Chinese Characters are cool - Chuan4 串

I love the Chinese language. I love it like a disciplinarian Father who frustrates you when you're starting out but as time passes you begin to understand their logic.

Chinese confuses me, but it loves me and knows I'll understand one day.

Whenever I think of it, I'll post Chinese characters here. Ones that I love like a cute little brother, ones that are profound like a quiet Uncle, ones that, like an older sister, make no sense. Ones that are inexplicably cool, like me.

Today we look at Chuan.

Chuan has a falling tone. Imagine saying Chuan as you're sneezing and that's what it should sound like. You can't say all words with a 4th tone like you're sneezing, but Chuan kind of sounds like a sneeze anyway. Well, my sneezes do. Shut up. To indicate the falling tone, aka the 4th tone, we write it like this Chuan4 or chuàn. To listen to Chuan4 spoken click here. Then click where it says chuàn under the heading Mandarin.

To make things more confusing, Beijingers have an accented speech where they make a heavily retroflexed RRRR sound on the end of many words, particularly those ending in N. Chuan becomes Chuar. This accent is called Er accent or Erhua. Basically Beijingers sound like pirates cos everything ends in Arrrrrr. So! Say Chuan, and say it like you're a sneezing Chinese pirate and you got it! God Bless you.

Chuan4 looks like this: 串

Best part of all is that Chuan4 means to string together. It's also the name given to fried meat on a stick, kebab style. Ain't that cute?

Beijingers are nuts for chuan4. On every street there are hole-in-the-wall restaurants with people inside ripping chuan4 off the stick with their teeth. And by a cute quirk, you can make this character pretty easily out of a string of lights, which is exactly what these restaurants do and string them up infront of their shop.


Photos up later tonight.

I 串 Chuarrrrrrrr.