Buy an 乾 calligraphy wall scroll here!
Personalize your custom “乾” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “乾” title below...
This can be the Chinese ancient surname Gan or current surname Qian. In Japanese, it can be the surname Nukui, Susumu, Ken, Kan, Kawaki, Kawai, Inute, or Inui.
The meaning of this character varies a lot depending on context. These meanings include dry, clean, foster, adoptive, heaven, male, masculine, enduring, or continual.
The “Gan” version of this character was converted to Simplified Chinese as 干 in 1965. However, the “Qian” pronunciation is not associated with 干. Though to add to the confusion, there is an unrelated Simplified Chinese character 千 that romanizes as “Qian” and is also a surname.
乾杯 is the common way to say “cheers” or give a toast in Chinese, Japanese and old Korean (written the same in all three languages, though pronounced differently).
乾杯 is an appropriate wall scroll for a bar, pub, or another drinking area.
The first character literally means “dry” or “parched.”
The second character means “cup” or “glass.”
Together the meaning is to drink up (empty your glass).
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your 乾 search...
Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
乾 干 see styles |
gān gan1 kan ken けん |
More info & calligraphy: Qianqian (one of the trigrams of the I Ching: heaven, northwest); (surname) Nukui Dry, dried up, clean; heaven, male, masculine, enduring, continual. Translit. gan and h. |
乾屍 干尸 see styles |
gān shī gan1 shi1 kan shih |
More info & calligraphy: Mummy / Dried Corpse |
乾杯 干杯 see styles |
gān bēi gan1 bei1 kan pei kanpai かんぱい |
More info & calligraphy: Drink Up! / Cheers!(noun/participle) (1) toast; drink (in celebration or in honor of something); (2) drinking one's glass dry; (interjection) (3) cheers |
上乾 see styles |
ueinui / uenui うえいぬい |
(surname) Ueinui |
乾き see styles |
kawaki かわき |
drying; dryness |
乾く see styles |
kawaku かわく |
(v5k,vi) to get dry |
乾し see styles |
hoshi ほし |
(n,n-pref) drying; dried |
乾す see styles |
hosu ほす |
(transitive verb) (1) to air; to dry; to desiccate; (2) to drain (off); (3) to drink up; (4) to deprive of a role, job, etc. (usu. in the passive) |
乾一 see styles |
kenichi けんいち |
(given name) Ken'ichi |
乾三 see styles |
kenzou / kenzo けんぞう |
(given name) Kenzou |
乾中 see styles |
kannaka かんなか |
(surname) Kannaka |
乾之 see styles |
kenji けんじ |
(personal name) Kenji |
乾也 see styles |
kenya けんや |
(personal name) Ken'ya |
乾二 see styles |
kenji けんじ |
(given name) Kenji |
乾井 see styles |
inuikawa いぬいかわ |
(surname) Inuikawa |
乾亜 see styles |
kena けんあ |
(personal name) Ken'a |
乾介 see styles |
kensuke けんすけ |
(given name) Kensuke |
乾代 see styles |
kimiyo きみよ |
(personal name) Kimiyo |
乾位 see styles |
keni けんい |
(rare) northwest |
乾依 see styles |
kimie きみえ |
(personal name) Kimie |
乾修 see styles |
kanshuu / kanshu かんしゅう |
(given name) Kanshuu |
乾俸 干俸 see styles |
gān fèng gan1 feng4 kan feng |
income provided by a sinecure |
乾元 see styles |
kengen けんげん |
(hist) Kengen era (1302.11.21-1303.8.5) |
乾児 see styles |
kenji けんじ |
henchman; follower; (personal name) Kenji |
乾兒 干儿 see styles |
gān r gan1 r5 kan r |
dried food |
乾冰 干冰 see styles |
gān bīng gan1 bing1 kan ping |
dry ice (i.e. frozen CO2); CL:塊|块[kuai4] |
乾出 see styles |
inuide いぬいで |
(place-name) Inuide |
乾分 see styles |
kobun こぶん |
henchman; follower |
乾刈 see styles |
kawagari かわがり |
(surname) Kawagari |
乾原 see styles |
inuhara いぬはら |
(surname) Inuhara |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Qian | 乾 干 | ken | gān qián gan1 / qian2 gan / qian gan/qian | kan ch`ien kanchien kan chien |
Drink Up! Cheers! | 乾杯 | kan pai / kanpai | gān bēi / gan1 bei1 / gan bei / ganbei | kan pei / kanpei |
Mummy Dried Corpse | 乾屍 干尸 | gān shī / gan1 shi1 / gan shi / ganshi | kan shih / kanshih | |
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. |
Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...
All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.