"Chinese is a pictorial language, not a phonetic one. Our words come from images. The meaning of many characters is subtle and profound. Other words are poetic and even philosophical." - Yen Mah, Adeline. Chinese Cinderella. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1999. p. 152.

In Chinese Cinderella, Ye Ye is explaining the value of the Chinese language to Jun-ling who has complained to him that copying Chinese characters over and over is a waste of time. In English or other alphabet-based languages, "reading" at a basic level means to decode words by pronouncing the letters, then creating an image in your mind of the idea or object those letters represent. A pictorial language like Chinese provides an image for you to see, rather than a set of sounds to decode. Ye Ye suggests that there are many subtleties to this kind of language. Chinese calligraphy can evoke an aesthetic response, or even a meditative state, in the writer and the reader.

Ye Ye continues with examples of different aspects of his thesis. Read pages 150-154 again. Ask yourself about any one paragraph on these pages, "What main point is he trying to convey?" Then ask, "Does every sentence clearly relate to this idea?"

Write about one Chinese character

Look at the Web page Chinese Calligraphy to see examples of calligraphy as art. Develop a topic sentence about the qualities of one character. Create a unified coherent paragraph based on this topic sentence.

Use Ye Ye's examples as a model

Reread pages 150-154 examining the way Ye Ye explains how two Chinese characters can develop a new meaning when they are used together. Now, brainstorm a link between two English words. From this, write a topic sentence. Then create a unified, coherent paragraph describing first the unique meanings of each word, then the new meaning that is created by their linkage, just as Ye Ye has done.