牛 (bull), and sign off on his work with a special "sea lion" stamp. Cute! No word on whether the trainers will teach him anything else, since 牛 took him a good three months to master. Source: Ananova more ›

Yes, we know there are a lot of websites out there for students of the Chinese language, but have you ever seen one as cute as this? more ›