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A look into the secrets of the Kanji family

Japanese is comprised of three syllable alphabets: kanji, hiragana and katakana. Yeah, you've heard this before. But do you know the history behind the three? Kanji originated in China and came to Japan during the Han Dynasty (Japan's Asuka Period... ...full story at Japan Times

from Japan Times on Fri, Jul 03 2009

see also:

16 May 08 visit 七万一千五百一十九  »  YouTube videoKanji (漢字) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (ひらがな, 平仮名), katakana (カタカナ, 片仮名), and the Arabic numerals. The Japanese term kanji (漢字) literal...
30 Jun 08 visit Ode to Heisig and RTK  »  Sinosplice Thinking about it now, I find it strange that I’ve never written about James W. Heisig and his landmark work, Remembering the Kanji. It was in 1997 while I was studying in Japan that I came across the book. I was still in this “I must write every new character a million times every day” frame [...]
27 Jan 09 visit Hip-hop China  »  Peking Duck First take a look at the article, and then read a blogger tear it apart, syllable by syllable. Quite hilarious. Totally merciless.
11 Oct 07 visit Bad History: Xinhua on the Dalai Lama  »  Granite Studio Yeah, I know. Attacking Xinhua for bad history doesn't seem like much of a challenge. But sometimes...you just gotta call 'em on it. From Xinhua: It is known to all that in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Fifth Dalai Lama paid respects to Emperor...
13 Feb 08 visit The Historical Record for February 13, 2008  »  Granite Studio On February 13, 950, Guo Wei founded the Zhou Dynasty, one of the “5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms” that ruled in China between 907 and 960. Guo Wei was a general in the Turkic Han Dynasty (And yes, the short-lived regimes of this period loved to...
10 Nov 09 visit China-Singapore ties are at best period in history: Chinese Ambassador  »  People's Daily The bilateral relations between China and Singapore are now at its best period in history, a senior Chinese diplomat has said. In a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua, Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Zhang Xiaokang said that China and...

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