Chinese Family History Group of Southern California
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TOOLS > Chinese Language Tools

Chinese Language Tools

How to Navigate Around Chinese Names
Excerpt from A Guide for Researching Your Chinese Family History, published by the Chinese Family History Group of Southern California.  Includes information on how names of Chinese immigrants names were recorded before the Chinese Exclusion Act, notes about Chinese surnames, notes about variations in Chinese dialects, tips on English spelling and Romanization of names, the use of "Shee" for women, notes about male birth and generational names, adoption of a business name as a personal name and the concept of "Paper Sons."

Adobe Chinese font packs  http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4883
Download Chinese font pack to use Adobe reader's OCR feature - select, copy and paste Chinese characters from typed or neatly written images. Choose Acrobat and/or Reader and your operating system to access available language packs.

Cantonese Dictionary http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/scripts/wordsearch.php
Words may be looked up by English meaning, Jyutping (Cantonese), Pinyin, radical or by pasting in the Chinese character.  Also translates Chinese phrases or passages.

Chinese Characters and Culture http://zhongwen.com
Written in Chinese and English, the site includes a dictionary with pronunciation, readings, such as The Art of War, Chinese dynasties and surnames, and learn Chinese online.

Chinese Character Dictionary http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html
Chinese characters may be looked up by English word, Pinyin, Yale Cantonese, number of strokes, radical or by pasting in the character.

Google Translator http://translate.google.com/
Paste in English text or Chinese characters and this site will translate to the other language. It is best to check the translation by reversing to the other language. Simplified or traditional Chinese characters are options.

Wiktionary. www.wiktionary.org
This dictionary that accepts multiple languages; will accept Chinese characters and give written pronunciation in both Mandarin and standard (Sam Yup) Cantonese, as well as etymology and pronunciation in other languages using Chinese characters (Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, etc.).

NCIKU. http://www.nciku.com/
This site is an online English-Chinese dictionary. It is very useful if you know the Chinese character, but not the meaning or pronunciation. It provides audio examples as well, contextual examples, and has online handwriting character recognition ability. A Mandarin pronunciation guide is also found here.

Chinese Tools Dictionary. http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/dictionary.html
This is an online Chinese and English dictionary with audio examples and phrases.

MDGB Dictionary. http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
Chinese dictionary online. Provides audio, contextual, keystroke examples.  Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciation guide can be found here as well as character variations. Javascript based Chinese typing interface can be downloaded. Click type Chinese in left index.

Traditional to Simplified. http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/converter-tradsimp.html
This site converts Chinese characters from traditional forms to simplified ones.
Cantonese Vs. Mandarin
Taiwan vs. Mainland Mandarin Chinese
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of Southern California, an affiliate of the
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