Another set of Chinese characters I succeeded in memorising whilst waiting at traffic lights in Taipei were those forming the text of one of the ‘Nineteen Ancient Poems’. ‘Altair is Far Away’ tells of the Weaving Maid weeping with grief as she stands parted from her husband and their children who dwell on the far […]

Taipei is not that great for cycling. It is rarely possible to travel even a single mile without finding your route blocked by a big, wide, busy road. In consequence, when resident in the city around the turn of the millenium, I came up with the ‘poem card solution’ to banished the frustration of waiting […]

Chinese people sometimes exclaim “Great name!” upon hearing my Chinese name is Gongsun Hai. Gongsun is a rarity amongst Chinese surnames, and has the distinction of being one of those few formed by two characters, rather than a single one. Noteworthy Gongsuns? There was Gongsun Chou who couldn’t get enough of the wise words of […]

I have completed the first of my films to emerge from the material I collected on this year’s autumn trip to China. It features some of the attractions of “China’s Hollywood”, the scenic, historic town of Huanglongxi a river port forty miles or so south-southwest of Chengdu. As we near the end of the trail, […]

I’ll kick this ChinaChris.co.uk blog off with ‘Why I study Chinese’ – one of the two speeches I prepared for the oral ‘paper’ of my final exams in 1999. I am often asked “Why are you learning Chinese?” It’s not an easy question to answer as there is no single straightforward reason. There must be […]