𝐍𝐄𝐖 @asiancha.bsky.social 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 | Gabriel Corsetti on Zev Handel's 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑎 (University of Washington Press): "... an accessible and informative book that thoroughly debunks these and other misconceptions about the nature of Chinese writing." chajournal.com/2026/06/14/c... 。。

The University of Washington Press has a huge sale twice a year. The Summer Book Sale begins Monday, June 1 and runs through July 11. All titles on the UW Press website are 40% off with free domestic shipping—use the code WARM26 at checkout. uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...

Chinese Characters across Asia

A fascinating story of writing across cultures and timeWhile other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hierog...

uwapress.uw.edu

Ordered this for dinner the other night. It made me think of …

For years I walked past this sign and assumed it said "Sip Lounge". Then one day recently I walked past and thought, Wait. Could that second word be "house"? Now I'm sure it's "house". There's nothing that could be construed as the "n" in "Lounge". So why was I initially so sure it said "Lounge"?

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This café/bar is on my daily walking route to work. I’ve passed it dozens, maybe hundreds, of times over the years since it opened. I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve been misreading the sign this whole time.

This café/bar is on my daily walking route to work. I’ve passed it dozens, maybe hundreds, of times over the years since it opened. I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve been misreading the sign this whole time.

If the state of Hán 韓 had somehow managed to conquer all the other Warring States and establish the first dynasty instead of the state of Qín 秦, the modern character for 'horse' would look something like 目.

My 2019 book Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script has just been published in Korean. I'm deeply grateful to Prof. LEE Yong 이용 (University of Seoul) and his team for the incredible effort that went into translating this work with care and accuracy. 동아시아의 한자: 중국 준자의 차용과 변용

This is one of the slides from my upcoming book talk at Barnes & Noble in the U District, Seattle (this Tuesday, 5:00pm). I often use the English ampersand as an example to help those with no knowledge of Chinese understand how Chinese characters function in Standard Written Chinese.

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · 7mo ago

If you are in the Seattle area, come see me on February 3 at the Barnes and Noble UW Book Store. I'm holding a talk, reading, and book signing for my book Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/978006...

Wow, 小篆 seal script (based on Shuō wén jiě zì 說文解字) is going to be separately encoded for inclusion in Unicode 18.0! Proposal document here: www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n53...

If you are in the Seattle area, come see me on February 3 at the Barnes and Noble UW Book Store. I'm holding a talk, reading, and book signing for my book Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/978006...

Just finished reading _Chinese Characters Across Asia_ by @zevhandel.bsky.social l. It’s the clearest introduction I have read about how the Chinese writing system works—dispelling common, long-held misunderstandings—, and how the script was adapted to Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Zhuang.

We've just enjoyed the bright harvest moon of Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋, 추석 秋夕, 月見, Trung Thu, etc.), so how about a moon-related linguistics thread? We'll look at an unusual Chữ Nôm graph and recover some lost 17th-century Vietnamese sounds, among other things. 🌕 🇵🇹 🇻🇳 1/🧵

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to hear me talk about the cool stuff in my book.

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · 11mo ago

My book talk at Third Place Books in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle is next Tuesday! Below in thread is an excerpt from *Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese*. I'll be reading more at the book event.

Today! www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/zev-ha...

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · 11mo ago

My book talk at Third Place Books in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle is next Tuesday! Below in thread is an excerpt from *Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese*. I'll be reading more at the book event.

My book talk at Third Place Books in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle is next Tuesday! Below in thread is an excerpt from *Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese*. I'll be reading more at the book event.

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Are you in the Seattle area? Come see me at Third Place Books in Ravenna on Sept 16, 7pm. I'll be talking about and reading from my new book, followed by Q&A and a book-signing session. Would love to see you there. Check out the link for more info, to RSVP, and to pre-order a book for signing.

Are you in the Seattle area? Come see me at Third Place Books in Ravenna on Sept 16, 7pm. I'll be talking about and reading from my new book, followed by Q&A and a book-signing session. Would love to see you there. Check out the link for more info, to RSVP, and to pre-order a book for signing.

1/ Geodude is a tough-looking little rock-type guy with balled-up fists 🤛😠🤜. Despite the crusty form and threatening pose, it looks more cute than dangerous. At least to me. Time for a #Pokenomastics thread! We'll look at Geodude's names in a whole bunch of languages. 🇺🇸🇯🇵🇰🇷🇭🇰🇨🇳🇩🇪🇫🇷 #langsky

The Korean-language translation of my 2019 book Sinography has just been published! This is not an easy book to translate; I'm grateful to the team of scholars, led by Prof. Lee Yong (이용 교수님) who worked on it. The Korean title is: 동아시아의 한자 −중국 문자의 차용과 변용− www.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduc...

동아시아의 한자 | 동아시아 한국학 번역총서 11 | 제프 핸델

중국 주변국에서 한자를 차용하고 변용하여 중국어 외의 언어를 표기하는 방식이 각 언어의 유형론적 특징에 깊은 영향을 받는다는 것을 주된 내용으로 담고 있다. 거시적 관점을 요구하는 이 작업은 한자권 전역의 ...

aladin.co.kr

I posted this quoted thread, on the 20th-century history of Chinese gendered written pronouns, in November. I've just come across a very nice 2024 article on this topic by Janet Davey in the journal Image [&] Narrative. I'll describe it briefly and put a link to the free pdf in thread below.

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · 2y ago

Here's the unlikely century-long story of how a non-gendered pronoun became gendered, and then got itself re-de-gendered. This one's got everything! Poetry! Grammar! Love songs! Queer communities! Unicode! and ... Y.R. Chao! What more could you want? #langsky 🀄️📚 1/

A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.

Thanks for this reference! Looks like the various terms are: - typographic mimicry - faux font - pseudoscript - ethnic typeface - simulation typeface - "foreign look" font I really dislike “ethnic font”.

Homestar Blade Runner 20X6@checarina.bsky.social · 12mo ago

looks like people have come up with various names for it, but idk if any one in particular is widely recognized: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typefac...

I took this photo at Lumen Field in Seattle, when I went to see the Seattle Sounders FC play in a FIFA Club World Cup game ⚽️. The sign is of typographic and linguistic interest. Let’s take a closer look. 1/🧵

If you are in the UK or Europe and want a massive 40% off and free shipping on my book Chinese Characters Across Asia, see the link below.

Zev Handel@zevhandel.bsky.social · last yr.

Yes, they partner with Combined Academic Press in the UK for distribution to Europe. And it looks like they are matching the sale for UW Press orders (same code: WARM25), there's a banner ad on their home page: www.combinedacademic.co.uk

Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) was an Italian Jesuit who lived in China for decades, pursuing his order’s goal of spreading the Catholic faith. He mastered both spoken Chinese and the classical written language. Ricci was well positioned to explain Chinese writing to his fellow Europeans. 1/🧵字

July 26 is Esperanto Day! Did you know that Esperanto was a major player in the Chinese language reform movement of the early 20th century? It was tied to internationalist sentiment, and particularly anarchism, in the 1910s through 1930s. 1/4

Herewith, a short thread on what I learned from this book, Yóuzhèngzhì Luómǎ Pīnyīn 郵政制羅馬拼音 (Postal Romanization), published in 1961 by the Directorate General of Posts in Taiwan. (Check out the prices in NT$, US$, and HK$. Books were cheap then.)

Andrew West, a brilliant and generous scholar, has died. corp.unicode.org/pipermail/un...

The European Association for Chinese Studies is holding an Autumn School titled "字 and the Search for Universalism", for students and junior scholars working on the history of the Chinese script and the “sinographic sphere”. Dates: 14–16 November Location: Nürnberg sites.google.com/view/eacsaut...

EACS Autumn School

Welcome to the EACS Autumn School 2025

sites.google.com

I took these photos in the Barcelona metro. The raised dot seen in the station name Paral·lel appears to be a feature of Catalan orthography. It has an interesting function.

Drops today: on this week's ARB @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast, Nicholas Gordon talks to @zevhandel.bsky.social about his book “Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese” @uwapress.bsky.social asianreviewofbooks.com/podcast-with...