Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

No doubt the hardest part of learning Chinese is learning to write the characters. Thankfully, it just got easier with the introduction of a new online learning tool called Skritter, introduced here by John at Sinosplice. It's addictive.

During my first month in Fuqing, a Chinese colleague had given me a handwriting textbook written for Chinese kindergartners, and a grid-lined notepad, specifically designed for writing characters. At the time, I was diligent in my Chinese studies, but had decided to focus my studying around pinyin (Chinese Romanization) rather than learning to write the characters.

Matt debunks the myth that Chinese characters keep China's literacy rate down.

Being in the unlucky position of being a Westener I have a mobile phone from the West. A BlackBerry to be exact. But how do I get this device to display Chinese Characters? How to install a Chinese Input method on my BlackBerry. Some short hacking will bring great rewards.

VIDEO: A news report from the scene of the now infamous Shijingshan Amusement Park, where an amazing change had taken place. After foreign media coverage of the amusement park’s blantant unauthorized use of Disney characters, the park was taking action.

Despite the striking similarities to foreign characters, Yin insisted the Beijing park’s are all locally designed.

“Take our Cinderella as an example. The face of Disney’s Cinderella face is European, but ours is a Chinese. She looks like a young Chinese country girl,” he said.

I remember one of the things that I really enjoyed when I was still actively studying Chinese (as opposed to

You have to get one of these avatars. You can also have them speak in Chinese by adding Characters under the formats. Tons of fun!

There is, by my estimation, exactly one advantage to getting inked in the back of a Chinese laowai bar: the characters will probably be right. Fithi Garza decided to tattoo his late brother’s name in Chinese on his arm. He did it in a back room in Dalian’s Nepalese Bar.

.BIZ allows Chinese characters to be entered in domain names. .CN already does it and .COM, .NET and .ORG don't seem far away. Has 好好.com been registered yet? Don't get screwed, stay informed.