Writing
Chinese names are written in Chinese characters. These originated from the Shang oracle bone script. The modern forms were largely established by the time of the Han dynasty's clerical script, but continued to develop. As new styles of calligraphy arose, variant characters sometimes entered the mainstream; likewise, some were political decisions whose success depended on the fate of their promulgators.
The two main modern forms are the simplified characters developed during the 1950s by the People's Republic of China and the traditional characters employed by the Republic of China, Hong Kong, and much of the Chinese diaspora. For example, a person who writes his name as 张伟 in a foreign country might be expected to come from mainland China or Singapore, while a 張偉 – the same name in traditional characters – might be asked if he or his family is originally from Taiwan or Hong Kong. When in Chinese speaking countries, the local variant of characters are used.
Chinese names in other East Asian countries have been influenced by the adoption of Hangul in Korea during the 1890s; the Japanese script reform beginning in 1900 and expanded after 1946 into the modern shinjitai; and the adoption of the Portuguese-based Quốc Ngữ script for Vietnamese after World War I.
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Famous quotes containing the word writing:
“To write weekly, to write daily, to write shortly, to write for busy people catching trains in the morning or for tired people coming home in the evening, is a heartbreaking task for men who know good writing from bad. They do it, but instinctively draw out of harm’s way anything precious that might be damaged by contact with the public, or anything sharp that might irritate its skin.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.
‘Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense:”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“As I am writing my thought, it sometimes escapes me; but this makes me remember my weakness, which I constantly forget. This is as instructive to me as my forgotten thought; for I strive only to know my nothingness.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)