China's Language, Land, and Peoples

Romanization System

你好！ Ni hao!

*Pinyin

Official system of People’s Republic of China

Internationally accepted

See, Hansen, pp. xvii

Difficult Letters in Pinyin Romanization

“q”= “ch” (qian)

“x”= “sh” (xin)

“zh”= “j” (zhan)

“c”= “ts” (cun)

“i”

“r” after “ch,” “zh,” and “r” (chi)

“u” after “z,” “c,” and “s” (zi)

“ee” after “j,” “q,” “x” and all others (ji)

Tones

Ma

1st tone: mā = mother 媽 /妈

2nd tone: má = What? 嗎/吗

3rd tone: mǎ = horse 馬 /马

4th tone: mà = curse 罵 /骂

Names

Surname first

Skaff Jonathan

Wife keeps surname after marriage

Single character surname (most common)

Zhu Yuanzhang

Liu Bang

Double character surname (rare)

Degu Xin

Sima Xiangru

People's Republic of China

Geographical overview

4th largest country (9,596,960 sq km)

After Russia, Canada, and US

Population, 1.3 billion

Han Chinese

Ethnic minorities

*China Proper

North China

*Yellow River drainage zone

Yellow River flooding

Relatively arid

4-6 month growing season

One crop of wheat or millet

Staple: Noodles and steamed bread

South China

Pearl River drainage zone

*Yangzi (Yangtze) River drainage zone

Well watered (summer monsoons)

6-9 month growing season

2-3 crops of rice

Staple food: rice

Dialectical diversity

Official language 

*Mandarin

Major southern dialects

Cantonese (Yue), Shanghainese (Wu), Fujianese (Min)

Writing system

Characters: Traditional (ma 馬) and Simplified (ma 马) "horse"