Chinese
- See also: China and Mandarin language
Chinese means from or about the country of China, especially a person from China or one of the languages of China.
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[change] Chinese Writing
Chinese Writing does not use letters. It has 50,000 different characters, each one made of different lines, called strokes. There are many different Chinese dialects (way of speaking) but they all write using the same characters.
Each line of Chinese is written starting at the top of the page and working downwards. The lines are written working from the right to the left of the page. However, some countries, like Singapore, writes Chinese the same way as writing English.
There are two types of Chinese writing, Traditional and Simplified.
In modern China, most Chinese people do not write the traditional way. The government made a simpler way of writing, known as Simplified Chinese. Many people also use a computer. The most popular way to use a computer keyboard to type Chinese is called Pinyin. People in Taiwan continue to write with Traditional Chinese.
Chinese writing is often written as a type of art, called calligraphy, which means making art from writing.
[change] ISO 639 codes
The following lists the different ISO 639-1 language codes for the different Chinese-related languages:
| Language | Language code | Language depends on... |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Traditional) | zh-hant | None |
| Chinese (Simplified) | zh-hans | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (Taiwan) | zh-tw | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (China) | zh-cn | Chinese (Simplified) |
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | zh-hk | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (Macau) | zh-mo | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (Singapore) | zh-sg | Chinese (Simplified) |
| Chinese (Malaysia) | zh-my | Chinese (Simplified) |
[change] Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are a group of people who are Chinese but are not living in or under the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu) and the People's Republic of China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau). About 78% of the overseas Chinese live in Asia.
[change] Other websites
- Learning Chinese Online - General Introduction - A page of links to web pages about the Chinese language
