SHAOLAN HSUEH: Thank you, Jen.
[APPLAUSE]
OK.
Thank you.
I'm truly excited to
be able to speak here
in the coolest
company in the world
and also my favorite
company in the world.
If there is anything you want
to remember after this talk,
please pay attention
to the next 20 seconds.
And after that, you can relax.
OK.
Is that working?
Oh, sorry.
This is Chinese
character for "person."
It looks just like an A
without the horizontal line.
This is a Chinese
character for "work."
That looks just like
a I in the alphabet.
When we put "person"
and "work" together,
that means "artificial,"
just like AI.
[LAUGHTER]
My name is ShaoLan.
I'm the founder and
creator of Chineasy.
Later, I'm going to share
with you a little story how
I came about with
Chineasy, and then we
will spend the majority
of time to show you
how the system works.
And hopefully, by
the end of this talk,
you can have a certain knowledge
about Chinese characters
in your mind.
And when you go
to Chinatown, you
will make sure that you
order the beef or lamb
rather than snake.
[LAUGHTER]
So basically, how
Chineasy came about.
I grew up in a
family where we never
buy arts, because we make them.
My grandfather was a
professor of ceramic art.
He made this museum great piece.
My father is also a
professor of ceramic art.
My mother is a calligrapher.
Between my parents,
they made this.
My 13-year-old daughter
created this piece of artwork.
My 11-year-old son did
this when he was 9.
So from very early
on, I realized
that I just don't have
the talents they have.
I'm the black sheep
in the family.
And I started to study science,
chemistry, MBA-- everything
analytical, scientific,
geeky, I did all that.
And then I realized
that I struggled
between my left brain
and my right brain,
and I couldn't strike a balance.
So it was not until
a couple years ago
when I realized that my
British-born children were not
interested in learning Chinese.
And they found learning
Chinese very hard.
And also, when I spoke
to couple of my friends,
they shared the
same frustrations.
So I thought, how
hard could that be?
As a geek, I used my
computer and broke down
thousands of characters.
And I prioritize
them, analyze them,
try to find a pattern-- how
things can become easier
by using a simple method.
And of course, after that,
I use the sugarcoating
like illustrations,
animations you can see.
So before then, we
start with our kitchen.
I drew the napkins and share
with friends and family.
And then I started
my teaching career
as a free Chinese teacher.
And TED heard about that,
so I gave a talk in 2013.
And then in the audience, there
was a person called Bill Gross.
He wrote a little
blog on LinkedIn.
In two days, when
I was still at TED,
I was traced by 8,000
people from LinkedIn.
Is there anything
we can subscribe to?
Is there any book we can buy?
Is there an app to download?
I said, no, I don't
have anything.
So, oh, hold on.
Please don't release my talk.
Let me go home and
cook something.
So TED eventually
put my talk online.
Millions of people watched
it, and they share it.
And then we put this
very simple website
and I did a
Kickstarter campaign.
On Facebook, we teach every day.
And now we have
[INAUDIBLE] million people
learning Chinese characters
every day with us.
And we share our knowledge.
And at the same time, we also
design the quiz and games
to make it more fun.
And then as Jen just said,
we did a Kickstarter.
And then at the same
time, without asking,
we was truly
flattered and honored
that we were recognized by
several credible and really
incredible awards.
And we are truly
grateful with that.
But then after all of
that, what is Chineasy?
How does it work?
Now let's start.
It's basically a
building block system
to allow you to understand
the characters very quickly
by deciphering it.
Some people call that
as Chinese alphabet.
So instead of having 26,
we have like 60 or 70.
But don't be
frightened about that,
because once you
recognize a few,
you can start
constructing very quickly.
You remember, this is a person.
Two people together--
that means to follow.
Three means the crowd.
If the person stretch their arms
wide, this person is saying,
it was this big.
And then when you
add one extra stroke
on the top of [INAUDIBLE],
that means man,
because in ancient
China, men had long hair.
They put their hair up,
and put the pin on top.
So with the extra pin on
top, that means adult man.
Now you learn five.
Big person means adult.
Big crowd is the public.
Crowd person means people.
Adult men and person
means "madam."
Why "madam"?
Because an ancient China,
female were men's property.
Men's person--
that means "madam."
So by adding one extra stroke,
by combining them differently,
very quickly, you build a
knowledge for some very, very
basic words.
Person a fish-- that
means "mermaid."
On the left, we have a woman.
Two women together--
that means "argument."
[LAUGHTER]
Three together, that
means "adultery."
OK, you laugh here, right?
But actually that's from
very sad historical fact.
The shape of woman
originally was
the woman kneeing on the floor.
That shows her
submission to her man.
So that shows gender inequality.
In ancient China, they often
have three, four generations
underneath the same roof.
So mother-in-law
naturally doesn't get on
with the daughter-in-law.
So inevitably, they
have argument when they
are underneath the same roof.
You have to think what it means
when you have three women.
This is a boy.
A woman and a boy
together-- that means good.
Again, that goes back
to the ancient history.
A woman was only good
when she had a boy.
Everybody can say "ni hao."
You know that's "how are you?"
"Ni" is "you." "Hao" is "good."
"You good," that
means, "how are you?"
Now you know this word.
This is good-- "hao."
This is king.
A female king is the queen.
The son of the
king is the prince.
This is work.
A working person is a worker.
Person's work-- it's artificial.
Put a woman in
front of work here,
woman has become an adjective.
So female worker.
This is a mouth.
It just a square.
The person and the
mouth together-- that
means population.
That's from the
ruler's perspective--
how many mouths do you need
to feed in your territory?
This is water.
The water coming out
from your mouth-- saliva.
"Water cow" is buffalo.
For Chineasy, we not
only want to show you how
to recognize symbols quickly.
We will also take it
seriously as a design project.
So for every single character,
we start with a simple idea.
And we eventually come out
with even 20 or 30 ideas.
And then we show different
people-- sometimes
my children and
sometimes my friends
and a lot of
non-native speakers,
because they want to
know how we can really
create something
universal without having
cultural reference.
It doesn't matter what
linguistic background you are.
So we also make fun of it.
We dress up this woman.
This is a character for "horse."
We try different ways.
How about this?
Change the colors.
We eventually decided
to go for this version.
And then we can have a farm.
OK.
Chineasy not only
address objects,
things you can see with
the shape and form.
How about more difficult
words, like abstract, something
like a concept or motion.
We try to address that.
This is a character for
"yourself." it looks
like spaghetti being bended.
How do we draw that?
Any idea how you
want to draw it?
AUDIENCE: Point at yourself?
SHAOLAN HSUEH: You got it.
That's how we do it.
Point at yourself.
How about this one?
It's "how many." "How many."
It's a very common word.
You see that all the time, every
day, in every single article.
"How many''-- how to draw it.
How about this?
This is a verb--
to owe something,
to owe someone
money. "Owe," to owe.
How to draw it.
How about that?
On the left, we have "up."
On the right, we have "down."
This is a character for "west."
Direction west.
How to draw it.
Is there any shape and form?
We decided to make
fun of the cowboy.
This is a character for north.
We thought about
many directions,
pointed to the north.
But where's north?
People may say that's up.
Maybe they may say that's arrow.
We decided to make fun
of political leaders.
[LAUGHTER]
This is the character for
"half"-- half of something.
That looks pretty symmetrical.
So can we draw something half?
Oh, well.
We tried this.
Half of the apple.
But people may say
that's "apple."
Half of the orange, maybe.
We decided to go for this one.
Half evil, half good.
This is a character for "gold."
Now we are talking about
color edge, adjective.
"Gold."
How should we draw "gold"?
Gold bar?
Gold coins?
Gold temples?
Yeah.
It can be anything.
We decided, hey, maybe
that's a good idea,
because those people
have a lot of shiny stuff
they wear every day.
We are in Google.
So let's talk
about modern words.
On the left, we have
a net, a physical net.
On the right, we
have-- guess-- friend.
OK, that's right.
So on the left of net is
not only the physical net.
That also means the internet.
The net friend is
your cyber friend.
Remember "woman"?
When it's used in the front
of an object, it's adjective.
That means female friend.
And here is actually
more specific.
That means your girlfriend.
Do you remember the
one on the left?
Up?
Up the net?
What does that mean?
To get on the web, get online.
Next one.
OK, who want to answer this?
Down net.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]?
SHAOLAN HSUEH:
That's a good one.
That's a good one.
That's get offline.
Yeah, so up or down
is your action.
So you get on, you get down.
And if you put "up"
and "car"-- that's
"get in the car," "down the
car," "get off the car."
Right.
You all know this word
even without me saying it.
The one on top is wind.
And then we have water.
Wind and water-- what is that?
That mean "feng shui."
That's exactly how
it's pronounced.
So wind is a combination
between-- OK, feng shui
is a combination
between wind and water.
Why is that?
Feng shui is
actually not starting
from something superstitious.
That was actually very
practical knowledge
in ancient China emperors used.
They had to decide where
to set their capital.
And they had to
study the geography
and where is the best
place for defense,
where is good for agriculture,
and where is good for farming?
So they have to decide all
that by using all the terrain,
the weather, the climate.
And they have to
decide all that.
And then so feng
shui is, in fact,
in ancient China, that
was architectural design.
That was civil planning.
And then when you go
into the micro-level.
That's then become
the interior design.
And then nowadays,
people may think, oh,
it's just about where to put a
clock and where to put the fan.
And this is all misleading.
The true feng shui
in the ancient time
was actually very
practical survival skills.
We also make stories.
This is in the previous book.
We tried to tell
"Peter and the Wolf"
story with intense [INAUDIBLE].
OK.
Chinese is not really science.
Imagine the ancient
Chinese cavemen.
They saw their wife,
that you are woman,
they saw the dog,
that you are dog.
And they saw a rock,
that you are rock.
That's how they started.
So then me tell you one thing.
Good news.
Second thing you can remember
today-- Chinese is easy.
It can't be that hard.
Can you imagine
any other language
in the world has been
able to be passed down
for more than thousands
of years and been spread
across more than
billions of people
without proper technology,
without any learning app,
and without any
way of transmitting
in the ancient time.
And they still
learned how to use it.
It can't be that hard.
And the way Chineasy works is
just like, you look at the sky.
There are billions of stars.
In your eyes, you see this.
Chinese eyes, when they look at
the same stars, they see this.
So what we try to
do in Chineasy is
we try to find a
pattern to guide you.
Therefore you can take
the first step forward.
In this book, I think you
all have read. [INAUDIBLE]
guide tool.
It's very different
from the previous one.
It's grouped by subject.
And basically I was looking
for a challenge for myself,
so I really made
myself like hell.
I put so many constraints
when I created this one.
Chinese is not
created by subjects.
People drew any random symbol
over the thousands of years.
Millions of people
participated in this movement,
creating language.
So how can they be
grouped by subject?
They can't.
But we still try to do that.
In the first chapter, you will
learn numbers, from 1 to 10.
And we not only show you
how to recognize them.
We also show you, hey, this
number is a lucky one for what
reason.
For example, number
four is a bad one.
Why is that?
Because of the pronunciation.
It's the same sound as "death."
And that's why, when you
go to Hong Kong, Singapore,
or many places in China, you
don't have the fourth floor.
And some of them even get rid
of the entire from 40th to 49th.
So they skip many floors.
And that's why many places,
if you want to buy property,
in case they have
a fourth floor,
they always give you a discount.
So once you know 1 to
10, then you can add 100.
You add a few characters.
Then you can read the clock
and add a few characters.
You read the calendar.
This is the character
for "dollar."
Then you can start
counting money.
We are just talking
about chapter 1.
Chapter 2, we will show
you the five elements
and how the five elements
form the cosmo view
in Chinese philosophy and
also about yin and yang
and how that affects people's
day-to-day life, even
in modern China.
We talk about people, animals,
nature, how to describe things.
And we talk about
health and well-being
and, of course, transportation
and travel is important.
And then after
all that, you will
be able to read the world map.
And you will be able to read
the Chinese map and the tube map
too.
Not all of them,
but you get a clue.
What we can promise is-- OK,
we don't promise everything.
But what I can promise
is your Chinese
will be as good as my Japanese.
How good is my Japanese?
I don't speak a
word of Japanese.
But I have no problem
going to Japan.
Because I read.
I read to their newspaper, and
I read their tube station, tube
sign.
And then I read the menu.
I can even
communicate by writing
to say what I want to read.
I can even talk about Japanese
literature, about Murakami.
I can talk about that
with Japanese people.
But I don't speak
a word of Japanese.
We talk about modern life,
like a net, sports, activities.
And then most importantly,
that's the must-read chapter.
You need to know
what you eat when
you go to Chinese restaurants.
Make sure you don't
order snake or turtles.
And you know, if
you are vegetarian,
if you see the grass sign, then
that's more about vegetables.
OK.
So the purpose here-- it's
really about reading only?
No.
I think we are much more
ambitious than that.
We would love to share
the beauty of this culture
and language with people outside
the native Chinese-speaking
regions.
And we would love to show
you, not only the language,
the philosophy, the mentality,
because the language itself
is the best medium for you
to understand the culture.
Lots of them are followers.
They said, hey, I lived
in China for five years.
And I never tried to
learn how to read.
Everybody always started
from how to converse,
because it's convenient.
But in fact, by
knowing the characters,
you not only know the
roadsigns, not only the menus.
The most important thing is you
understand their psychology.
You understand their mentality.
That's true understanding
of any civilization.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
