Chinese Characters General Books

China: Empire of Living Symbols, by Cecilia Lindqvist

A fantastic book about the mystery of Chinese characters, in the context of the Chinese civilization since the beginning. It gives an overview of the evolution of the characters from a historian point of view, based on archeology discoveries. I really liked the numerous drawings illustrating how characters evolved in time.

The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, by John Defrancis

A very interesting book, written as a novel, which discusses the pros and cons of the Chinese character-based writing system. Taking nothing for granted, the author gives many examples to form an opinion regarding the power of kanji-based versus strictly phonetic writing systems.

Japanese Kanji Study Books

My selection of Japanese kanji books is limited to only four, because there are so many of them (usually saying the same thing presented the same way), that I prefer to concentrate on the ones that step out of the crowded for serious (and fun) kanji study.

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, by Kenneth G. Henshall

This is one of the most useful books on Japanese kanji. Whether you have learned 2 or 2000 kanji already, you will find it useful. It takes each of the 2000 Japanese kanji one by one and details its possible origin and etymology (these are sometimes really fanciful). It also gives a quick mnemonic to remember the kanji shape and meaning (mnemonics are sometimes too weird to be useful but it is a great idea anyway). It gives 3 Japanese useful compound words for each kanji. This is the only kanji book I use all the time.

Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, by Michael Rowley

This is a fun book to have when you start learning kanji because it presents the characters based on their look rather than their origin (or gives some very imaginative origins). For those who have a graphic memory like myself, it is worth it. However, after you have learned a few hundreds kanji, you won't use it anymore. An original book for the beginner.

Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters, by James W. Heisig, James W. Heising

A 3 volumes set of books that are very nicely done.

"The" reference. It details everything, from Chinese turtle shell origin to all possible ways of writing it (pen, brush, calligraphy, computer, seal, script, etc... even turtle shell engraving). It also gives calligraphy samples for each kanji, and goes into many details on how to write each character with the proper balance. Unfortunately, it's entirely in Japanese, so it's maybe not for complete beginners.

Japanese Kanji Study Flashcards

Kanji Cards, by Alexander Kask

The best Japanese kanji flashcards on the market. This set presents the first 440 Japanese kanji on very well presented (and good paper quality) cards. Compound words are really useful, there are very few mistakes, readings are up-to-date, the large kanji is written with a brush, and it includes the stroke order as well! If only it included the frequency of use on each card. The real drawback to this set of flashcards (which applies to almost all other sets on the market) is that kanji readings come in romaji, not in kana. I believe that kana (hiragana and katakana) is a prerequisite for learning kanji and any kanji reading should always be written in kana. A second set was release recently called Kanji Cards II, which adds the next 566 kanji (to cover all Grade 1 to Grade 6 kanji (i.e. the first 1006 Japanese kanji). The second set is as good as the first one but the large kanji is not brush written anymore (it is a font), the stroke order is gone and there are a bit more mistakes.

Chinese Characters Study Books

Chinese Characters, by Dr. L. Wieger

First published on 1915, this book is the result of a research from Dr Wieger on Chinese character origin, etymology, history, classification and signification. Considered as a reference (it is one of the first in-depth research made on Chinese characters by a westerner), I find it interesting if you already know a good number of kanji (500+), or if you are learning Japanese kanji and would like to know more about the same ones in (traditional) Chinese. It doesn't include any compound word. This edition is about 820 pages, and is basically the photocopies of the 1927 edition (in other words, you have to really want to read it because it looks quite ugly). Includes a very interesting 20 pages introduction to Chinese characters, and some amazing reproductions of old graphies (from 2000 B.C. to Confucius era) with translation in today's Chinese and English.

Analysis of Chinese Characters, by G.D. Wilder and J.H. Ingram

First published in 1922, this book takes the previous one (Chinese Characters, by Dr. L. Wieger) and complements it, by analyzing about 1000 (traditional) Chinese characters. If you buy the Wieger book  it is good to buy this one as well, but this is also one of these books that is interesting only if you have a passion for Kanji. It doesn't include any compound word. This edition is about 360 pages, and analyses about 1000 characters one by one. The introduction is really interesting, adding real value to Wieger's introduction.

Electronic Dictionaries

Whether in Chinese or Japanese, how do you look up a word, or a character you don't know, in a dictionary? You just cannot do it with a standard paper dictionary (or are left with the stroke count index, which is the left efficient way of looking up a character), because these are sorted by pronunciation and you may not know the pronunciation of that particular word or character.

Electronic dictionaries, which can recognize hand written writing are, by far, the most convenient way for studying with Chinese characters, because they allow you to search characters based shape criteria, as well as stroke count, pronunciation, radical, and of course meaning. When you want to lookup an unknown character, you just draw it onto the device, and it will tell you what is means and how it is pronounced. Since automatic hand written recognition is far more accurate with kanji than Latin characters, there is no doubt that this is the most powerful dictionary you can find, and the reason why I do not list any other.

I bought my first one a week after arriving in Japan, a Sharp Zaurus PI 6000 (the top of the line at that time), which includes Japanese/Japanese, Kanji, Japanese/English and English Japanese dictionary, organizer, word processor... and a bench of other nice features. I have used it since then all the time. I recently bought a newer version, the Sharp Zaurus Pocket MI110 (be careful, the Sharp Zaurus product line is different in Japan and in western countries; I am talking about the Japanese versions).

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