The Lady in the Painting (Far Eastern Publications Series) [Paperback]

Fred Fang-yu Wang (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 11, 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887100430
• ISBN-13: 978-0887100437
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lady in the Painting (huar shang de mei ren), April 29, 2004

By 

Malcolm Robinson (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lady in the Painting (Far Eastern Publications Series) (Paperback)

I used an older edition of this book after completing Wang's "Read Chinese 1", which teaches 300 characters of high frequency in their traditional forms. I found that this book greatly increased my reading speed and solidified my ability to recognize these characters. There are also about 20 - 30 extra characters introduced in this book that are not of high frequency but are essential to the story (e.g. pigeon, horse racing, tears, etc.). Some of these extra characters recur later in the story without explanations, which forces you to flip through to earlier pages trying to find that elusive footnote. The only English that appears is in the footnotes, glossary, and the brief introduction explaining the purpose of the book. Everything else, including the author's preface, is in Chinese. Also, the attractive black and white drawings help clarify the plot for those having trouble understanding the text. The only problem (probably resolved in the latest edition) is that the pictures occur a few pages before the actual events are read. This sort of spoils the plot, as it shows you what's going to happen next. Other than that, it's flawless.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Traditional characters, March 23, 2005

By 

A. Matthias (Goettingen, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The lady in the painting (Mirror series)

In case you are learning simplified characters, beware: this book contains only traditional characters (at least the edition I just got by ordering it from here).

Moreover, the characters are hand-written. Most of the time they are quite readable, but the author's pen is too thick for a few of the more complex characters, which might therefore be difficult to identify easily. The rest of the layout has been done using a classic typewriter. The combination of typewriter and hand-written characters gives the book a somewhat makeshift flair, aesthetically far beyond anything that can be easily achieved with an office package today (the book seems to be a photographic copy of the 1957 edition, with Pinyin added to the margins later).

Still an interesting book, but a typeset version, optionally with simplified characters, would help a lot.

5.0 out of 5 stars Lady in the Painting--Wang. Standard Characters, September 6, 2011

By 

Robert L. Leininger - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lady in the Painting (Far Eastern Publications Series) (Paperback)

This is a classic for beginning students of Chinese characters. This edition is clear and easy to read. The footnotes (new words, etc.) are in Yale and Pinyin romanization.