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"Elegies of Chu: An Anthology of Early Chinese Poetry" is a translation and analysis of the Chuci, a collection of poetic texts from the ancient state of Chu in China. The translator, Nicholas Morrow Williams, offers new insights into the Chuci and presents the poetry in clear and concise arguments. Williams prioritizes semantic accuracy in his translation, particularly in translating plant names, and provides a glossary for readers to navigate the text. He also deviates from previous editions of the Chuci by reorganizing the sequence of selections. Overall, Williams approaches the materials with modesty and caution, emphasizing the importance of reading the poems in relation to one another and being mindful of the complexities of the traditional materials. [Extracted from the article]

This article argues that for students of Chinese and Japanese, learning to write Chinese characters ("hanzi/kanji") by hand from memory is an inefficient use of resources. Rather, beginning students should focus on character/word recognition (reading) and electronic writing. Although electronic technologies have diminished the usefulness of Chinese character handwriting, its cultural importance remains. This leads to a hegemony of "hanzi/kanji" through which the assumed primacy of the written language is reinforced. After reviewing these conditions, strategies are offered to integrate handwriting skills with the new electronic writing technologies, creating an efficient and culturally sensitive program of instruction in "hanzi/kanji" writing. The article concludes with suggestions for further research needed to explore the theses of the essay. (Contains 15 notes.)

Describes the acquisition and use of a Chinese metalanguage with which ambiguous spoken words are graphically contextualized. The metalanguage is composed of strategies that range from the actual writing of the Chinese graph (character) to those where the graph is accommodated in a verbal presentation. (12 references) (JL)

Edited and translated by Michelle Yeh. New Haven: Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992. Pp. lv + 245. $35. Do NOT buy this book; wait until the paperback comes out, as [...]