Chinese words or characters are pictorial representations of its meaning rather than phonetic like many Latin-based languages. A reader cannot simply “sound out” a character to associate its meaning. Historically, reading and writing was reserved for an elite class who had the time and means to learn it. 

There are two writing systems—Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Traditional characters were first introduced around 220 B.C. as picturable common objects. Simplified characters were introduced much later in 1956 after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Simplified characters are a deconstructed and altered form of the traditional and more complex characters. Both writing systems are logographic.

Luckily, there are also two accompanying phonetic notation systems developed to facilitate pronouncing Chinese—Zhuyin and Pinyin in 1912 and 1958 respectively.

In my books, I offer different versions—Traditional characters with Pinyin, Traditional with Zhuyin and Simplified with Pinyin. This is in consideration of the assets and needs of diverse Chinese language learners in the U.S.