Written more than 5,000 years ago, it is also known as Yi Jing (易经) or Book of Changes.  It is perhaps the world’s oldest surviving book.

It is the most significant book in the whole Chinese history, as it is regarded as the foremost of all Chinese classics.  Almost all schools of thought in China find their origin in the book.  

Having some understanding of what the book says will help you appreciate the Chinese culture and mindset.

When it was first discovered, the book contained only symbols. Thanks to people like King Wen who deciphered the symbols and expanded the book to make it more comprehensible and applicable.  

It is generally believed that the accompanying commentaries and notes that guide the reading were written by Confucius, although this view has become controversial in recent years.

These are some of the I Ching guides  that you may find useful:

Total I Ching: Myths for Change
The I Ching or Book of Changes

You’ll see the theory of yin-yang being applied in almost everything Chinese.  From foods and martial arts to the Chinese traditional medicine.

What is yin-yang?

Yin and yang are two sides of dualism. In the case of a coin, the tail is yin, and the head the coin. A woman is yin, and a man is yang. Sadness is yin, while joyfulness is yan

Yin and yang exist alongside one another. The head of a coin cannot exist without the tail, and the tail cannot exist without the head.

Yin and yang have to be balanced, or things will go wrong.

The yin-yang balance can be seen in the yin and yang symbol, as shown on the top left.

The symbol is in the shape of a circle and consists of two colors. The black color represents the yin energy, and the white color represents the yang. They are opposing qualities of dualism.

In the circle, there are two fish-like features. The black fish is yin, and the white fish is yang.

There is a black dot that looks like an eye of the white fish. Similarly, there is a white dot as if an eye of the black fish. Walking through the diameter of the circle, you will not experience pure black or pure white. There is always some black and some white.

This means that yin and yang are rooted in one another. You find yin in yang, and yang in yin. This is, in fact, a reality of life. In life, you hardly find a situation which is pure yin or pure yang. There are seeds of sadness in happiness; and opportunities in every risk.

Yin and yang wax and wane; and can be mutually transformed.

For step-by-step instructions on how to import from China from a veteran, click here.

You can do it as an individual.

It is not as daunting as you’d imagine. Thanks to the internet, it can be managed almost entirely from your laptop. What’s more, it does not matter where you are — California, Italy or New Dehli. .

China is now – without doubt — the world’s factory. It has greater power to manufacture more products, offer you a higher profit margin, thereby allowing you a bigger budget for marketing, leading to more business and more sales.

If you are thinking of starting a business, or expand your current endeavor, do not ignore the dragon power.

Amy Hallnow, an industry veteran who used to work for a Fortune 500 company, does exactly this from her laptop in Southern California. Click here to read about her story

It is ‘a piece of apple’, not ‘an apple’.

Of course, I’m talking about speaking the Chinese language.

Unlike English, you often add a classifier, or measure word, when you are describing quantity. It is, therefore,more proper to say ‘a piece of apple’, i.e. yi ge pingguo 一个苹果; rather than ‘an apple’ 一苹果– without the ‘ge’ 个as a classifier.

This can be confusing for people who are new to the language.

Add to the confusion is that the classifiers vary from object to object. In other words, there are different classifiers for different things. For example, the classifiers for a cow and a dog are different. You would say that there is ‘a head of cow’ 一头牛 but not ‘a head of dog’ 一头狗. The classifier for dog is ‘zhi’ 只, a rather common measure word, which vaguely means a unit of something.

Fortunately, if you are unsure about which classifier to use, there is one way out — always use the measure word ‘ge’ 个. The word is quite a universal classifier. It may sound odd to those who are fluent in Chinese, but they would not say that you are wrong.

This is among a few other things that you should know before you begin learning the language.

Just like learning any other languages, ultimately you will have to listen, speak and write as much as you can, in order to become fluent in the language. Knowing the peculiarity of language before hand, however, can help you plan your learning strategy better. At least, you will not be caught surprised when faced with awkward things like this.

You may want to read more about the peculiarity of the Chinese language by going to this web page of mine: http://www.chineseonthego.com/i_learn_chinese_easy.html .

You may also want to consider taking up one of the good programs for learning Chinese online, which teach you step-by-step in handling such language peculiarity. I’ve short-listed two of them for you in this review.

Other learning resources:

Fluenz Version F2: Mandarin 1+2 (Win/Mac) with software DVDs, audio CDs, podcasts, and Navigator. Learn Chinese with the latest upgrade.
Learn Chinese the Fast and Fun Way (Barron’s Fast and Fun Way Language Series)
Speak! Chinese

Neither the Iraq War, nor the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, according to an analysis by a US-based media tracking group.

It was the rise of China as an economic superpower.

The Global Language Monitor uses an algorithm to search print and electronic media for trends in word usage. The list was compiled based on the number of citations over the decade on the internet, in blogs and social media, as well as the top 50,000 print and electronic media sites.

“The rise of China to new economic heights has changed – and continues to challenge – the current international order,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “It is with little surprise that its ongoing transformation has topped all other news stories in a decade bespotted by war, economic catastrophe, and natural disasters.”

It does not matter what you do. Business, education, the arts, politics, or what not. It is quite naturally that when you are planning for your development, you would want to take the rise of China into consideration.

One of the things that you may do is to learn the Chinese language. With proper system and guidance, learning Chinese can be a pleasant and rewarding endeavour. One of those systems that you may want to check out this  Chinese learning resource.

You may also like to find out how to learn Chinese more effectively.

You may also want to read these:

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us
China Shakes the World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future — and the Challenge for America
China’s Rise: Challenges and Opportunities

Very soon, we are going to usher in the 2010. Let me wish you Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Well, you may want to send the same greetings in Chinese to your friends well. I’ve already shown you how Merry Christmas is said and written in Chinese. Now, let’s look at how to say and write ‘Happy New Year’.

The good news is the greeting that you are about to learn can be used for both the Gregorian calendar new year, and the traditional Chinese lunar new year.

Again, I’d demonstrate to you in the video how the greeting is written in both the simplified and traditional Chinese.

You may also want to see the greeting in print.

新年快乐

新年快樂

If you are sending the greeting to someone in places like China and Singapore, use the simplified Chinese. If you are writing to someone in places like Taiwan are Hong Kong, write in the traditional Chinese.

Do not forget that the few words that you write in the Chinese characters can be a good way to show your sincerity, especially when Chinese is not your first language. I’m sure your friends will receive it with deep appreciation.

Enjoy writing!

This is an important point to note, if you want to build a good guanxi (relationship) in China, or speak Chinese well.

This is reflected in the way that siblings in a family are addressed.

When you are talking about your brother, do not be surprised the Chinese to whom you speak to respond by asking you, “big or small?”

In Chinese, there is no one character that describes brother. There is one character for elder brother — ‘xiong’ (兄), and another for younger brother ‘di’ (弟). If you want to describe the relationship of brothers in general, then you’d have to use the two characters at the same time to form another word ‘xiongdi’ (兄弟).

Similarly, there are separate characters to describe older and younger sister. The other sister is jie (姐), and younger mei (妹).

In the Chinese culture, the younger have to respect the order.

This explains why when you are interacting with Chinese, not only do you have to respect people of higher ranks, you must respect people who are older than in terms of age. This can be rather confusing at first for the foreigners, but simply bear this in mind, and you would soon be get used to it.

It is, therefore, not surprising that someone who is much higher than you respectfully addressing you as an elder brother.

In fact, if you know how to use this strategically, this gives you a lot more room when building trust and relationship, or doing business in China.

Understand the ‘big and small’ (there is even a proverb about this), and it would improve your relationships in a big way in China.

One of the first things that you need to know before learning Chinese is its tones.

If you’re a speaker of non-tonal language like English, it may be difficult for you to comprehend. In Chinese, a slight change of Internation would change the meaning of a syllable altogether. In other words, even if you have got everything right but speak in a wrong tone, you will not be understood.

Listen to the audio clip below. You’ll hear two Mandarin phrases. There is no difference between them in terms of pronunciation. Both are pronounced as Si. The only difference between them are the tones of their first syllable. The first one in the first tone, and the second in the third tone.

Pronouncing Siren

Guess what! The first phrase means private, and the other means a dead body or a corps.

Just imagine how embarassing you can be if you get the tone wrong!

So when you are learning a new word in Mandarin, remember its tone!

Don’t ever think that you just get the pronunciation right first, and come back to learn the tone later. It does not work that way!

If you don’t get the tone right, you don’t get the word right.

Read more about learning Chinese.

I know it is difficult to write ‘Merry Christmas’ Chinese characters. For those who like to receive the greetings in Chinese, however, your effort can be a highly valued gift.

Try writing it by following what I do in the video below. Just in case if you want to see the characters in print, here you are — respectively in simplified and traditional Chinese:

圣诞快乐

聖誕快樂

In the video, you see me demonstrate writing the greeting in the simplified and traditional Chinese characters.   If you are writing to someone from places like the PRC, Singapore and Malaysia, write the simplified version. If you are writing to someone from places like Taiwan and Hong Kong, choose the traditional version.

Chinese all over the world have been celebrating Christmas and the new year, Christians or not.

In China, celebrating Christmas has become fashionable. Similarly, many of them simply enjoyed the festive mood, and are not necessarily Christians. I experienced my first whitesilent night and Christmas in Beijing in 1995 with my wife and a group of Chinese friends. It was so lovely!  Over the years, the festive activities are getting more widely observed.

You may wonder why I don’t include ‘happy new year’ in the greeting. As a matter of fact, Chinese rarely put the two together. They would greet only  ’Merry Christmas’, skipping the ‘happy new year’.

Just in case you need Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas!