Fun with Chinese Characters 1 (Straits Times Collection Vol. 1)

Remembering chinese characters is incredibly difficult. This book gives great illustrations and explanation for many of the most frequently encountered characters: 176 in total, one per page. For each character you get an example in a sentence, and its use in a compound. Because many characters are over and over again this gives you a great base for learning other characters because these can form mneumonics to help you remember more complex characters. Often I found that a character I was having trouble with would suddenly stick just by seeing the illustration and its explanation. Such books along with 250 Essential Characters are essential. The book uses standard pinyin and simplified chinese.

Very accessable. Shows line by line how the character is drawn with a dozen or so examples of the character along with another forming words. There is also a cartoon showing how the character has changed over centuries or why the character is shaped the way it is. It's the perfect book for someone like me, trying to begin on their own.

I found 'Fun With Chinese Characters', as well as the rest of Tan's work, easy to read, informative, and very helpful in learning Chinese.

After a brief introdouction to the Chinese language each page deals with one character, providing examples of older forms, a story behind the character, which sometimes gived insight into Chinese culture or proverbs (A word of warning should be given that not all of his explanations are genuine, some are purely mnemonic. However, he never claims anything more.), a cartoon to illustrate the point, several compound words and a simple example sentence.

Strong/helpful points are the mnemonic focus of the book (illustraions, stories, historical development, etc.), pinyin, the breaking down of some of the characters into primary components.

Weaknesses are that not all of his explanations are genuine and their is nothing to tell you when they are genuine and when they are not, which is the only reason why I only gave it 3 stars. Also I found the referencing to characters to be wanting.

If you're a visual learner and you are in it for ease of learning and memory aid then you will probably enjoy this book.
However, if you are after a historical/scholarly work on Chinese characters then you will likely be disappointed. (McNaughton's 'Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System' available in both simplified and traditional characters and Harbaugh's 'Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary' might be better for you.)

Remember, the book is called, 'FUN With Chinese Characters'

This book (with its two companion volumes) is a wonderful work for a number of reasons. Its introductory essay (a nine page historical overview of Chinese characters, emphasizing their phonetic-radical structure) is worth the price of the book all by itself. The cartoon drawings are artful and evocative. The generative and mnemonic entries are informative, historically based, and sublimely written. The work emphasizes simplified characters but supports traditional characters as well. It has examples of modern usage.
I have only a few caveats: The handwritten characters for given names (e.g., those for Cang Ji) in the introductory essay are virtually indecipherable. There are unfortunately no examples from literary Chinese (wen yan wen). Many proverbs (cheng yu)occur only in English translation, not in the original Chinese.
Nevertheless, I highly recommend this work for beginners and intermediate Chinese readers. Advanced Chinese readers will appreciate it for its colloquial and artistic qualities--and may find amusing or enlightening tidbits within.

This is a really fun book. I'm currently in my first year of chinese and really enjoy using this book outside of school. My teacher recommended it to me. It illustrates characters that normally seem difficult in a fun way. This isn't the best choice for someone who is not taking chinese in a class but independantly. It doesn't give much detail on how to use the words. It's just like an interactive dictionary. I absolutely love it.