{"id":1561,"date":"2019-04-09T23:23:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T07:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2025-11-30T23:05:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:05:38","slug":"obscure-differences-between-kanji-and-chinese-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/09\/obscure-differences-between-kanji-and-chinese-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Obscure differences between Kanji and Chinese characters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People who already know Chinese characters are often said to have the advantage of being able to pick up Japanese quickly. However, to learn it properly, in addition to the\u00a0 difference between <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Infix_notation\">infix<\/a> (English, Chinese) and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reverse_Polish_notation\">reverse polish<\/a> (Japanese) notations,\u00a0it also comes with quite a bit of baggage. It&#8217;s the differences that requires work to observe, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>some made up &#8216;Chinese&#8217; characters (\u548c\u88fd\u6f22\u8a9e),<\/li>\n<li>some are written slightly differently, including artistic variations<\/li>\n<li>some have a completely different meaning,<\/li>\n<li>some have opposite preferences for using which character in the pair when simplifying<\/li>\n<li>and some have drastically different overtones despite they technically mean the same thing<\/li>\n<li>the mixture of simplified and traditional characters, occasionally a character written like simplified Chinese means something totally different from traditional Chinese, such as \u673a\uff08\u3064\u304f\u3048\uff09which means desk vs \u6a5f\uff08\u30ad\uff09which means machines or chances depending on the context.<\/li>\n<li>the roles of historical and modern writings are randomly reversed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u5b66\u7fd2 is a good example. Modern Chinese considers\u00a0\u5b66 to be more colloquial (e.g. \u5b66\u6b66\u529f\uff09and\u00a0\u7fd2 to be more formal (e.g. \u7fd2\u6b66). Japanese is the other way round for \u5b66\u3076 and \u7fd2\u3046\u3002\u5b66\u3076 has a more serious tone.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Actually, the kinds of variations mentioned above applies to regional differences in Chinese languages (such as Taiwanese, Cantonese and Mandarin).\u00a0Most places agree to write Chinese in a way that can be read directly using Mandarin so that we can at least communicate on paper. So as time goes by, we lost the ability to write in Taiwanese and Cantonese. I hope it&#8217;ll change as both dialects are very colorful. Re-expressing them in Mandarin will take away all the flavors in them.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s evident that humans can pick up more than one language, so there is no reason to compromise dialects in the process of standardization. People advocating to kill other languages are simpletons who believe in the kind of logic supporting a competitive system: you find ways to make your peers do worse to stay ahead, instead of improving yourself.<\/p>\n<p>Different regions occasionally have different preferences for character order in phrases. Basically we have to watch out for all kinds of combinations. Like \u4ecb\u7d39 is used in the same order for Taiwanese\/Cantonese\/Mandarin to mean introduction, but it&#8217;s reversed \u7d39\u4ecb(\u3057\u3087\u3046\u304b\u3044) in Japanese. To make it a total mindfuck, Mandarin sticks with \u5ba2\u4eba for guests, which is used the same way as Japanese&#8217;s \u5ba2\u4eba(\u304d\u3083\u304f\u306b\u3093), Taiwanese mostly says \u4eba\u5ba2, while Cantonese uses both with slight overtones: \u5ba2\u4eba is usually used as a particular noun (e.g. \u5462\u4f4d\u5ba2\u4eba) while \u4eba\u5ba2 is often used as a collective noun (e.g. \u4eba\u5ba2\u569f\u9f4a\u672a?).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Putting traditional and simplified Chinese aside, different regions have different preferences for Chinese characters. I\u00a0couldn&#8217;t tell the difference between traditional Chinese characters used in Hongkong\/Macau (\u6e2f\u6fb3\u7e41\u9ad4) and Taiwan (\u53f0\u7063\u6b63\u9ad4) on Wikipedia, and later learned that it was because I&#8217;ve been randomly mixing both all along and nobody ever pointed it out.<\/p>\n<p>\u88cf\/\u7740 (Hongkong) vs \u88e1\/\u8457 (Taiwan) are good examples. For these two, modern Japanese sided with Hongkong in the character choices for \u88cf(\u3046\u3089) and \u7740(\u3061\u3083\u304f). On the other hand, \u5cf0(\u307f\u306d) in Japanese sided with the Taiwanese&#8217;s preferred writing \u5cf0, while the \u5cef is the &#8216;officially&#8217; preferred writing in Hongkong.<\/p>\n<p>I remember writing \u5cf0 most of the time even when I was a kid and only used \u5cef for names that specifically calls for it. We respect the original writing for names. This is the similar situation as in Japanese: \u6ca2(\u3055\u308f\/\u305f\u304f) is used in most cases and reserve \u6fa4(\u30b5\u30ef) for names that specifically requests to be written in this form. The only difference is that I used the official character \u5cef exclusively for names, while using the off-label \u5cf0 for the rest.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of names, there are some similar-looking characters that has the same Japanese sound (\u304b\u306a) but are actually different in both writing and meaning. \u6589\u85e4 and \u658e\u85e4 are different, but they are easily confused even for native Japanese speakers who don&#8217;t have any Chinese language background. Here&#8217;s the table for comparison:<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\" border=\"1\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 27px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\"><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">\u9f4a\uff0f\u9f50\u30fb\u6589<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">\u9f4b\uff0f\u9f4b\u30fb<a href=\"https:\/\/ja.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%E6%96%8E\">\u658e<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 27px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw\/meancompare\/9f4b\/9f4a\">Meaning<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">Gathered, organized<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">Plain, house, recitations<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 27px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">Cantonese<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">chai (cai4)<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">jaai (zaai1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 27px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">Taiwanese<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">ts\u00e8<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">tsai<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 27px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">Mandarin<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">qi2<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%; height: 27px;\">zhai1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%;\">Japanese (\u97f3\u8aad\u307f\uff1a\u3055\u3044)<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%;\">\u6589\u3057\u3044\u30fb\u7b49\u3057\u304f<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 33.3333%;\">\u3044\u3064\u304d\u30fb\uff08\u6f54\u658e\uff09\u7269\u5fcc\u307f<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The bottom line is: as language evolves, different regions have different preferences about what can they be sloppy about and what they must be meticulous about.\u00a0They also reorder\/tweak things to make them flow smoothly with their dialect. This means\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1.0625rem;\">traps for for those learning a new language that are close to what they&#8217;ve already mastered.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 1.0625rem;\">I came across a document called \u5e38\u7528\u6f22\u5b57\u8868 released by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (\u6587\u5316\u5e81) that explains all the quirks of Kanji that was carefully collecting on my own while taking the classes. Wish I had it back in the days. Here&#8217;s the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bunka.go.jp\/kokugo_nihongo\/sisaku\/joho\/joho\/kijun\/naikaku\/pdf\/joyokanjihyo_20101130.pdf\">link<\/a>, but I also saved a local copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/\u5e38\u7528\u6f22\u5b57\u8868_20101130.pdf\">\u5e38\u7528\u6f22\u5b57\u8868<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1.0625rem;\">just in case if their website moves around in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1561\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"1561\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People who already know Chinese characters are often said to have the advantage of being able to pick up Japanese quickly. However, to learn it properly, in addition to the\u00a0 difference between infix (English, Chinese) and reverse polish (Japanese) notations,\u00a0it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/09\/obscure-differences-between-kanji-and-chinese-characters\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1561\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"1561\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,21,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japanese","category-languages","category-note-to-self"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6627,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/6627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}