This article was taken from the April 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
ShaoLan Hsueh's book Chineasy may look like a whimsical guide to learning the language, but its origins are pure tech. "For the past three years, I've been building a 'brain'," says ShaoLan, who founded software company pAsia during the late 90s in Taiwan before moving to London, as she -demonstrates the software on which she based the book. "It's very important to analyse which building blocks are important."
For instance, the Chinese radicals that represent "tree" and "roof" are frequently combined, but are rarely found on their own.
By identifying the most common radicals and showing how they interact and how to combine them in memorable ways, ShaoLan thinks written Chinese could be learned much faster. Featuring illustrations by graphic artist Noma Bar, Chineasy has been nominated by the Design Museum as one of its Designs of the Year (the exhibition will open March 26), and an iPad app will follow.
Chineasy is published on March 10 by Thames &
Hudson.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
