This is a blog about 漢字. What is or are 漢字? Literally the word 漢字 translates as “Chinese character”—or plural “Chinese characters”. Synonyms are “sinogram(s)’, “sinograph(s)”, “CJK character(s)” and more. The first few paragraphs of the Wikipedia article on 漢字 are just fine as an introduction if you need a bit of historical and linguistic background information.
Currently I’m moving blog articles from the blog’s old cms to here. Since it involves moving images, adapting the urls, and recreating the style code as well, it might take a while. I’m also moving articles and posts about Chinese characters from elsewhere to this archive, so, it may end up being a bit of a mixed bag.
The blog originally started as a place to put updates on Kenneth G. Henshall’s book A guide to remembering Japanese characters in the style of his book with additional explanation and references where necessary. I did this because I had enjoyed his book while studying Japanese. I think Henshall did a great job (1) given the focus of his book: use the historical and graphical development of Chinese characters to learn students how to analyse and remember them (2) using the Japanese resources available to him at that time (1988).
However, his book didn’t treat all the Chinese characters that I came across in my reading. Also, the research into the development of Chinese characters underwent remarkable progress. As a result, I noticed already during my studies that certain entries in Henshall’s book were invalidated by new findings. This triggered in me curiosity regarding the new developments, which eventually made me more or less abandon the blog for a more ambitious project (though still just a hobby) that has its own website: A database for Chinese and Japanese characters.¹
Contact: kornelis@ketmia.net.