VALIDATION COPY 1.0 JUNE 2007

CHINESE MANDARIN FAMILIARIZATION COURSE

Introduction To

China

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GEOGRAPHY

Officially called the People’s Republic of China, this massive country is located in eastern Asia, west of the Pacific Ocean. China is bounded on the north by the Mongolian Republic and Russia, and on the northeast by Russia and North Korea. East of China lie the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea; and to the south lie the South China Sea and the countries of Vietnam, Laos, Burma (Myanmar), India, Bhutan, and Nepal. To the west lie Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; and to the northwest, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. China has an area of about 9,571,300 sq km (about 3,695,000 sq mi), (not including Nationalist China, known officially as the Republic of China), which makes it the world's third largest country by area, a little bit larger than the United States.

China’s topography is higher in the west and lower in the east. Most mountains and plateaus are in the west, including the Tibetan plateau, the highest plateau in the world. Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, is situated in the south; while plains lie in the east. More than 3400 islands lie off the southeast coast of China of which Hainan, in the South China Sea, is by far the largest. There are three major rivers: the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River. The capital of China is Beijing. It is not only the nation's political center, but also its cultural, scientific, and educational heart and a key transportation hub. Beijing has served as a capital for more than 800 years. China is divided into a variety of administrative units that include 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities: Beijing, Shanghai (the biggest city in China), Tianjing and Chongqing are under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Government. In addition to the four municipalities, there are other major cities in China, including Guangzhou, Shenyang, Nanjing, Xi’an, and Chengdu. There are also two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau.

The city of Shanghai China’s capital city, Beijing

CLIMATE

China is characterized by a continental climate. The greater part of the Chinese territory is situated in the Temperate Zone, its southern region in the tropical and subtropical zones, and its northern part near the Frigid Zone. Temperatures differ therefore rather strikingly across the country whose latitude spans nearly 50 degrees. The northern part of Heilongjiang Province has long winters but no summers while the Hainan Island has long summers but no winters. The Huaihe River valley is marked by distinctive seasonal changes, but it is spring all year round in the south of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the northwest hinterland, the temperature changes dramatically. China’s high tundra zone is situated in the Qinghai-Tibet, where the temperature is low in all four seasons. Some desert areas are dry all year round.

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Rice Terraces

POPULATION

China, as the world's most populous country, has a population exceeding 1.3 billion, which makes up 22 percent of the world total. In the1960’s when China counted “only” 600 million inhabitants, President Mao Zedong had a birth restriction policy. To bring population growth under control, the country has followed a family planning policy since the 1970’s. China is a multiracial country with 56 ethnic groups, including Achang, Bai, Bonan, Blang, Bouyei, Korean, Daur, Dai, De'ang, Dongxiang, Derung, Oroqen, Russian, Ewenki, Gaoshan, Gelao, Hani, Kazak, Han, Hezhen, Hui, Jino, Gin, Jingpo, Kirgiz, Lahu, Li, Lisu, Lhoba, Manchu, Maonan, Mongolian, Monba, Miao, Mulam, Naxi, Nu, Primi, Qiang, Salar, She, Sui, Tajik, Tatar, Tu, Tujia, Va, Uygur, Uzbek, Xibe, Yi, Yuigur, Yao, Tibetan, and Zhuang. The Han people account for 92 percent of the population.

The Forbidden City May Day celebration

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HISTORY

Five thousand years have passed since the first Chinese writing, and China has lived under 24 dynasties and about 400 emperor-kings. The People's Republic of China was founded on October 1,1949.

During World War I, the Chinese Government sided with the Allies. In return, they were promised that the German concessions in Shangdong province would be handed back over to the Chinese Government at the end of the war. They were not, and to add insult to injury, the Treaty of Versailles handed them over to Japan.

In the early 1920s, Dr. Sun Yatsen, as the leader of the (up-to-then unsuccessful) Nationalist Party (KMT), accepted Soviet aid. With the Communist help, Sun Yatsen was able to forge an alliance with the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and started the task of re-unifying a China beset with warlords. Unfortunately, Sun died of cancer in 1925. The leadership of the KMT was then taken over by Chiang Kaishek. After Chiang took over the KMT, he launched his famous "Northern Expedition" all the way from Guangzhou to Shanghai. This unified Southern China and, more importantly, let the Nationalists control the Lower Yangzi. Once they got to Shanghai, Chiang, who had never liked the Communists anyway, launched a massacre of CCP members. Among those who managed to escape the carnage was a young communist named Mao Zedong. The Communists were forced to abandon their urban bases and fled to the countryside. There, the Nationalist forces, aided and abetted by German advisors, tried to hunt them down, and in the words (more or less) of Chiang, "eliminate the cancer of Communism." In 1934, the Nationalists were closing in on the Communist positions, when, under the cover of night, the Communists broke out and started running. They did not stop for a year. This was the Long March. When the Communists started, they had 100,000 people. A year later, when they finally stopped, they had traveled 6,000 miles, and between four to eight thousand people survived. In 1937, the Japanese invaded China proper from their bases in Manchuria, using the notorious "Marco Polo" incident as an excuse. Once whole-scale war had been launched, it did not take the Japanese long to occupy the major coastal cities and commit atrocities. By the time the war had ended in 1945, 20 million Chinese had died at the hands of the Japanese. The Nationalist Government fled up the Yangzi River to Chongqing from Nanjing. In 1939, World War II started. This initially had little effect on the situation in China, as the Japanese were not involved with war in Europe. However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the main thrust of the Japanese war effort turned away from fighting the Chinese and towards fighting the Americans. By early 1949, the Nationalists were hamstrung by intractable corruption and huge debts; they paid off their debts by printing more money, which only lead to hyperinflation. By that October, the Nationalists had fled to Taiwan and Mao Zedong had proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China.

The Great Wall of China Terra Cotta Cavalry Figures in Xi'an

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A Table of Chinese History

夏 Xia Dynasty c. 21-16 century B. C. 商 Shang Dynasty c. 16-11 century B. C. 西周 c. 11 cent B. C. – 771 B. C. Western Zhou

东周 770 B. C.–256 B. C. 周 Zhou Dynasty Eastern Zhou 770 B. C.–476 B. C. 春秋 Spring &Autumn Period 475 B. C.–221 B. C 战国 Warring States Period 秦 Qin Dynasty 221 B. C. – 207 B. C. 汉 Han Dynasty 西汉 Western Han 206 B. C – A. D. 24 东汉 Eastern Han 25 - 220 三国 Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, Wu) 220 - 280 西晋 Western Jin Dynasty 265 - 316 东晋 Eastern Jin Dynasty 317 - 420 南北朝 Northern & Southern Dynasties 420 - 589 隋 Sui Dynasty 581 - 618 唐 Tang Dynasty 618 - 907 五代 Five Dynasty 907 - 960 宋 Song Dynasty 960 - 1279 辽 Liao Dynasty 916 - 1125 金 Jin Dynasty 1115 -1234 元 Yuan Dynasty 1271 -1368 明 Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644 清 Qing Dynasty 1644 - 1911 中华民国 Republic of China 1912 - 1949 中华人民共和国 People’s Republic of China Founded in 1949

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RELIGION

China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism, Taoism, lslam, Protestantism and Catholicism have all developed quite a following in this country.

Traditionally there are ten schools of Buddhism in China and eight of them belong to Mahayana Buddhism. Four of them are practical in the sense that they possess special practices that are actually practiced by many followers. These are the Pureland School, the Tantra School, the Chan School and the Sila School. The Pureland School with its emphasis on the chanting practice has been most popular. Nowadays the meditation practices of Tibetan Tantra and those of the Southern Tradition are embraced by a growing number of Chinese Buddhists.

Many Chinese Buddhists considered followers of the Buddhist religion practice a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. This is evident not only from the deities they worship on the altar, and the religious or health practices they adopt, but also from their outlook and way of life, a prominent feature of Chinese Buddhist culture over the ages.

Chinese Buddhist temple

CUSTOMS

Chinese observe many customs relating to marriage, birthday, and death. Traditionally marriages are arranged and spouses selected through negotiation between the family members and the matchmaker. Customarily, negotiations preceding the betrothal ceremonies are initiated when the boy's father writes a formal marriage proposal letter to the girl's father. The matchmaker delivers the letter together with cakes and gifts to the girl's family and the girl's father writes back a letter in acceptance of the proposal. Although this is rarely seen nowadays, parents’ opinions still play an important role in their children’s marriage.

6 Many funeral customs are also traditional. A corpse is placed in a coffin and remains in the home for forty-nine days, while mourners wear sackcloth robes and straw slippers. Women, in addition, wear sackcloth hoods over their heads. Men tie white cotton sashes over their heads and around their waists. Mourners sit on the floor alongside the coffin. Professional wailers can be employed to cry aloud when visitors enter the hall to pay their respects to the dead. Some of these rituals attending death are still used especially in the countryside.

Scenes from Beijing Opera

Chinese music can be traced back as far as the third millennium B.C. Manuscripts and instruments from the early periods of its history are not extant, however, because in 212 B.C., Shih Huang-ti of the Ch'in dynasty ordered all the books and instruments to be destroyed and the practice of music to be stopped. Certain outlines of ancient Chinese music have nevertheless survived. Of primary significance is the fact that the music and philosophy of China have always been inseparably bound; musical theory and form have been invariably symbolic in nature and remarkably stable through the ages. Ancient Chinese hymns were slow and solemn and were accompanied by very large orchestras. Chamber music was also highly developed. Chinese opera originated in the 14th century as a serious and refined art.

FAMOUS NATIVES

Mao Ze Dong Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chiang Kai-shek

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Mao Ze Dong, the ultimate revolutionary, used extreme tactics to achieve dominance in Chinese politics during the first part of the 20th Century. In 1921 he co-founded the Chinese Communist Party. His success was due to his dogged opposition to Chang Kai-shek’s rigid stance on co-habitation with any other political parties. The stage set on Mainland China saw clashes between these two that finally led to Mao’s taking control of China in October 1949. Mao controlled Chinese society through idolatry of the Myth of the Inevitable Invincibility of the People’s Liberation Army. This control led to many failures after he achieved control in that it was as rigid as Chang Kai-shek’s earlier polices. Nevertheless, Mao ushered in the modern age for China and broke many of the old psychological holds the power structure held on the Chinese people, while formulating and promoting his own cult based on “Liberation.” Curiously, both Mao and Chang ruled China directly or indirectly about the same length of time, Chang for 24 years (1925-1949) and Mao for 27 years, (1949-1976). Both had periods during these years when national politics slipped from their grasps and became chaotic. Sun Yat-sen, the son of peasants, still managed to study in Honolulu during his high school years. He married and settled down to study medicine, which he practiced in Macao. It was during this time that he began to devote himself to politics and to formulate ideas for reform. By 1905, he had formed the Revolutionary League and was advocating strongly against the government, even using armed conflict. In 1912 he was named the first president of the Republic of China. He was highly respected by many politicians of diverse views. Chang Kai-shek, a Nationalist Party leader during the same period as Sun Yat-sen, took a more militaristic role and in striving to win it all politically, never enjoyed good relations with the Chinese Communists. This approach led to his downfall and isolation on Taiwan, even though he had been the most influential leader of the Kuomintang, the opposition to the Communists. While serving as an important leader of China, he suffered military defeats at the hands of the Communists and retreated to Taiwan. Always taking an aggressive stance, he found his place in the United Nations taken by Mainland China in 1971. He kept an iron grip on Taiwan until his death in 1975.

THE LANGUAGE

Chinese Mandarin is commonly used in modern China. It is one of the five working languages designated by the United Nations. The majority of the 55 ethnic groups have their own languages. As a written language, Chinese has been used for 6,000 years. During this long period of time, Chinese has seen constant development, but its grammar, vocabulary and writing system have in the main retained their features. The Chinese refer to themselves and their language, in any of the forms below, as Han—a name that derives from the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220). Han Chinese is thus to be distinguished from the non-Han minority languages used in China. There are over 50 of these languages, including Tibetan, Russian, Uighur, Kazakh, Mongolian, and Korean, spoken by around 6% of the population. Chinese has eight major dialects: Cantonese is spoken in the south, mainly Guangdong, southern Guangxi, Macau, Hong Kong. Hakka (Kejia) is widespread, especially between Fujian and Guangxi. Hunan is spoken in Hunan. Wu is spoken in parts of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Mandarin includes a wide range of dialects in the northern, central and western regions. North Mandarin, as found in Beijing, is the basis of the modern standard language. Southern Min is spoken in the southeast, mainly in parts of Zhejiang, Fujian, Hainan Island and Taiwan. Northern Min is spoken in North-west Fujian. Kan is spoken in Shanxi and southwest Hebei.

The predominant language of China is now known as Putonghua, or “Standard Chinese,” literally “the common speech.” The more traditional term, still used in Taiwan, is Guoyu, or “Mandarin.” Standard Chinese is spoken by two thirds of the population and throughout the greater part of the country.

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THE CHINESE ALPHABET

Chinese has no alphabet system. Chinese uses characters that are very different from an alphabet. Characters generally have two parts, one of which presents the meaning and the other the sound. Every character corresponds to a single syllable in Chinese, so the part which represents the sound, does not represent a phoneme like a letter in an alphabet but rather represents a whole syllable. Unfortunately, this system is not very efficient, since the same symbols often represent many different sounds, and the same sounds are often represented by many different symbols. This problem is largely due to changes in speech over millennia.

In 1958 “The Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet” was adopted by Mainland China as a set of symbols used to transliterate Chinese characters and combine the speech sounds of the common speech into syllables. The scheme makes use of the Latin alphabet, modified to meet the needs of the Chinese language. The scheme, which will form the foundation for the creation of a Chinese alphabetic system of writing, is being used throughout the country to facilitate the learning of Chinese characters, help unify pronunciation, and popularize the common speech.

A syllable in Chinese is usually composed of an initial, which is a consonant that begins the syllable, and a final, which covers the rest of the syllable. The initial of a Chinese syllable is always a consonant. The final is a vowel, which may be a simple vowel (known as a “simple final,” e.g. “a”), or a compound vowel (known as a “compound final,” or a vowel followed by a nasal consonant, known as a “nasal final,” e.g. “an”).

In modern Chinese, there are altogether 23 initials (consonant) and 35 finals (vowels). A syllable can stand without an initial, but no syllable will do without a final.

The 23 initials in standard modern spoken Chinese are shown in the table below:

Voiceless Voiced unaspirated aspirated unaspirated aspirated b p m w f z c s d t n l zh ch sh r j q x y g k h

There are also, in standard modern spoken Chinese, four basic tones, commonly known as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th tones. Keep in mind that if you use the wrong tones, your listeners may not be able to understand you. These misunderstandings are possible because some terms with unrelated meanings may have the same initial and final combinations, but different tones. The tones are represented respectively by the tone-graphs “ˉ”, “ ˊ”, “ˇ” and “ ˋ” which are written over the simple final or the main vowel in a compound final. Here are the main characteristics of each tone: Tone 1 is a high level pitch; Tone 2 is a rising pitch; Tone 3 is a low dipping pitch; Tone 4 is a falling pitch. The neutral tone is short and unstressed. The values of the four tones are shown in the five-degreed pitch as follow:

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The first tone: 5-5, mā (mother)

The second tone: 3-5, má (hemp);

The third tone: 2-1-4, mǎ (horse)

The fourth tone 5-1, mà (curse)

ˉ The first tone is high-level tone ˊ The second tone starts from the middle pitch and rises to the high pitch ˇ The third tone starts from the mid-low pitch, falls to the low pitch and then rises to the mid-high pitch ˋ The fourth tine is a complete falling tone. It falls from the high-pitch to the low-pitch.

When a syllable contains a single vowel only, the tone-graph is placed directly above the vowel sound. (The dot over the vowel “i” should be dropped if the tone-graph is placed above it, as in “mi”.) When the final of a syllable is composed of two or more vowels (that is, when it is a diphthong or triphthong), the tone-graph should be placed above the main vowel (namely the one pronounced with mouth widest open), e.g. “mǎo”.

A 3rd tone, when immediately followed by another 3rd tone, should be pronounced in the 2nd tone, but with the tone- graph “ˇ” remaining unchanged. For example: “nǐ hǎo” becomes “ní hǎo” in actual pronunciation.

The 3rd tone loses its final stress when followed by a 1st, 2nd, 4th tone or a neutral tone syllable, i.e. only the initial falling portion remains. This is called the half-third tone, e.g. qǐng hē 请喝 (please drink), lǜyóu 旅游 (tour), wǒ shì 我是 (I am), and nǐmen 你们 (you (pl).

Apart from the four basic tones, there is a special tone called the neutral tone that may occur in any syllable except the beginning one. The neutral tone is pronounced short and soft and goes without any tone-graph in writing. a) It is pronounced in the middle pitch when following a 1st or 2nd tone syllable (including those which are originally in the third tone), e.g. hēide 黑的 (a black one); báide 白的 (a white one).

b) It is pronounced in the mid-high pitch when following a 3rd tone syllable: xiǎode 小的 (a small one) jiějie 姐姐 (elder sister).

c) It is pronounced in the low pitch when following a 4th tone syllable, e.g. dàde 大的 (a big one).

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INITIALS (consonants)

Letter Pronunciation Symbol Example Pronunciation as in English in Chinese b like b in “bore” but is b 八 (eight) bā unaspirated p like p in “port” but is p 票 (ticket) piào always produced with a strong puff of air. m is equivalent to m in “more”. m 米 ( meter) mǐ

f is equivalent to f in “four” f 福 (good fortune) fú

d is similar to d in “dirt” but d 冬 (winter) dōng is voiceless t is similar to t in “term.” It is t 汤 (soup) tāng produced with a stronger puff of air and with the tip of the tongue more to the front of the mouth than the “t” in English.

n is equivalent to n in “nurse.” n 农 (farming) nóng

l is equivalent to l in “learn.” l 蓝 (blueness) lán

z is similar to the cluster dz in cards but dz 字 (word) zì is voiceless and is produced with the tip of the tongue more to the front of the mouth.

c is the aspirated counterpart of z. It is ts 菜 (vegetables) cài similar to the cluster ts in “its” but is pronounced with a stronger puff of air and with the tip of the tongue more to the front of the mouth.

s is similar to s in “sir” but in pronouncing s 死 (die) sǐ it, the tip of the tongue is more to the front of the mouth. 11

zh is similar to the dge in “judge”, but is ts 猪 (pig) zhū Pronounced with the tip of the tongue Drawn more to the back of the mouth. ch is the aspirated counterpart of zh. In ts 春 (spring) chūn pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue is drawn more to the back of the mouth than when pronouncing ch in “church.” sh To pronounce it, the tip of the tongue is ∫ 山 (mountain) shān drawn more to the back of the tongue than when pronouncing sh of “shirt.” r is the voiced counterpart of sh. It is zh 日(sun,day) rì different r of “run” in English in that, to pronounce it, the tip of the tongue is drawn more to the back and the lips are not pursed. j It is similar to the d and y combination in dЗ 几 (a few) jǐ “and yet”, but is voiceless. When pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue is much lower than pronouncing j of “jeep.” q is the aspirated form of j. The tip of the tongue t∫ 去 (go, leave) qù is much lower than pronouncing ch in “cheese.” x It is similar to the s and y combination of ∫i 西 (west) xī “bless you.” The tip of the tongue is much lower than when pronouncing sh of the English “she.” g is similar to the English consonant g in “girl” g 哥 (elder brother) gē but voiceless. k is similar to k in “kerf”, but is produced with k 空 (empty) kōng a stronger aspiration. h is produced by raising the back of tongue toward h 好 (good) hǎo the soft palate and releasing the air through the channel thus made. It is different from the h of w is followed by u: wu.

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FINALS (vowels)

There are 29 finals in standard modern spoken Chinese:

Simple finals

a o e i u ü

Compound finals

ai ei ai ou Finals ia ie iao iou ua uo uai uei üe Nasal finals

an en ang eng ong ian in iang ing iong uan uen uang ueng üan ün

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Letter Approximate English Symbol Example Pronunciation Pronunciation Chinese a is equivalent to the a in a 啊 (ah) ā farm as pronounced by Americans. ai is roughly of the same value as ai ai 爱 (love) ài in aisle but the beginning a is pronounced shorter than that of English. ao is roughly of the same value as ou ou 傲 (proud) ào in out but the beginning a is shorter than the o (in “out”) an is a with –n ending. an 暗 (dark) àn ang is equivalent to a as in father +ng aŋ 昂 (hold high) áng in English. o is similar to or in English in pronunciation. o 波 ( wave) bō It is spelled only with b, p, m, f, y, w. ou is equivalent to oa in boat in American əu 呕 (vomit) ǒu English, but o is shorter than its counterpart in English. ong is equivalent to u as in put -ng in uŋ 工 (labour) gōng English. e is like e in her, but with no r sound. e 饿 (hungry) è er is similar to er in better in American English. ər 儿 (son) ér In pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue turns up toward the hard palate. ei is of the same value as ei in the English word ei 泪 (tear) lèi eight but e in ei is very short. en is the combination of ə+n. It is pronounced ən 恩 (favour) ēn as the unstressed indefinite article an in English.

14 i 1. like ee in bee ee 一 (one) yī 2. not pronounced after ts, r, s, ds, ch, sh, j. Note that i is different from i of it in English. ia is the combination of i + a, in which a is ia 牙 (tooth) yá louder and clearer than i which serves only as a medial. iao is the combination of i + ao. iau 腰 (waist) yāo ian is the combination of i + e + n. iεn 盐 (salt) yán iang is the combination of i + ang. iaŋ 羊 (sheep) yáng ie is the combination of i + e which is iε 叶 (leaf) yè ye in yes but without friction. iu is the combination of i + u and between iu 鱼 (fish) yú the two vowels, there is a very weak e. iong is the combination of i + ong. iuŋ 用 (use) yòng in is the combination of i + n. This is different in 银 (silver) yín from the English in and pronounced with a higher position of the tongue. ing is the combination of i + ng. iŋ 营 (camp) yíng u is similar to u in rule in English, but the lips u 屋 (room) wū are not so tightly pursed and is shorter than the English u. It doesn’t occur after j, q, x, y.

ua is the combination of u + a. ua 挖 (dig) wā

uai is the combination of u + a. uai 外 (outside) wài

uan is the combination of u + an. uan 万 (ten thousand) wàn uang is the combination of u + ang. uaŋ 忘 (forget) wàng ueng is the combination of u + egn.

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Note uəŋ 翁 (old man) wēng

that ueng never occurs after any initial but always forms a syllable by itself.

uei is the combination of u + e. uei 胃 (stomach) wèi

uo is the combination of u + o. uo 我 (I) wǒ

ui is the combination of u + i with a very weak uə 翠 (jade green) cuì e in between.

un is u + n with a very weak e in between. uən 混 (mix) hùn .

ü is like ee in bee, but with lips closely rounded. ü 绿 (green) lǜ When spelled with j, q, x, y, the two dots in the letter ü are omitted, such as, yú 鱼 (fish), but they remain when spelled with the initial n and l.

üan is the combinatio of ü + e +n. It is written uan uan 需 (need) xū (the two dots in the letter ü are omitted) when spelled with j, q, x, y, e.g. yuán 园 (garden).

üe is the combination of ü + e. It is written ue (the yε 虐 (cruel) nüè two dots in the letter are omitted), e.g. yuè 月 (month) and two dots remain when spelled with n and l.

ün is the combination of ü + n. It is only spelled yn 云 (cloud) yún with j, q, x, y and is written un (the two dots are omitted), e.g. jūn 军 (army corps).

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