Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning [Hardcover]

J. Marshall Unger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003 | ISBN-10: 0824826566 | ISBN-13: 978-0824826567

In his latest book, J. Marshall Unger exposes the historical, scientific, cultural, and practical flaws accompanying the widespread belief that Chinese characters embody pure, language-less meaning. Whether one is interested in Chinese characters from the standpoint of language, literature, semiotics, psychology, history, cultural studies, or computers, Ideogram contains new ideas and insights that are sure to challenge preconceptions and provoke thought.

"In this informative and entertaining book, once and for all, J. Marshall Unger thoroughly demolishes the notion that Chinese characters directly convey meaning without any reference to specific languages and cultural contexts. To do so, he unleashes an amazing array of weapons, ranging from the perceptions of a famous comedian, the techniques of specialists in memorization, the secrets of shorthand, the mysteries of probability, computer science, and artificial intelligence, to the profundities of philosophy. With a razor-sharp mind and deft pen, he exposes the self-contradictory folly of those who would assert some sort of independent, transcendental status for Chinese characters. Anyone who reads this book from beginning to end--parts of it are easy and fun, others are challenging and demanding--will surely come to the same conclusion as the author: in reality, there is no such thing as an ideogram." --- from the foreword by Victor H. Mair

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J. Marshall Unger is professor of Japanese and chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Ohio State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Hawaii Pr (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824826566
• ISBN-13: 978-0824826567
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,685,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Debunking received ideas about Chinese characters, April 22, 2005

By 

A. J. Cornish Bowden (Marseilles, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning (Paperback)

If you take a romantic view of Chinese characters as the embodiment of pure meaning, and if you want to remain in a state of innocence, then this book is not for you, because J. Marshall Unger will call into question everything you thought you knew about the nature of Chinese writing, and he will do it so convincingly that you will never think in the same way again.

Unger is concerned with a whole series of myths about Chinese characters that have grown up in the west (and to some degree even the countries that use them): they primarily represent ideas rather than sounds; they are universal, so that they allow speakers of mutually unintelligible languages in China to communicate perfectly by writing; that applying ideographic ideas to western languages would help to solve the problem of dyslexia; that each character represents a monosyllabic word; that an alphabetic system for writing Chinese would fail because it could not distinguish between homophones; and that Chinese characters produce a supremely successful writing system that has led to very high levels of literacy in far-eastern countries. He argues that all of these of these ideas are false.

As a Professor of Japanese, Unger is particularly concerned with the use of Chinese characters, or "kanji", in Japanese, but he also discusses their use in Chinese and Korean. In the past they were also used in Vietnamese, but the successful adoption of the Roman alphabet in Vietnam has led to higher degree of literacy than existed before. In a telling example, Unger quotes a remark of the Japanese educator Nitobe Inazo to the effect that blind Japanese people may have an advantage in education because they only need to memorize 47 symbols to be able to read anything at all in Japanese Braille, whereas sighted people need to memorize more than 2000 characters just to read a newspaper.

This is an astonishingly varied book, unlike any other. Its 200 pages deal not only with the Chinese and Japanese languages and how they are written, but also with techniques used by conjurers, Plato's ideal universal essences, the meaning of probability, the Gregg system of shorthand, the history of the Great Wall of China, computers and computing, and even the theory of comic pictures. All these are skilfully woven into a coherent argument, and by the end Unger's case seems overwhelming.

Parts of the book are easy and amusing to read, such as the humourist Dave Barry's account of Chinese writing where he explains that a slight mistake in drawing a character can convert its meaning from something like "man holding broom" to "sex with ostriches". Others are quite demanding, such as the discussion of the meaning of probability, with subtleties that are often poorly understood even by professionals.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Myth Debunking, May 4, 2009

By 

Steve Turrentine "Japanese specialist" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book, highly recommended. The 2 reviews immediately above should be ignored. They probably haven't even read the book but regardless, it's obvious that neither one of them knows what he's talking about. Of the 3 prior reviews, only the first one is valid. I have an M.A. & Ph.D. in Japanese linguistics & I can definitely say that Unger knows what he's talking about. It's not the easiest book in the world to read but it's most definitely worth reading. The myth of the Chinese character as ideogram has needed debunking for many years & this book does an outstanding job of it.

14 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Myths about myths, September 18, 2006

By 

Jonathan A. Waller - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning (Paperback)

Unger went to great lengths using flawed and exagerated reasonings to promote his view that Chinese characters are difficult and should be scrapped in favour of an alphapetic system. The reader who dislikes Chinese characters and favours them being scrapped for a romanised writing system might enjoy Unger's whimsical fairy tales, but for the reader who truly wants to learn/understand Chinese characters this book will set you back years in your learning.

For someone who has little knowledge of Chinese characters (or someone who hates them as much as Unger) his arguments may seem plausible, scientific even, as he goes to great lengths to apply various theories (i.e. the probability theory) to the Chinese language.

It may have been a humorous read were it not for the fact that he is considered an expert in the field and many might actually believe the drivel he put on paper, page after page, chapter after chapter. I am truly surprised that a scholar would take his own clearly biased views, twist most of the facts, conjure up fiction and publish them in a book that is presented as an enlightening sholarly work.

Unger didn't refute any myths about Chinese characters that DeFrancis did not cover in 'The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy' and he really only used these as a springboard for the mythological journey he takes the reader on. I believe that he has potentially created a whole new set of myths about Chinese characters.

If you want to see the Chinese writing system scrapped then this is probably the book for you. However, if you are serious about studying Chinese characters then don't waste your time with this pathetic drivel. You would be spending your money and time more wisely reading;

DeFrancis 'The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy'

and if you are wanting to actually learn the characters then;

McNaughton's 'Reading and Writing Chinese: A

Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System'

available in both Simplified and Traditional versions.