Reading and Writing Chinese: Third Edition, HSK All Levels (2,633 Chinese Characters and 5,000+ Compounds)

William McNaughton

Jul 2013 · Tuttle Publishing

About this ebook

This is a complete and easy-to-use guide for reading and writing Chinese characters.

Learning written Chinese is an essential part of mastering the Chinese language. Used as a standard by students and teachers learning to read Chinese and write Chinese for more than three decades, the bestselling Reading & Writing Chinese has been completely revised and updated. Reading & Writing Chinese places at your fingertips the essential 1,725 Chinese characters' up-to-date definitions, derivations, pronunciations, and examples of correct usage by means of cleverly condensed grids. This guide also focuses on Pinyin, which is the official system to transcribe Hanzi, Chinese characters, into Latin script, 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.

Newly updated and revised, 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). The student's ability to read Chinese and write Chinese is reinforced throughout.

Key features of this newly-expanded edition include:

• The 1,725 most frequently used characters in both Simplified and Traditional forms.
• All 2,633 characters and 5,000+ compounds required for the HSK Exam.
• Standard Hanyu Pinyin romanizations.
• More mnemonic phrases and etymologies to help you remember the characters.
• An extensive introduction, alphabetical index, and index according to stroke count and stroke order.
• Completely updated/expanded English definitions.
• Convenient quick-reference tables of radicals.
• Updated and revised compounds, plus 25% more vocabulary now offered.
• Codes to assist those who are preparing for the AP exam or the HSK exam.

Ratings and reviews

I used this book since its first edition. It goes deep into the history of characters (radicals) and gives you a sense of understanding why the shapes are the way they are, thus giving you understanding like a person raised knowing how to read Chinese. Very old school in its strict methods which makes me respect the language. Now when I see a character I know, I smile.

About the author

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.