The strokes of Chinese Characters part 4

3. And the following by two single strokes with a turn:

	shuzhe	vertical stroke with a horizontal turn to the right	as in the character yi (doctor, medicine)
	hengzhe	horizontal stroke with a vertical turn	as in the character kou (mouth)

4. Combined strokes are made out of basic ones. The following are a few examples:

	shuwangou	vertical stroke combined with a level bending stroke with a hook	as in the character ye (also)
	piedian	down stroke to the left combined with a dot	as in the character nu (woman)
	shuzhezhegou	vertical stroke with a double turn and a hook	as in the character ma (horse)

If a character can be compared to a word in alphabetic languages, then strokes are like letters... learning them is the key to memorize characters. And then, characters don't only need to be correct, they should also be as beautiful and balanced as possible. It is therefore necessary to copy the single strokes many times (be it with a brush or, much easier, with a pen) to memorize their shape and thickness.

Ref:http://www.clearchinese.com/chinese-writing/strokes.htm

The strokes of Chinese Characters part 3

2. The last two strokes have several different variations. The first group is composed by five strokes with a hook:

	henggou	horizontal stroke with a hook	as in the character zi (character)
	shugou	vertical stroke with a hook	as in the character xiao (small)
	wangou	bending stroke with a hook	as in the character gou (dog)
	xiegou	slant stroke with a hook	as in the character wo (I, me)
	pinggou	level bending stroke with a hook	as in the character wang (to forget)

Chinese Ghost Festival

One of my students told me today was the Ghost Festival. I was very surprised that a foreigner knew it.

 Ghost Festival is also known as Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in Spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in Autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals (often vegetarian meals) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living. Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qingming Festival from Ghost Festival because the latter includes paying respects to all deceased, including the same and younger generations, while the former only includes older generations. Other festivities may include, buying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities.

The Ghost Festival is celebrated during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. It also falls at the same time as a full moon, the new season, the fall harvest, the peak of Buddhist monastic asceticism, the rebirth of ancestors, and the assembly of the local community. During this month, the gates of hell are opened up and ghosts are free to roam the earth where they seek food and entertainment. These ghosts are believed to be ancestors of those who forgot to pay tribute to them after they died, or those who were never given a proper ritual send-off. They have long needle-thin necks because they have not been fed by their family, or as a punishment so that they are unable to swallow. Family members offer prayers to their deceased relatives, offer food and drink and burn hell bank notes and other forms of joss paper. Joss paper items are believed to have value in the afterlife,considered to be very similar in some aspects to the material world, People burn paper houses, cars, servants and televisions to please the ghosts.Families also pay tribute to other unknown wandering ghosts so that these homeless souls do not intrude on their lives and bring misfortune. A large feast is held for the ghosts on the fourteenth day of the seventh month, when people brings samples of food and places them on an offering table to please the ghosts and ward off bad luck.
In some East Asian countries today, live performances are held and everyone is invited to attend. The first row of seats are always empty as this is where the ghosts sit. The shows are always put on at night and at high volumes as the sound is believed to attract and please the ghosts. Some shows include Chinese opera, dramas, and in some areas, even burlesque shows. These acts are better known as "Merry-making".
For rituals, Buddhists and Taoists hold ceremonies to relieve ghosts from suffering, many of them holding ceremonies in the afternoon or at night (as it is believed that the ghosts are released from hell when the sun sets). Altars are built for the deceased and priests and monks alike perform rituals for the benefit of ghosts. Monks and priests often throw rice or other small foods into the air in all directions to distribute them to the ghosts.
During the evening, incense is burnt in front of the doors households. Incense stands for prosperity in Chinese culture, so families believe that there is more prosperity in burning more incense. During the festival, some shops are closed as they want to leave the streets open for the ghosts. In the middle of each street stands an altar of incense with fresh fruit and sacrifices displayed on it.
Fourteen days after the festival, to make sure all the hungry ghosts find their way back to hell, people float water lanterns and set them outside their houses. These lanterns are made by setting a lotus flower-shaped lantern on a paper boat. The lanterns are used to direct the ghosts back to the underworld, and when they go out, it symbolizes that they have found their way back.

Chinese allegories 1

Chinese allegories 
歇后语
Two-part allegorical saying (of which the first part, always stated, is descriptive, while the second part, often unstated, carries the message)

 xiǎo cōng bàn dòu fu – yī qīng èr bái
小葱拌豆腐 – 一清二白
White bean curd and green scallions – as clear as daylight

gǒu ná hào zi – duō guǎn xián shì
狗拿耗子 – 多管闲事 
Dog trying to catch mice – meddling in other people's business

yǎ ba chī huáng lián – yǒu kǔ shuō bù chū
哑巴吃黄连 – 有苦说不出
A dump person tasting bitter herbs – unable to express one's discomfort

qiū hòu de mà zha – bèng da bù liǎo jǐ tiān
秋后的蚂蚱 – 蹦跶不了几天
A grasshopper in late autumn – nearing one's end

ní pú sa guò hé – zì shēn nán bǎo
泥菩萨过河 – 自身难保
The clay idol crosses a river – one is hardly able to save oneself, let alone assist others

zhú lán dǎ shuǐ – yī chǎng kōng
竹篮打水 – 一场空
Draw water with a bamboo basket – achieving nothing; fruitless labor

gǎn miàn zhàng chuī huǒ – yí qiào bù tōng
擀面杖吹火 – 一窍不通
Try to blow the fire with a rolling pin – be completely ignorant or irrelevant

jiāng tài gōng diào yú – yuàn zhě shang gōu
姜太公钓鱼 – 愿者上钩
Fish like Jiang Taigong (prime minister of Zhou Dynasty in Chinese history) , who cast a hook-less and bait-less line for the fish that wants to be caught – ask for willing victim or collaborator

Ref: http://www.china.org.cn/learning_chinese/allegories/2008-07/01/content_15917240.htm

Chinese Movie 1 : Chungking Express part 2

Cast

It's from the characters, whom we immediately connect and relate with, we learn the modes of isolation, desperation, and improvisation. An excellent cast includes the brilliant male leads Tony Leung Chiu Wai (liáng cháo wěi 梁朝伟) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (jīn chéng wǔ 金城武), both of whom you will recognize in other films and actress Brigette Lin (lín qīng xiá 林青霞) in the blonde wig which is a very popular actress at that time in Hong Kong, also took part in Wong's another movie "Ashes of Time (dōng xié xī dú 东邪西毒)".

The film also marked the debut of superstar singer Faye Wong (wáng fēi 王菲), who steals many scenes as a love-struck waitress and somehow manages to make an obsession reminiscent of fatal attraction into something adorable. Faye’s character is the movie’s highlight. Cop 688's secret admirer, is practically the definition of elfin. She is very much a creature of the late twentieth century, with a shortened attention span and a listless path through life. She listens to loud rock music, always "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas, so she won't have to think. Faye Wong as an actress is totally engaging and totally believable in this role. 

These actors bring a heart and soul to a film which relies on our empathy with the characters to turn their self-pity into the undying love it always feels like to the person involved.


Music
"California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & the Papas, is played numerous times as it is the favourite song of Faye Wong's character. The music will stick in your head for at least a week after viewing this film.





Production
Wong made the film during a two month break from the editing of his wuxia film (wǔ xiá diàn yǐng 武侠电影), Ashes of Time. during the troubled production of Ashes of Time, which was supposed to be Wong Kar-Wai's third film, Wong said, "While I had nothing to do, I decided to make Chungking Express following my instincts.", and that "After the very heavy stuff, heavily emphasized in Ashes of Time, I wanted to make a very light, contemporary movie, but where the characters had the same problems." 

Originally, Wong envisioned the two stories as similar but with contrasting settings: "One would be located in Hong Kong. That is, Hong Kong Island and the other in Kowloon (jiǔ lóng九龙). The action of the first would happen in daylight, the other at night. And despite the difference, they are the same stories." the director took some time off, sat down and did it with a fast-paced, highly improvisatory shooting schedule, writing pages of the script during the day and shooting them at night.

He kept on writing and developed a third story. However, after filming the first two stories, he found that the film was getting too long so he relocated the third segment, about a love-sick hitman, to an entirely different movie titled Fallen Angels (duò luò tiān shǐ 堕落天使) (1995).


Wong had specific locations in mind where he wanted to set the action of the film. In an interview, he has said: "One, Tsim Sha Tsui, I grew up in that area and I have a lot of feelings about it. It's an area where the Chinese literally brush shoulders with westerners, and is uniquely Hong Kong. Inside Chungking Mansion you can run into people of all races and nationalities: Chinese, white people, black people, Indian." This is the setting for much of the first story. 

The second half of the film was shot in Central, near a popular fast food shop called Midnight Express. "In this area, there are a lot of bars, a lot of foreign executives would hang out there after work," Wong remembers. The fast food shop is forever immortalized as the spot where Tony Leung and Faye Wong's characters met and became attracted to one another. 


Dialogue
The film uses voiceover to express the thoughts of the two male leads,which is the note for Wong’s movie.The dialogue exchanges are memorable, long lasting, and illustrious. The make up of the exchanges are done masterfully, it is as if you are watching a celebrated tennis match. The ball elegantly goes back and forth in a well mannered, concise behavior. To Wong, love isn't something you can talk about. Words are inadequate, empty, inevitably reductive. Love is something you see, sense, feel, and Chungking Express is one of Wong's purest evocations of its excitement and heartbreak.

"It is an inevitable episode for each living creature to suffer from the prevalence of pain for being lovelorn. And to kill the pain, I habitually go out for a wild running, cherishing the belief that the sweat pouring from my pores will exhaust the water that might be streaming down my face."

"Starting from sometime, all things existing in this wild world, like Sam-ma, canned meat and even plastic wrap, have been labeled with a date of expiration, and that has triggered my diffidence in the permanent validity of anything on this planet. "

"Wearing sunglasses but wrapped up in raincoat is seemingly a ridiculous habit but I have every reason for defending it as you will never be sure when rain is pouring down and when the sun is going to shine upon you. "

"She bid me farewell right on April Fools’ Day. The uniqueness of that festival convinced me that her departure was just a trick on me and she was coming back to me within a month. May loved pineapples and since the very first day of her parting, I compelled myself to make a daily purchase of a tin of pineapple that was to expire on May 1st, my birthday. I just talked myself into believing that our romance was hitting its terminal if May was not making her return after I have piled 30 cans of pineapple back at home."

"Where do you want to go?" The flight attendant asks. "Wherever you want to take me."


Highlight
The camera (handled by co-cinematographers Christopher Doyle and Andrew Lau) moves constantly and sometimes gives in to jarring step-printing or strange slow, fast motion, but the moments are appropriate. It's those sequences that convey the interior, exterior experience of each character. A chase or the noiseless isolation of sudden heartbreak, creates a hazy, dreamlike world that, through stylistic techniques like copious use of slow motion and step printing, heighten the tension of the officer's romantic desires. The style is alternately contemplative and breezy. It's like the French New Wave with a dash of MTV sprinkled in.

There are a couple of chases, as well as a payback moment midway through the film, but the scenes play more like transitions instead of necessary plot development. What's more important are the character's inner lives. In Chungking Express, the standard genre character is fleshed out and humanized, and their inner struggles take on tremendous meaning. Wong Kar-Wai has created a Hong Kong cop thriller that's about the cops and not the thrills.



There are also a lot of scenes in Chungking Express which hold your attention and make the story more credible as a whole. Perhaps not coincidentally, these scenes are often those which feature the least gimmicks to them, the ones where the actors can simply work. The scenes where Takeshi tries to pick up Brigitte by asking her if she likes pineapple in five different languages, Tony berating his dishrag for not having enough absorbency, or especially the small scenes of Tony and Faye meeting up in a local market and awkwardly flirting, are both funny and powerful in a quiet way. It is in these scenes that Chungking Express transcends typical romantic movie territory.


Reviews
The individual is at the center of Wong Kar-Wai's movie. Everyone has their own private way of coping with loss and alienation, and how each character does it feels both uniquely odd and strangely familiar. One can identify with the characters or they can find their individual quirks absurd. That's probably one of the unique joys to Chungking Express, that the characters' quirks can affect each and every viewer differently. The moments in the film are opaque and seemingly unconnected, but beneath that the viewer just might find something revealingly personal and achingly real.


And, probably most affecting of all, it's a marvelous demonstration of love in and of the cinema. Chungking Express seems to tell us that love and its chances could be just around the corner and out of sight. As much as the film explores the frustration of heartbreak and unrequited love, it also hints at the promise of something magical.

As in In the Mood for Love, Wong repeatedly finds the perfect visual and aural complements to his characters' romantic rapture, as in the stunning slow-motion shot of Faye watching no. 663 drink a cup of coffee, or the screwball comedy of Faye's apartment-cleaning sequences, or the ways in which Wong uses the Mamas and the Papa's "California Dreaming" (over and over again) to express the lovers' tumultuous relationship.

The issue of deadlines is an interesting one. Not only is Kar-Wai exploring the ways in which humans relate themselves and others to time, but he's also expressing a specifc anxiety of the people of Hong Kong in the mid-nineties.The danger was that everything had an expiration date, canned food, freedom, even love. Not coincidentally, the password for 223's answering service in the film is "love you for 10,000 years."

Chinese Movie 1: Chungking Express part 1

Chungking Express (chóng qìng sēn lín 重庆森林) was the first of Wong Kar Wai (wáng jiā wèi 王家卫)'s films to gain international plaudits but was actually made as a cinematic exercise to help him regain some perspective in the middle of editing a huge Hong Kong (xiāng gǎng 香港) epic: Ashes of Time. The film, a simple, straight forward character piece that reaches unexpected levels, rightly described as a love note to Hong Kong, tells two different and unconventional love stories connected by having cops and a fast food joint named Chungking Express. Made with a down and dirty feel which probably reflects the production itself as well as the intended style we are brought into the streets of Hong Kong and the bustling effervescence of this city as only Wong can describe, which makes it unparalleled to any other. 

The Chinese title translates to "Chungking Jungle", referring to the metaphoric concrete jungle of the city, as well as to Chungking Mansions (chóng qìng dà shà 重庆大厦) in Tsim Sha Tsui (jiān shā zuǐ 尖沙咀), where much of the first part of the movie is set. The English title refers to Chungking Mansions and the Midnight Express food stall where Faye works.


Plot
The title is symbolic of the film's lively, anything goes sensibility, representing the pair of largely unrelated stories that make up its bifurcated narrative.

The first story, which takes place mostly at Chungking Mansions, focuses on a lovesick police officer, No. 223, Takeshi Kaneshiro (jīn chéng wǔ 金城武), pining over his ex-girlfriend May. The officer has taken to collecting cans of pineapple that expire on May 1, his birthday and the day on which he will give up on his ex.


Meanwhile, a gangster woman in a blonde wig, Brigitte Lin (lín qīng xiá 林青霞) has also received canned food of some import: sardines with the same expiration date, meaning she will be killed on that day. In the Chungking Mansion, a shopping center in Hong Kong where she is arranging her drug trafficking (of which the cop remains ignorant for the entire film), she and Cop 223 almost run into each other. 223's voice-over tells us that in exactly 55 hours, they will meet again.

Then later on in a bar, where he picks her up and takes her to a hotel room, where she promptly falls asleep. Wong treats No. 223's lovesickness with humor (as when the officer foolishly eats dozens of cans of pineapple in one sitting) and tender sensitivity (as when he polishes the blond-wigged woman's shoes before leaving the hotel), and he ends the segment with his typical mix of regret and romanticism. No. 223 is still alone, but he's free to keep looking for love.

Desperation and tragic romanticism sparks our interest in the first story of the film, but Wong doesn't focus on the search. Upon resolving No. 223 and the blond-wigged woman's relationship, he ditches their story for another through one of the film's centerpieces, the Midnight Express Indian Fast Food stop. 

Beginning at a restaurant called the Midnight Express, Chungking Express's second half focuses on another police officer, No. 663, Tony Leung (liáng cháo wěi 梁朝伟), himself the victim of a recent breakup, ignores Faye (wáng fēi 王菲), a waitress at the restaurant who falls madly in love with the officer in secret and takes up sneaking into No. 663's apartment during the day to redecorate and "improve" his living situation. When No. 663 discovers Faye in his apartment, it kicks off a typically Wong's romance: aching, beautiful, impermanent. The film has a frantic energy, and although (particularly in the second part) very little seems to happen - it does so beautifully. 
The first story rambles but the second one is a delicious romantic comedy. Together, the two stories depict hope for love and happiness in the lonesome city of Hong Kong



REF:http://www.foreignercn.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5040:chungking-express&catid=64:china-movies&Itemid=131

Chinese Children Song 1 Looking for friends

Year, month in Chinese

We have talked about numbers in Chinese. Based on the numbers, we have also learned weekdays by adding 星期（xīng qī ) in front. Now I would like to talk about how to describe Year(年nián ), Month(月yuè ) in Chinese.

Years (年nián ) are easy to say in Chinese. You simply need to pronounce the numbers. For example,

2007 is èr líng líng qī nián
2008 is èr líng líng bā nián
2000 is èr líng líng líng nián
1999 is yī jiǔ jiǔ jiǔ nián
1021 is yī líng èr yī nián
…

As long as you know the basic numbers from 1 to 12, it is easy to conjugate the 12 months in Chinese. In detail, they are :

一月 yī yuè
二月 èr yuè
三月 sān yuè
四月 sì yuè
五月 wǔ yuè
六月 liù yuè
七月 qī yuè
八月 bā yuè
九月 jiǔ yuè
十月 shí yuè
十一月 shí yī yuè
十二月 shí èr yuè



Ref: http://www.chinese4kids.net/year-month-in-chinese/

Chinese Idiom Story 5

沉鱼落雁 （chén yú luò yàn）

In Chinese ancient history,there were four well-known beauties named Shi Shr (xī shī 西施),Wang Jau-jun (wāng zhāo jūn 王昭君),Diao chan (diāo chán 貂蝉),Yang yu-huan (yáng yù huán 杨玉环). Though they were not in the same period, their unforgettable beauties were universally acclaimed by the later generations.

Shi Shr lived in the state of Yue (yuè 越国),during the Spring and autum period (春秋 chūn qiū,770 - 221BC). One day,she and a group of her femal friends went to a nearby river to wash yarn. The sky was blue,the water was extremly crystal that they could see flocks of fish swimming in the water here and there cheerfully. The fish ,too,could see the girls very clearly. Suddenly ,all of the fish began to swim swiftly downward to the bottom of the water,being shocked by the unparalleled beauty of Shi Shr and feeling ashamed themselves. Before long ,the interesting story were diffused and known by most civillians around the country. They therefore gave Shi Shr a nickname ‘The girl makes the fish sink’ ,demonstrating how beautiful she was.

Wang Jau-jun was another beauty lived during Han dynasty (hàn cháo 汉朝, 202BC - 220AD). The king of Han was obsessed by the potential war between Han and one enemy coutry,intending to find a reconciliation. In the end,he came up with an idea—send Wang Jau-jun as a gift to the king of the enemy courty so as to avoid the direct conflict.A few days later,Wang Jau-jun and a group of guards set off to the enemy courty. One day, on their way to the distant north country, there was a wild goose flying above the head of wang jau-jun. It was so appalled by the beauty of wang that it even forgot to flap wings,then fell down heavily into the forest.

 Nowaday,if a girl’s beauty is overwhelming,we can say she is the one that‘can make the fish sink and the wild goose fall’.


Ref: http://www.foreignercn.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2497:chen-y-luo-yan&catid=3:chinese-idiom-a-proverbs&Itemid=115

Chinese Holiday 1----Qixi Festival

Today is Qixi Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day (Chinese: 情人節; pinyin: Qíng rén jié).

Qixi Festival (Chinese: 七夕节; literally "The Night of Sevens"), also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar.

Girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband. It is also known by the following names:
The Festival to Plead for Skills(Chinese: 乞巧节; pinyin: qǐ qiǎo jié)
The Seventh Sister's Birthday, especially in Cantonese, (Chinese: 七姊誕; Mandarin Pinyin: qī zǐ dàn; Jyutping: cat1 zi2 daan3)
The Night of Skills (Chinese: 七夕; pinyin: qi xī)

The story of the cowherd and the weaver girl.



In late summer, the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky, and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which there are many variations:
A young cowherd, hence Niulang (Chinese: 牛郎; pinyin: niú láng; literally "[the] cowherd"), came across a beautiful girl--Zhinü (Chinese: 织女; pinyin: zhī nǚ; literally "[the] weavergirl"), the seventh daughter of the Goddess, who just had escaped from boring heaven to look for fun. Zhinü soon fell in love with Niulang, and they got married without the knowledge of the Goddess. Zhinü proved to be a wonderful wife, and Niulang to be a good husband. They lived happily and had two children.
But the Goddess of Heaven (or in some versions, Zhinü's mother) found out that Zhinü, a fairy girl, had married a mere mortal. The Goddess was furious and ordered Zhinü to return to heaven. (Alternatively, the Goddess forced the fairy back to her former duty of weaving colorful clouds, a task she neglected while living on earth with a mortal.)
On Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had disappeared. Suddenly, his ox began to talk, telling him that if he killed it and put on its hide, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife.
Crying bitterly, he killed the ox, put on the skin, and carried his two beloved children off to Heaven to find Zhinü. The Goddess discovered this and was very angry. Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega.
Zhinü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar while taking care of their two children (his flanking stars β and γ Aquilae or by their Chinese names Hè Gu 1 and Hè Gu 3).
But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (鹊桥, "the bridge of magpies", Que Qiao) over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.

The strokes of Chinese Characters part 2

Rules for Stroke Order

The basic rule, when writing Chinese characters, is to always write from top to bottom, from left to right. If a character consists of more than one radical, you always write each included radical as a separate piece.

Within each radical you have six basic rules, which I will now illustrated with sequences of pictures. The complete characters are first shown on a yellow background, and then you see a sequence of pictures from left to right, showing how the character is built up, stroke by stroke, to form the final result:

Rule #1: Top down.
Special case: Left side of squares is drawn before the top.
Rule #2: Left to right.
Exception: Hook on the right side comes first.
Rule #3: Horizontal lines and squares before crossing vertical lines.
Exception: Bottom lines are always drawn last.
Rule #4: Frames before contents.
Note: The bottom line of a frame is drawn last.
Rule #5: Centre before symmetrical sides.
Rule #6: Secondary dots drawn last.

These rules are based on practical experience – the rules reflect what has been learnt from using brushes in practice. The rules give good guidelines, but to learn to write properly, it's probably best to find a dictionary or textbook that clearly shows the stroke orders of several characters. In my examples above, I've only chose characters that are relatively simple and easy to write – when the number of strokes increases, the risk of the basic rules becoming inadequate will increase. In some special cases it's even possible that there is more than one correct stroke order...

Chinese Idiom Story 4

杯弓蛇影 (bēi gōng shé yǐng)

In the Jin Dynasty (jìn cháo 晋朝,265-420), a man called Yue Guang (yuè guǎng 乐广) once invited a friend to have a drink at his home. When the friend lifted his cup, he saw a small snake in the wine, yet he forced himself to drink. Back home, the friend recalled the incident, and felt so disgusted that he fell ill. Hearing about this, Yue Guang invited his friend again. He asked him to sit in the same place and drink. Then his friend saw that the image of the snake in the cup was actually the reflection of a bow hung on the wall. Realizing this, the friend recovered quickly.

The Chinese Phonetics (Pinyin) part 6

Tones and Markings for Tones

In Chinese it is always very important to pronounce words with correct tone. In transliterated Chinese, tone markings are written over the central vowels in most syllables. Some syllables have no specific tone, and then no sign is put above any vowel. In Mandarin Chinese there are four tones:

The 1:st tone is marked with a line ("a" + "-" = "ā"). This is a high, even and constant tone.
The 2:nd tone is marked with a rising line ("a" + "´" = "á"). This is a rising tone that grows stronger.
The 3:rd tone is marked with a hook ("a" + "v" = "ă"). This tone is first falling and fading, then rising and growing strong.
The 4:th tone is marked with a falling line ("a" + "`" = "à"). This is a quickly falling and fading tone.
In unstressed syllables the tone may be hardly noticeable. In such cases, no marking is put above any vowel. You may regard this as "tone zero". The tone will usually end up more or less where the previous syllable ended.

The Chinese Phonetics (Pinyin) part 5

All Possible Syllables in Mandarin Chinese

It is not possible to create Chinese syllables by grouping characters at random. The phonemes of Mandarin Chinese can only be combined into a fixed number of possible syllables.A list of 413 syllables is every one of the possible combinations. 

a, ai, an, ang, ao
ba, bai, ban, bang, bao, bei, ben, beng, bi, bian, biao, bie, bin, bing, bo, bu
ca, cai, can, cang, cao, ce, cei, cen, ceng, cha, chai, chan, chang, chao, che, chen, cheng, chi, chong, chou, chu, chua, chuai, chuan, chuang, chui, chun, chuo, ci, cong, cou, cu, cuan, cui, cun, cuo
da, dai, dan, dang, dao, de, dei, den, deng, di, dian, diao, die, ding, diu, dong, dou, du, duan, dui, dun, duo
e, ê, ei, en, er
fa, fan, fang, fei, fen, feng, fo, fou, fu
ga, gai, gan, gang, gao, ge, gei, gen, geng, gong, gou, gu, gua, guai, guan, guang, gui, gun, guo
ha, hai, han, hang, hao, he, hei, hen, heng, hm, hng, hong, hou, hu, hua, huai, huan, huang, hui, hun, huo
ji, jia, jian, jiang, jiao, jie, jin, jing, jiong, jiu, ju, juan, jue, jun
ka, kai, kan, kang, kao, ke, kei, ken, keng, kong, kou, ku, kua, kuai, kuan, kuang, kui, kun, kuo
la, lai, lan, lang, lao, le, lei, leng, li, lia, lian, liang, liao, lie, lin, ling, liu, long, lou, lu, luo, luan, lun, lü, lüe
m, ma, mai, man, mang, mao, mei, men, meng, mi, mian, miao, mie, min, ming, miu, mo, mou, mu
n, na, nai, nan, nang, nao, ne, nei, nen, neng, ng, ni, nian, niang, niao, nie, nin, ning, niu, nong, nou, nu, nuo, nuan, nü, nüe
o, ou
pa, pai, pan, pang, pao, pei, pen, peng, pi, pian, piao, pie, pin, ping, po, pou, pu
qi, qia, qian, qiang, qiao, qie, qin, qing, qiong, qiu, qu, quan, que, qun
ran, rang, rao, re, ren, reng, ri, rong, rou, ru, rua, ruan, rui, run, ruo
sa, sai, san, sang, sao, se, sei, sen, seng, sha, shai, shan, shang, shao, she, shei, shen, sheng, shi, shou, shu, shua, shuai, shuan, shuang, shui, shun, shuo, si, song, sou, su, suan, sui, sun, suo
ta, tai, tan, tang, tao, te, teng, ti, tian, tiao, tie, ting, tong, tou, tu, tuan, tui, tun, tuo
wa, wai, wan, wang, wei, wen, weng, wo, wu
xi, xia, xian, xiang, xiao, xie, xin, xing, xiong, xiu, xu, xuan, xue, xun
ya, yan, yang, yao, ye, yi, yin, ying, yong, you, yu, yuan, yue, yun
za, zai, zan, zang, zao, ze, zei, zen, zeng, zha, zhai, zhan, zhang, zhao, zhe, zhei, zhen, zheng, zhi, zhong, zhou, zhu, zhua, zhuai, zhuan, zhuang, zhui, zhun, zhuo, zi, zong, zou, zu, zuan, zui, zun, zuo
Syllables spelled with "u", but pronounced with "ü":

ju, juan, jue, jun
qu, quan, que, qun
xu, xuan, xue, xun
yu, yuan, yue, yun
Syllables where "u" and "ü" must not be mixed up:

lu, lü, lüe
nu, nü, nüe

Ref:http://www.zein.se/patrick/chinen8p.html

The strokes of Chinese Characters part 1

The following are the first six strokes, the fundamental ones:

	heng	horizontal stroke (written from left to right)	as in the character yi (one)
	shu	vertical stroke (written from top to bottom)	as in the character shi (ten)
	pie	down stroke to the left (written from top right to bottom left)	as in the character ba (eight)
	na	down stroke to the right (written from top left to bottom right)	as in the character ru (to enter)
	dian	dot (written from top to bottom right or left)	as in the character liu (six)
	ti	upward stroke (written from bottom left to top right)	as in the character ba (to grasp)

Ref: http://www.clearchinese.com/chinese-writing/strokes.htm

The Chinese Phonetics (Pinyin) part 4

Final Sounds

Simple finals = single vowels.

The Chinese vowels all have quite logical pronunciation, but there are some details to be noted – especially the three types of "i", two types of "e" and two types of "u"!

Mandarin Pinyin	English Equivalent
a	As the "a" in "far" and "father".
e / ê	1: As the English "e" in "send", "very. 2: If the "e" stands as a single vowel at the end of a syllable (e.g. "de", "ne", "zhe"), the pronunciation becomes more similar to the vowel sound in "bird" and "sir". 3: Note the special cases: "er" and "eng"! Comment: If the "e" is the only phoneme in a syllable, pronunciation of type #1 is transcribed as "ê", and pronunciation of type #2 as "e".
i / yi	1: As the vowels in "sit", "it", "machine". The spelling "yi" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable. 2: When preceded by "c", "s" or "z" (dental sibilants), you get a sound like a mosquito buzzing ("ziii..."). 3: In the syllables "chi", "shi", "zhi" and "ri" (retroflexes), the entire syllable is pronounced as one retroflex sound. Pronounce all letters of the syllable with your tongue curled back!
o	As the vowels in "saw", "all". Exception: the combination "ong" (back nasal)!
u / wu	As the vowel "o" in "too", "woman", "loop". The spelling "wu" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable. Special cases: In syllables beginning with "ju", "qu", "xu" and "yu", the "u" is to be pronounced as an "ü".
ü / yu	As the German "ü". Try to say "yeee", keep your tongue exactly where it is and let the sound continue while you form your lips to the shape they'd have when you say "yuuu".

Compound finals = two or three vowels together.

Mandarin Pinyin	English Equivalent
ai	As the "ai"-sounds in "byes", "bike", "high".
ao	As the "ow" in "how", "down".
ei	As the "ay"-sounds in "cake", "say".
ia / ya	As the "ya"-sounds in "maya", "playa". The spelling "ya" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
iao / yao	As the "ya"-sounds in "maya", "playa" followed by an English "w". The spelling "yao" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
ie / ye	As a combination of the Pinyin sounds "y" + "ê" – i.e. NOT quite as the English "ye", as in "yes", but rather "tight"! The spelling "ye" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
iou / iu / you	The spelling "iou" is never used, but describes the sound best. Pronounced as a Pinyin "y" + the English "ow"-sounds in "go", "note", "row". The spelling "you" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
ou	As the "ow"-sounds in "go", "note", "row".
ua / wa	As an English "w" followed by a Pinyin "a". Compare with the final vowels in the Italian word "acqua". The most probable English spelling of this sound would be "wah". Do NOT pronounce this combination as the English "wa"-sounds in "water" or "Wales"! The spelling "wa" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
uai / wai	English "w" + Pinyin "ai". Compare with the English word "why". The spelling "wai" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
ue / üe / yue	Pinyin "ü" + "ê". The "ü" is written as "u" in the syllables "jue", "que", "xue" and "yue". The spelling "yue" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
uei / ui / wei	The spelling "uei" is never used, but describes the sound best. Compare with the initial sounds in "waiter", "wage". Try to pronounce the "ê", even if it is not explicitly written a syllable such as "hui". The spelling "wei" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
uo / wo	Sounds like "woah", but the "a" is hardly audible. Similar to the "wuo"-sounds in "war", "quark". The spelling "wo" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.

Nasal finals = single or compound vowel followed by "n" or "ng".

Nasals are pronounced through the nose. In Mandarin Chinese, sounds ending in "n" (an alveolar nasal) are known as front nasals, while sounds ending in "ng (a velar nasal) are known as back nasals.

Front nasals = sounds through the nose formed with the tongue in the front of the mouth (i.e. in alveolar position).

Mandarin Pinyin	English Equivalent
an	This "a" is similar to the Chinese "a" as described above. Can possibly be compared with the "an" in "Russian". Do NOT pronounce this combination as the English "an" in "man" and "manager"!
en	"e" #2 + "n". Usually as the "en" in "men", but sometimes more similar to the "urn" in "burning" or "fern" with practically no sound of the "r".
ian / yan	Pinyin "y" + "an", but here the "an" becomes broader, as in "man", "manager". The spelling "yan" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
in / yin	As in English ("bin"). The spelling "yin" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
uan / wan	Pinyin "u" + "an". In "juan", "quan", "xuan" and "yuan", the "u" is pronounced as "ü". The spelling "wan" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
üan / yuan	Pinyin "ü" + "an", but here the "an" becomes broader, as in "man", "manager". This sound occurs only in the syllables "juan", "quan", "xuan" and "yuan", and is then spelled with a "u".
uen / un / wen	The spelling "uen" is never used, but describes the sound best. If a syllable begins with a different consonant than "w", the pronunciation is Pinyin "u" + an almost inaudible "e" #2 + "n". When there is no initial consonant, this sound is spelled "wen", and the pronunciation is an English "w" + Pinyin "en".
ün / yun	Pinyin "ü" + "n". This sound occurs only in the syllables "jun", "qun", "xun" and "yun", and is then spelled with a "u".

Back nasals = sounds through the nose formed with the tongue in the back of the mouth (i.e. in velar position).

Mandarin Pinyin	English Equivalent
ang	This "a" is similar to the Chinese "a" as described above, followed by an "ng"-sound. Do NOT pronounce this combination as the broad "ang" in "language"!
eng	"e" #2 + "ng" (almost similar to the "ang" in "language", but the "e" has a little "taste" of the vowel sound in "bird" and "sir").
iang / yang	Pinyin "y" + "ang". The spelling "yang" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
ing / ying	As in English ("sing"). The spelling "ying" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
iong / yong	This syllable corresponds to the Pinyin "y" + "u" + "ng". The "o" is here most similar to the "o"-sound in "too", "woman", "loop". The spelling "yong" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
ong	This syllable corresponds to the Pinyin "u" + "ng". The "o" is here most similar to the "o"-sound in "too", "woman", "loop".
uang / wang	English "w" + Pinyin "ang". The spelling "wang" is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.
ueng / weng	This sound only occurs in the syllable "weng". Pronounced as English "w" + Pinyin "eng".

---

Special Cases - additional syllables

er	Rather similar to the vowel sound in "bird" and "sir", with an audible retroflex "r" at the end. Sometimes more like the English word "are". Could possibly be written as "ehr" in English. Pronounced as a retroflex.
hm	Pronounced as in English. This syllable is only used as an interjection.
hng	Pronounced as a Pinyin "h" + a back nasal. This syllable is only used as an interjection.
m	Pronounced as in English. This syllable is only used as an interjection.
n	Pronounced as in English. This syllable is only used as an interjection.
ng	Pronounced as a back nasal. This syllable is only used as an interjection.
~r	Sometimes the syllable "er" (儿) is added to the end of words – especially on nouns. This is most common in Chinese spoken by people from Beijing. If the "儿" is written in a text, and is to be interpreted as a suffix rather than "er2" = "child", then the transcription is usually written only as "r" (e.g. "yi4 dian3r" = "a little"). Basically, this added "~r" changes the pronunciation of the previous syllable, so that the entire final part of the syllable is pronounced as a retroflex with an "~r" at the end. In short, the "~r" moves the pronunciation of the syllable backwards in the mouth.

Simple finals = single vowels.
The Chinese vowels all have quite logical pronunciation, but there are some details to be noted – especially the three types of "i", two types of "e" and two types of "u"!

Compound finals = two or three vowels together.

Nasal finals = single or compound vowel followed by "n" or "ng".
Nasals are pronounced through the nose. In Mandarin Chinese, sounds ending in "n" (an alveolar nasal) are known as front nasals, while sounds ending in "ng (a velar nasal) are known as back nasals.

Front nasals = sounds through the nose formed with the tongue in the front of the mouth (i.e. in alveolar position).

Back nasals = sounds through the nose formed with the tongue in the back of the mouth (i.e. in velar position).


Ref: http://www.zein.se/patrick/chinen8p.html