We will start to talk about the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac 生肖shēngxiào. Eleven of them are living in our real life, one lives in our imagination, that is the dragon. The symbol of 2012 is dragon. Here is another blog about 2012 the year of dargon.
There is a special sequence when these animals show up to represent each year. 鼠shǔ (mouse) is the first one. Why? There is a story. Long long ago, the God in heaven wanted to choose 12 animals to be in charge of each year. So there was a competition among all the animals. The first 12 animals who walked through the gate of heaven will become immortal. Here is the video of the story:
Now let's see how to read, write and use the character for mouse, 鼠shǔ .
I just finished reading Deborah Fallows' book Dreaming in Chinese. It will be an interesting book for any English speaker who wants to learn Chinese. Deborah has lived in Shanghai and Beijing,
and traveled throughout China for three years with her husband, the
writer James Fallows. She is a Harvard graduate and has a PhD in
linguistics, and is the author of A Mother's Work. You can also visit her website: www.deborahfallows.com to get more information.
