01_583751 ffirs.qxd 6/1/05 9:11 AM Page iii Chinese FOR DUMmIES‰ by Wendy Abraham 01_583751 ffirs.qxd 6/1/05 9:11 AM Page i Chinese FOR DUMmIES‰ 01_583751 ffirs.qxd 6/1/05 9:11 AM Page iii Chinese FOR DUMmIES‰ by Wendy Abraham 01_583751 ffirs.qxd 6/1/05 9:11 AM Page iv Chinese For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. 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For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2005923781 ISBN-10: 0-7645-8375-1 ISBN-13: 978-07645-8375-9 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/SR/QW/QV/IN 01_583751 ffirs.qxd 6/1/05 9:11 AM Page v Dedication This book is dedicated to the memory of my Nadymama and Papa, Julia and Joseph Abraham, whose incredible love and time spent with their grandchil- dren left a lasting imprint on our lives and has been a great source of strength throughout the years. Their nicknames for me when I was just a child (“Monkey” and “China Doll”) can only be attributed to some long-lost Hungarian Jewish gypsy roots in our family, for how else could they have known so long ago that I was, indeed, born in the Year of the Monkey, and that my life would be so deeply connected to all things Chinese. Author’s Acknowledgments It all started with dinner at Woo Fong Restaurant in Bayside, Queens, where I grew up. Although the place no longer exists, it’s the first distinct memory I have of falling in love with China — more specifically, with spring rolls and the little old proprietress in her golden qípáo who took me under her wing when I was barely 4 years old. It was the beginning of a love affair with the Chinese culture, and later with the Chinese language, which has yet to end. My first order of thanks, therefore, goes to my mother and father for intro- ducing me to my first Chinese meal. To my father, George, for inspiring me with his own great love of language learning (currently centered on Egyptian hieroglyphics) and for always pushing me to study, study, study. To my mother, Marilyn, for her unwavering support through thick and thin and for her reminders to relax and enjoy life in between all the studying. (No sur- prise then that her choice of foreign language in high school was Italian.) To my sorella, Susan, for her amazing courage and strength and for her incred- ible talent as a sculptor, which I can only aspire to in another lifetime. To my father’s wife, Rhoda, for her immense wisdom, great help in emergencies of every kind, and plain old common sense. To Michael and Daisy Fogarty, for their loyalty to the Abrahams and for the fun they bring wherever they go. I would also like to thank my entire extended family for reaching out to me this past year in ways I couldn’t have imagined and will not soon forget. Special thanks go to my aunt, Maxine Cooper, and cousin, Michael Ian, for being there with both humor and love. 01_583751 ffirs.qxd 6/1/05 9:11 AM Page vi Right up there with Woo Fong Restaurant was The Inn of the Sixth Happiness — that 1958 classic that had Ingrid Bergman, the missionary, saving all those orphans in northern China during the Sino-Japanese War. Acknowledgments to those who played a part in my early childhood exposure to all things Chinese can’t be made until that film’s name has been solemnly uttered. In addition to clinching my passion for China, it made me want to adopt a hundred orphans from Xi’an, and it began my great love affair with the movies. First in line for childhood recognition is my beloved aunt, Carol Rothenstein, who regularly schlepped a gaggle of us cousins down to New York City’s Chinatown and plied us with all manner of colorful Chinese knick-knacks to take home. To my childhood friend, Cynthia Sargent, who went with me on jaunts to visit our elementary school buddy Wanda Chin at her family’s Laundry (Chin’s) on Springfield Boulevard, where the back room doubled as home for the family of four. I can still smell the freshly starched shirts and see the swirls of steam wafting up from the ironing boards as we passed by on our way to the back. From my days at Hunter College, where I distinguished myself by being the only Jewish kid to try to join the Chinese Students Association, I’m proud to have hung out with the likes of Jon Ho, Winnie Chin, Mon Lan Jee, Nora Lee, Karen Lee, and our classmate Conmay, whose untimely death while we were all undergrads bonded us for one brief but memorable moment. Jon and Winnie in particular have remained good, loyal friends, and I’m grateful for their fun (Jon) and calming (Winnie) presence this past year. Mention of Hunter College in the ’70s wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t also include a serious note of thanks to my very first Chinese language teacher, professor Yu-shih Chen, whom we all loved. From my Georgetown days, I would like to especially thank my best friend of nearly three decades now, Pei Dalin, for being his wonderful self. Thanks also to his wife, Mian, and my little talented Godchildren, Julia and Christopher. Dalin also helped immensely with the “cultural” editing of this book; he was on call at all hours as emergency questions popped up. To my dear friend Wen Yang, for all his help as technical editor of this project and for our great years at Georgetown together. Some things really do come full circle. I would also like to mention places of particular importance in my study of the Chinese language. To Middlebury College, for an incredible summer intensive language program, and to National Chengchi University in Taiwan, for giving me the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study oracle bones from the Shang dynasty for one whole glorious year. And especially to my former language teacher from Nankai University in Tianjin, Professor Pang Bingjun — poet-laureate and scholar-gentleman — who spent countless hours helping me transcribe my taped oral histories of the Chinese Jewish descendants of Kaifeng.