This is the Chinese name for the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of The Peoples Republic of China known as Hong Kong (formerly a British administrated territory).

See Also...  Great Britain | China | Macao | Taiwan | Singapore | Japan | Vietnam | Korea | Asia

Score: 100/100

This is the same meaning and pronunciation as our other entry for "Kingdom of Heaven" but the second character was simplified in Japan and mainland China to this version. Choose the appearance that you like best (they will be somewhat universally understood - as most people are aware of this simplification in places where they still use all traditional characters - such as Taiwan and Hong Kong). You can consider the other version to be the "ancient version".

Score: 54/100

Many people have no idea that Bruce Lee had a "real" Chinese name. In mainland China and Hong Kong he is known as "Li Xiao-Long". He kept his family name pronunciation (Li = Lee). This is a common family name that also means "plum".

His given name "Xiao-Long" literally means "little dragon". This is why you often see the character for dragon associated with Bruce Lee on various posters etc.

For a pronunciation lesson, the "X" in Romanized Chinese is pronounced like a "sh" sound but with your tongue at the bottom of your mouth. The vowel sound in "Long" is like the English "oh", not like the "ah" sound in the English word "long".

If you are a big Bruce Lee fan, you should know this information, and you should have this wall scroll hanging in your room or martial arts studio.

Note: Japanese use these same exact Chinese characters / Kanji to write Bruce Lee's real name (with different pronunciation - which is a bit like how the name "Bruce Lee" sounds in English).

See Also...  Kung Fu | Marital Arts

Score: 54/100

Hapkido is a mostly-defensive martial art of Korea. It has some connection to Aikido of Japan. In fact, they are written with the same characters in both languages. However, it should be noted that the Korean Hanja characters shown here are the original and traditional Chinese form - but in modern Japan, the middle character was slightly simplified. The connection between Japanese Aikido and Korean Hapkido is a bit muddled in history. This is probably due to the relationship between the two countries - especially during WWII when many Koreans became virtual slaves for the Japanese (many Koreans are still bitter about that, so many things were disassociated from having any Japanese origin).

Looking at the characters, the first means "union" or "harmony."
The second character means "universal energy" or "spirit".
The third means "way" or "method".
One way to translate this into English is "Harmonizing Energy Method". This makes since, as Hapkido has more to do with redirecting energy, rather that fighting with strength against strength.

More Hapkido info

More notes:
1. Sometimes Hapkido is Romanized as "hap ki do", "hapki-do" "hab gi do" or "hapgido".

2. Korean Hanja characters are actually Chinese characters that usually hold the same meaning in both languages. There was a time when these characters were the standard and only written form of Korean. The development of modern Korean Hangul characters is a somewhat recent event in the greater scope of history. There was a time when Chinese characters were the written form of many languages in places known in modern times as North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and a significant portion of Malaysia. Even today, more people in the world can read Chinese characters than can read English.

3. While these Korean Hanja characters can be pronounced in Chinese, this word is not well-known in China and is not considered part of the Chinese lexicon.

Score: 54/100

Got a sushi restaurant and need an appropriate wall scroll? Or maybe you love sushi enough to have it on your wall. This sushi calligraphy scroll is for you.

Note that the written characters for sushi are exactly the same in both Chinese and Japanese. However, the first character is actually simplified Chinese (mainland style) so in some cases it will be written differently in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Score: 54/100

This literally means what you think, it's the "Monkey Fist" school of Kung Fu. A style that mimics the punches and movements of monkeys and apes.

Becoming popular during the Qing Dynasty, this style can trace its origins back to as early as the Song Dynasty. Some of the romance and popularity of this style comes from the novel "Journey to the West" which features the Monkey King and his fighting skills.

This novel and martial arts style has spawned a stream of Hong Kong movies featuring the Monkey King, and other Kung Fu style variations such as "Drunken Monkey" and "Monkey Stealing Peaches" (a technique of disabling your opponent by grabbing and yanking on his testicles).

Note: This kind of makes sense in Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji, but probably unknown by all Koreans and Japanese except those who have an interest in this form of Kung Fu.

Score: 44/100

This is the Chinese name for the country of China

See Also...  Singapore | Taiwan | Japan | Vietnam | Korea | Asia

Score: 23/100

This is the Chinese name for the island of Macao.

Note: Macao / Macau is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, but formerly a territory of Portugal. Potugese remains an official language.

See Also...  China | Taiwan | Asia | Portugal

Score: 23/100

This is the Chinese name for the country of Singapore.

See Also...  China | Taiwan | Asia

Score: 13/100

This is the Chinese name for the continent of Asia.

See Also...  China | Singapore | Taiwan | Japan | Vietnam | Korea | Mongolia | India | Pakistan | Iran | Iraq | Saudi Arabia

Score: 12/100