Learn to Write Chinese Characters - Johan Björkstén

[Zhuru]

大家好,

Yesterday and today some ordered books arrived, so prepare for a couple of reviews in the near (or not so near) future.

I just finished reading 'Learn to Write Chinese Chararcters' by Johan Björkstén. This is an interesting little book (only 120 pages thick) that gives an introduction to chinese calligraphy.

The first two chapters deal with the history and structure of the chinese characters. The explanation of pictographs, ideographs, etc is given. More interesting however is the comparison of the different styles of writing: small seal script, clerical script, caoshu, kaishu and xingshu. All styles are illustrated with a couple of figures.

The third and fourth chapters teach how to write characters. You can read about the eight basic strokes and some general guidelines on how to write characters. There are some interesting remarks here, but since the third chapter is made available online, there's no need to buy this book.

The next chapter teaches the stroke order of some common radicals.

And I guess that's about all you get from this book.

In summary:

This is book will fit nicely in my collection, but I guess that's gonna be its only purpose. Most of its content is available online: you can find a lot of information on the written styles at wikipedia and there are lots of places where you can get the stroke order of characters. If you look for something vital for your study, spend your money on something else.