Unspoken Rules of Chinese Characters
Aesthetic aspects of Chinese characters
A lot of books on Chinese characters focus on the practical aspects of learning, that is how to recognise, remember, recall, read, write, pronounce and comprehend the meaning of characters. Seldom do writers focus on the aesthetics aspects of Chinese characters. If they do, they are probably writing a book on Chinese calligraphy.
Many beginners do not realise that understanding the aesthetics of Chinese characters do help them to learn Chinese.
Chinese characters are designer items … each of them is crafted to perfection over the past few thousand years by Chinese calligraphers. Each character fits nicely into a square box, ensuring that each stroke is stretched and positioned aptly in the limited space such that each character is an art piece. Duplication of these characters by handwriting requires one to be very attentive to fine details.
Learning to appreciate Chinese characters aesthetically will elevate your learning. Steve Job's encounter in Lloyd Reynolds's calligraphy class was a life-changing, mind-altering, psychedlic experience for him.
Learning to 'See'
Learning Chinese should start from learning to 'see', learning to appreciate Chinese characters visually, observing the fine details in the strokes and decoding the composition of characters.
Have you ever notice:
How a character 'balances' itself
How strokes 'adapt' themselves in different characters
Where is the centre of a character
The 'shape' of a character
The 'symmetry' of a character
The relative lengths of strokes within a character
The joints between strokes
The positioning of bonding / crossing points on strokes
The angle a stroke makes with the horizontal
The angle of bend in a stroke
The difference between almost-identical characters
The number of bends within a stroke
The curvature of a stroke
The ending of a stroke
Chinese characters are more sophisticated than English words and this is the fun part of learning Chinese. Learning Chinese develops one's appreciation of art, one's visual and spatial acuity, etc. If Chinese learning started with pronunciation, writing drills and memorization of vocabularies, it will lose its ability to engage learners intuitively.
How to develop the ability to 'see'
Beginners who are already struggling with learning Chinese may find it daunting that they have to learn the aesthetic aspects of Chinese characters. The good news is such observation skills can be acquired easily when they are guided by the 'Triple ABCs Concept'. There are 3 sets of ABC:
First Set of ABC:
Angles, Bends, Curves
Describes the features of strokes.
Second Set of ABC:
Apart, Bond, Crossing
Describes how strokes combine with one another to form characters
Third Set of ABC:
Adapt, Balance, Centre
Reveals the aesthetic requirements of characters.
These features are usually not taught in a typical Chinese language class as there is hardly any time to discuss about them. Students can easily do such learning on their own by going through the activities in 'Learn Chinese Without Writing', while the contact time with teachers in Chinese lessons can focus on the other aspects of learning.
