{"id":40072,"date":"2025-07-02T09:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/language-with-character-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T22:29:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T20:29:06","slug":"language-with-character-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/language-with-character-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Language with character"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"40072\" class=\"elementor elementor-40072 elementor-40046\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3503a12 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"3503a12\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f7dc99f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f7dc99f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>by Floor Perquin<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c9f0000 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"c9f0000\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e36c419 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e36c419\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>In this column, we explore various aspects of the Chinese language. This time, it&#8217;s all about food. Floor Perquin is a Chinese interpreter, translator, and language teacher.  <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7f6d9f0 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"7f6d9f0\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-64e9027 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"64e9027\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\u751c\u9178\u82e6\u8fa3 Ti\u00e1n su\u0101n k\u01d4 l\u00e0: The Flavours of Life<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-40519\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-1-300x123.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-1-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-1-200x82.png 200w, https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-1.png 606w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p><p>Sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy, life passes by at the Chinese dinner table! Anyone who has ever been to China can confirm the country\u2019s deeply rooted food culture. And anyone lucky enough to attend a full Chinese banquet will have discovered a wide variety of flavours. Flavours that touch on an important element of Chinese culture, and one I\u2019ve discussed in an earlier column: balance.<\/p><p>Take another look at the characters above, and you\u2019ll notice that this saying is balanced as well, consisting of four characters in total: \u751c\u9178\u82e6\u8fa3 = ti\u00e1n su\u0101n k\u01d4 l\u00e0 (pronounced: tyan, swan, koo, la). A common variation is: \u9178\u751c\u82e6\u8fa3 = su\u0101n ti\u00e1n k\u01d4 l\u00e0.<\/p><p>The literal meaning is sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy, and it\u2019s used metaphorically to express the highs and lows of life.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-40512\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-300x123.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134-200x82.png 200w, https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/134.png 606w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p><p>These are the same characters, written in a different style, but still maintaining visual balance.<\/p><p>And \u201cbon app\u00e9tit\u201d? Even that expression reflects calmness and balance in Chinese:<\/p><p>\u6162\u6162\u5403 = m\u00e0n m\u00e0n ch\u012b, which literally means \u201ceat slowly.\u201d Enjoy it!<\/p><p>Want to practise writing Chinese characters? Here are some tips:<\/p><ul><li>Balance. Chinese culture is all about balance. We all know the concept of yin and yang\u2014complementary opposites that contain a part of each other. The same principle applies to Chinese character writing: balance is key. When practising, it\u2019s recommended to use grid paper and aim to fill each square\u2014or a set of four squares\u2014symmetrically.<\/li><li>From top to bottom. Chinese characters were traditionally written on bamboo sticks, which were then placed side by side. Later, the well-known Chinese ink was used. With both the bamboo sticks and the use of ink, it is important to start at the top, because otherwise smudges can be caused with the ink.<\/li><li>From left to right. Starting at the top of the left section, finish the left part of a character first (i.e., in the case of \u79cb, \u79be) and then continue at the top of the right section.<\/li><\/ul><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>If you\u2019d like to learn more about Chinese food culture, you\u2019re warmly invited to join the VNC China Dining Club, which will next meet in Amsterdam on 31 August.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Floor Perquin In this column, we explore various aspects of the Chinese language. This time, it&#8217;s all about food. Floor Perquin is a Chinese interpreter, translator, and language teacher. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":755,"featured_media":40076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,333,343],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-algemeen","category-chinanu","category-education-and-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40072"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40535,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40072\/revisions\/40535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vnc-china.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}