Bianging around with Biang

After writing that blog post about the crazy Chinese character “biang“ a while back, I had to share this tweet by Alexander Zapryagaev @JPRidgeway about biang:


You think you saw biang? Get ready for:

  • to make a biang sound
  • to biang something
  • wild biang in the forest
  • chemical element biangium
  • to catch a biang in the river
  • River Biang
  • to eat biang
  • it’s raining biang
  • World Capital of Biang
  • the demon of Biang
Bianging around with Biang

This is a great illustration of how character components can impart meaning by combining with another character. If you’re a beginner to Chinese characters, you probably still recognize a few of these components. (Feel free to ignore the craziness that is biang!)

Learners: why not try the same exercise with a character that is not biang? You might accidentally “create” a character that already exists, but this is pretty cool in itself, because you can compare your own meaning with the actual meaning and learn something in the process!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Post

外国外国

Pronunciation : wàiguó Meaning : (noun) foreign country HSK : 1 外 国 Pronunciation : wài Meaning : (noun) outer; outward; outside (adj) foreign; external (adj) not of the same