CCLE Talk Series: Dr. Yunlu Wang and The Way of Thinking and Cultural Genes Contained in Chinese Characters
Angela Chen
February 21, 2024
Yunlu Wang
Professor of Medieval Chinese Lexicon and Philology at Zhejiang University
Topic: The Way of Thinking and Cultural Genes Contained in Chinese Characters
Dr. Yunlu Wang is a National Second-grade Professor, a Distinguished Professor of the Education Ministry’s Yangtze River Scholars, a Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University Qiushi, a Young and Middle-aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions in Zhejiang, who holds a Ph.D in literature. Her research interests are in Medieval Chinese lexicon and philology.
Earlier this week, the Center for Chinese Language Education (CCLE) welcomed Dr. Yunlu Wang of Zhejiang University to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus for another edition of CCLE’s Talk Series.
The workshop saw around 20 attendees, including Chinese Section professors and undergraduate and graduate students interested in attending. Proceedings began with a warm introduction from UHM’s Haidan Wang Laoshi, before leading into Dr. Yunlu Wang’s talk on “The Way of Thinking and Cultural Genes Contained in Chinese Characters.”
Her talk provided insight on ancient Chinese characters and how their original meanings have managed to sustain their originally intended interpretations in modern-day words across a number of supposedly unrelated areas, despite having existed over a millennia.
One such example adduced in Dr. Wang’s research focuses on the modern-day character 候 (hou4). Specifically, the character 候 appears in an astonishingly large array of words with diverse meanings and usages; e.g., 氣候 (climate), 伺候 (to serve), 火候 (crucial moment). Dr. Wang’s research therefore suggests the ability to understand the usage of different words that contain the character 候 can be achieved by referencing the ancient character it derives from. The talk also delved into several other examples that Dr. Wang has extensively researched, before ending with an enlightening Q&A session.
Dr. Wang’s research on “The Way of Thinking and Cultural Genes Contained in Chinese Characters” contributes to Chinese second language learning in that it helps educators and learners alike be more cognizant of the implicit rules of the Chinese language. Henceforth, both parties to the learning process may want to consider the inclusion of ancient Chinese characters into their studies to further enhance the effectiveness of their Chinese learning.
Dr. Yunlu Wang’s talk about the cultural genes of Chinese characters is the third installment of the CCLE Talk Series. Click to read about the previous installments with Professor Helen Shen and Dr. Kuo-Ming Sung!