Section Headers or Radicals in Depth – One Stroke, Radicals #1-6

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kangxi_radicals

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk

I did not forget our further studies into radicals. If you have not read my previous posts regarding strokes and radicals, I recommend reading and understanding those topics first.

 Radicals are important because it will help you recognize words faster and can clue you into their sounds or meaning. For the sake of simplicity, I will mostly refer to section headers as radicals. In our previous post about Section Headers, not every section header is considered a radical, which is why the term “section header” was created. 

Let’s learn all the 214 radicals and recognize all of them. The radical list is always in a specific order similar to ABCs in the English alphabet so radical number one will always be ”一” and so forth. You don’t have to memorize the order, but I do expect you to correctly guess the stroke count of each radical. The higher the number of total strokes, the higher the number on the radical/section header list.

This list is based on the Kanxi Dictionary and a bit of the CantoDict dictionary. Other dictionaries might categorize certain characters into a different section header. There is no unified way to classify each character. In order to learn, we would have to start somewhere with a dictionary.

Today, we’ll go over all the section headers/radicals that require only one stroke, which means your pen or brush will never leave the paper until you are finished writing the radical. There are six radicals with one stroke. Remember in a previous post, if possible, the characters are usually written from top left and end at the bottom right. If a radical is written the same way in both the simplified and traditional system, then I left the simplified radical column blank.

Radical Number / Section Header	Traditional Radical	Simplified Radical	Pinyin	Jyutping	Meaning
1	一		yī	jat1	One
2	丨		gǔn	gwan2	Line
3	丶		zhǔ	zyu2	Comma
4	丿		piě	pit3	Slash
5	乙 (⺄, 乚)		yǐ	jyut3	Second
6	亅		jué	kyut3	Hook

#1) 一 (yī in Mandarin, jat1 in Cantonese)

This radical should be familiar, right? If you’ve read my Introduction to Strokes post, this radical is actually one of the basic strokes called “橫” héng for “horizontal.” Now, we’re giving this stroke an extra meaning of being the Chinese character for the number “one.”

Let’s take a look at some examples of characters that fall under the一section header category:

Note: This list includes simplified characters. Traditional characters are colored in blue font.

2 strokes	丁 丂 七 丄 丅 丆
3 strokes	万 丈 三 上 下 丌 与
4 strokes	不 丏 丐 丑 丒 专
5 strokes	且 丕 世 丘 丙 业 丛 东 丝
6 strokes	丞 丟 丠 両
7 strokes	丣 两 严
8 strokes	並 丧兩

Unfortunately, based on the examples, it’s hard to tell why these characters are listed under the 一 section header. If we take a look at the characters with a total of two strokes, we can easily tell that these characters have an obvious héng stroke as an identifier that is as long as the character width or longer. It seems that these characters mostly have a strongly defined héng stroke either on the top of bottom of a character.

Don’t worry about not recognizing the characters; our purpose right now is to recognize the radical in each of the characters. Though, if you do recognize some characters, good for you!

#2) 丨(gǔn in Mandarin, gwan2 in Cantonese)

The section header by itself does not have any meaning. It is one of the basic stokes called the shù stroke, which is a vertical stroke.  This can also be considered the numeral “1.” Unfortunately, I could not figure out why it is called “gǔn” or “gwan2” as it does not seem to be related to anything in particular. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_2, this radical could also mean stick, which would make sense to me in Cantonese except the Cantonese jyutping pronunciation of stick, is gwan3 and not gwan2. In Mandarin, stick would be gun4 and not gun3. Or based on the translation of kanji, they do use the character for stick 棒 as the equivalent translation. Perhaps, it is related to stick as in 棍棒 (gwan3 paang5 in Cantonese) or棍棒 (gun4 bang4 in Mandarin), which in English means a “club” (the stick weapon or baseball kind of definition). That has to be it.

Characters that fall in the丨category:

2 strokes	丩
3 strokes	个丫丬
4 strokes	中丮丯丰书
5 strokes	丱
6 strokes	串
7 strokes	丳
8 strokes	临
9 strokes	丵

You may notice that the丨section header is always located either in the middle or on the right side of a character. I don’t really consider丨as a actual radical, but a part of a radical. In almost all cases, 丨 is considered the last stroke in a character. 

#3) 丶(zhǔ in Mandarin, zyu2 in Cantonese)

This section header is considered one of the basic strokes just like the section headers before it.  The stroke by itself is not a distinct character. This stroke is actually used as a comma in Chinese writing so the name of this section header is called “comma.” If you recall, this stroke is also called a “dot” but for purposes of being a section header, it really represents a comma slash more than an actual dot.

Characters that fall in the丶section header:

2 strokes	丷
3 strokes	丸凡
4 strokes	丹为
5 strokes	主丼
7 strokes	丽
9 strokes	举

These comma section headers look like icing on the cake. They are usually found at the top of or in the middle of a character.

#4) 丿(piě in Mandarin, pit3 in Cantonese)

Known for being one of the basic strokes, piě is commonly known as a slash or a throw away stroke. If written by itself, it would not have any specific meaning.

Characters that fall in the 丿section header:

2 strokes	乂乃 乄
3 strokes	久 乆 乇 么 义 乊 之 乡
4 strokes	乌 乏之乏
5 strokes	乍 乎 乐
6 strokes	丢 乑（乑 is a variant of 眾 or 众） 乒 乓 乔
7 strokes	乕
8 strokes	乖
9 strokes	乗
10 strokes	乘

Can you locate the section header in each character?

From what I notice from the characters located in the丿section header, the piě section header can be found usually at the top of a character. Otherwise, the section header can be found on the left, middle or bottom right.

#5)  乙 (yǐ in Mandarin, jyut3 in Cantonese),  乛 (zhé in Mandarin, zit3 in Cantonese) and 乚(yin3 in Mandarin or jyut3 in Cantonese)  

Variants of radicals share the same section header. 乙 shares the section header with 乛 and 乚. Interestingly, if you break the radical 乙 down into two parts, you will have 乛, the upper part, and 乚, the lower part.

乙 is commonly known as being the “second” meaning in a series or list. It is the “B” in “ABCD.”

If you recall from the combination strokes section of a previous post, 乛 is commonly known as the break stroke, which changes directions based on the last stroke made on paper.

The meaning of 乚 involves a secret or a hidden meaning.  This is also a combination stroke: shù wān gōu. 

Characters that fall into the 乙 / 乛 /乚 section header:

2 strokes	乜 九
3 strokes	乞 也 习
4 strokes	乢 乣 乤 乥
5 strokes	乧氹
6 strokes	乨 乩 乪 乫 乬 乭 乮 乯厾
7 strokes	乱 乲
8 strokes	乳 乴 乵 乶 乷 乸
9 strokes	乹 乺 乻 乼 乽
11 strokes	乾 乿 亀
12 strokes	亁
13 strokes	亂 亃 亄
14 strokes	

If you cannot see the last character in the 14 strokes row, then you might be missing some Chinese fonts. Download more fonts or use this recommended page:

http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/t/ttf-arphic-ukai/ttf-arphic-ukai_0.2.20080216.1.orig.tar.gz

Did you find where the radicals are located in each of the characters above? One thing for sure is that each character has a gou (hook) stroke in it. If you can find the gou stroke, you can find the stroke(s) connecting the gou to help you identify the root radical. Or in the case of 乜 or 也, it looks like there are two radicals in it: 乛 and 乚! One thing I did notice is that it isn’t exactly clear sometimes which is the dominant radical or section header. Did you see any of the previous section headers in some of the characters? As I mentioned before in my radical post and I will paraphrase; when in doubt, take an educated guess starting with the radical that sticks out the most to you.

#6) 亅(jué in Mandarin, kyut3 in Cantonese)

Besides being a section header, the jué or kyut3 stroke is a combination stroke. Otherwise known as a 竖钩 shùgōu stroke in Mandarin or a 豎鉤 syu6 ngau1 stroke in Cantonese, a vertical stroke followed by a hook is specifically called a jué or kyut3 stroke.

Characters that are included in the亅category:

2 strokes	了
3 strokes	亇
4 strokes	予
6 strokes	争
7 strokes	爭
8 strokes	亊（simplified Korean character）
9 strokes	事

It is easy to notice that the jué or kyut3 radical is always located at the bottom.

I’m proud to say that writing this blog requires a lot of research and time, but we survived the first six radicals, all of which we previously covered in an earlier post. Therefore, you are not learning a new topic, but expanding on what you already know.  Again, I don’t want you to memorize any character, but to be able to recognize the radicals themselves. Later on, the radicals will get more complex and I want you to be able to identify each radical part as a whole and be able to guess the correct section header.

Companies and Products Translated into Chinese

I want to make a list of famous company names or products and their Chinese equivalent. I will edit this list from time to time. Most of the Chinese translations are phonetic transliterations and the Chinese try to create a name that is more or less the same sounds, but is also meaningful. Sometimes, a direct translation is used such as when translating the word “diet” for a product.

Keep in mind that the phonetic sounds are predominantly created to match the Mandarin language and not the Cantonese language.

For the Literal Meaning column, I chose to translate each character. If a character had more than one meaning, I chose the best appropriate definition. If the Chinese character’s definition uses more than one English word, the first English word is capitalized.

For the connotation column, I based the meaning on how I would interpret the meaning. I left the connotation column blank if the literal meaning, the denotation, is the same as the connotation. 

If you know any more transliterations that are not on the list, drop me a comment with proof of its accuracy. I’ll also accept any nicknames if there are any.

I owe a great deal to http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary and http://google.com for this project.

Here is the link!

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=BF8AED0897926D3C!173

Chinese Ribbon Dancing - 彩带舞蹈 / 彩帶舞蹈

Ever since I tried ribbon dancing for the first time at ALESN, I was fascinated by it. I always wanted try ribbon dancing, but I never had an opportunity during my childhood. In hindsight, I should have pursued everything I wanted to pursue before I entered college even with my tightly packed schedule because opportunities become scarce as we grow older. In my mini-research about ribbon dancing on Google, I found that:

1)       There is little information about the topic of ribbon dancing (at least in English) on Google

2)       Classes are usually offered to kids (kindergarten to 18yrs)

I will try to compile and organize all the basic information in combination with my one-class experience with Alyssa, our ALESN ribbon dance instructor, who I am grateful for teaching me all these moves. If you have any experience on this topic, please let me know if I’m missing anything or if any corrections need to be made.

Ribbon Dancing is known as  彩带舞蹈 / 彩帶舞蹈 (cǎi dài wǔ dǎo in Mandarin or coi2 daai2 mou5 dou6 in Cantonese). The literal meaning would be "colorful belt dance." Sometimes, people might shorten it to only  彩带舞 / 彩帶舞.

History:

I found an ehow website that sums up the general information about ribbon dancing. Apparently, a man named Hsiang Po stalled an assassination attempt on the Han dynasty king with his long, silk sleeve and saved the king's life. Then, ribbon dancing was created to celebrate the savior.

 http://www.ehow.com/about_6292248_history-chinese-ribbon-dance.html

http://www.ehow.com/about_6406156_history-chinese-red-ribbon-dance.html

Movement:

It’s important to stretch before doing this exercise. It may look easy while watching other people twirl a ribbon, but I have used almost all the arms and leg muscles in my body, which brought me lots of aches the following day. Beginners can work with one ribbon and alternate hands when tired. If the ribbon gets tied up in a knot while twirling (and it happens), a dancer should fix it right away or else the knotted ribbon will add weight while in motion.

The ribbon makes a whoosh noise if I swing it harder. It makes a beautiful sound while dancing as if we’re in a martial arts movie. It is especially beautiful to swoosh the ribbon at the beginning of a move if you plan to let the ribbon naturally fall.

The Walk

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/21207-chinese-ribbon-dance/

From what I researched, the term for walking in ribbon dancing is called “cloud steps” or "云步 / 雲步" (yún bù in Mandarin or wan4 bou6 in Cantonese.)  Dancers travel in mini-steps, one foot in front of the other in a heel-toe fashion. Traveling in cloud steps will work all the muscles in the back of the lower leg. Cloud steps give the audience an illusion that the dancers are walking on clouds. A dancer must use cloud steps to travel forward at all times unless the dancer is male. Male dancers may walk normally in wider steps in a manly fashion. When moving backwards, the female dancers should shuffle backwards in tiny steps. Men should just act manly at all times.

The Hand Gesture

www.nainichen.org/Tradition/DragonsTale.pdf  

When a dancer is not holding the ribbon rod, the free hand must always be in the "orchid hand" position known as 兰花手/  蘭花手 “lán huā shǒu” in Mandarin or “laan4 faa1sau2” in Cantonese. In the orchid position, the middle finger is bent lower than the rest of the fingers with the thumb almost touching the middle finger. This part creates the orchid. The rest of the other fingers act as petals, extending at different angles for a prettier pose. The hand or hands stay in this position whether the hand or hands is facing up, down, in or out. I believe this gesture is the same for all type of Chinese dances.

For the men, the hand gesture is easier. The free hand or hands is flat with the thumb bent at all times.

Ribbon Dancing Techniques/Moves:

These moves don’t have any special names (except for the advanced move) that I know of so I will just describe them one by one.

#1) Wave the ribbon up and down, making big or little movements as you travel.

#2) Start with the ribbon high (and according to Alyssa, I can accentuate the height by bending my knees and then stand on my tippy toes for a second to make it seem like the ribbon is flowing higher) and then make continuous left and right motions while moving the rod lower and lower at the same time. The width of the motion is up to the dancer.

#3) Like the second technique, the ribbon can be swung side-to-side behind the head and shoulders except there is no downwards motion. It looks like a flag is waving behind the dancer. The position starts with the elbow raised up and the hand behind and above the shoulders. This move is usually done while walking at the same time, creating a wavy effect behind the dancer.

#4) Move the whole arm in a circular motion at the side of your body. This will get tiring. You can also try the swoosh effect at the beginning of the move.

#5) Making figure-eights with your hands and arms in front of your body with each ribbon. This can also be done at the side of the body.

#6) Turning in place with the arms out. This move will create dizziness, especially when doing traveling turns. Spotting will be useful for this move. Spotting is when a dancer focuses on the same spot before and after the turn to lessen the dizziness.

#7) Modifying move #6, the turn starts with the arms up high and gradually the arms lower as they fall to the side while turning to make a beautiful ribbon descending effect. It looks like a slow jumping jack with the arms. Again, the turn can be done in place or while traveling.

#8) This move is another modification to a turn. Instead of keeping your arms steady while turning, try doing the wave while turning as mentioned in technique #1.

#9) The difficulty of this move is hard. I’m not sure if I remember correctly from Alyssa's class, but it’s called 风火轮 / 風火輪 “wind fire wheel” (feng1 huo3 lun2 in Mandarin or fung1fo2 leon4 in Cantonese). Coincidentally, this phrase is the same phrase for the “Hot Wheels” brand. It might be hard to explain but your arms are taking turns making circles either in front of you or behind you. Your arms are always rotating in opposite directions. The key is to twist your waist and upper-body left and right in order to complete the circle, swinging the ribbon to the other side to complete one half-circle at a time. The effect is actually really cool and is usually accomplished by guys with power, but this is a very advanced move. The legs should be apart and in place during this move.

In other words, if your left arm is swinging upwards in the circle while facing right in front of your body, by the time a half circle is done, your upper body will twist to face left with your right arm swinging upwards now in front of your body. Consequently, your left arm is swinging downwards in a circle.

A shorter order: Face Right, Left swing up, twist, Face Left, Right swing up.

When this move is done without ribbons and just arms, it looks like a kung-fu move.

Video:

I’ve included a video of Alyssa, our ribbon dancing instructor, performing her song at the end of class. She was already low on stamina, but decided to give us another grand performance. To those who are thinking of pursuing ribbon dancing, good luck and have fun!

Alyssa's after-class encore performance. She was a bit tired. You might notice that Alyssa uses a lot of the techniques that I mentioned in this post.

Alyssa trying to show us a move.

I filmed Alyssa's performance at a talent show. Bravo!