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
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!