World War I devastated everything – nothing could ever be the same again, there was no way back to what it was like before. Everybody had bought into the values of class-consciousness, the formalism of societal norms and the constraints of culture but in the end these axioms had failed humanity. Everybody had played ball and everybody had been horrifically maimed, no more would everybody be so obsequious, trusting and indeed so care-free.

In America, artists began congregating in enclaves in the major cities seeking to develop new values, new methods of living, new approaches to the way society should co-exist. Others went even further, maybe to seek more or perhaps to abandon the whole shebang- many of these seekers shored up in Paris. The Lost Generation was the moniker that they became known as, it was originally applied to them by the apparently ubiquitous Gertrude Stein. From their disillusionment, followed their aimless wanderings, followed their self-imposed exile, resulting in an original and innovative style of literature. They were marked out by their realism – romanticism, flowery idealism and dishonest clichés were abandoned.

Likewise, language was pared down and frank – no more formal, strait-laced, Victorian cloak and daggers palaver. Paris and Montparnasse in particular was the ideal location and – full of flamboyant characters immersing themselves in bohemian lifestyles disputing and debating philosophical points, historical facts and thoughts on modern living. Paris was the breeding ground of such exciting and challenging movements as Dadaism, Futurism, Expressionism and Surrealism. Picasso was there, Joyce was there, Duchamp was there, Stravinski was there, Cocteau was there, Breton was there, Apollinaire was there – Paris was the place to be.

The young American radicals – Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald, Miller, Anais Nin and Don Passos – flung themselves into this innovative cauldron. They played hard – plunging into the hedonistic lifestyle – but they worked even harder – producing startlingly literature of astonishing range and depth. Paris possessed other advantages – it was damn cheap and there was a plethora of small, independent publishing houses that were willing to publish unknown and innovative writers. In addition, there were many literary reviews operating out of small rooms on the Left Bank that gave exposure to these writers. Also beneficial was the fact that alcohol was legal, unlike Prohibition era America.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net http://www.visitscotlandtours.com

The Beat Movement, The Beats, The Beat Generation – what exactly was it? Truth is I don’t know and I don’t think anybody else does. I mean beat generation was a moniker that Kerouac applied to his close circle of friends – it hardly defines a generation – indeed Corso saw that only three were in it – himself, Ginsberg and Orlovsky.

But then again, what a circle of friends, it often strikes me that the Beats when young where just like any other young group of people, they believe in what they believe, they might compile a half-baked manifesto – but to follow it to the letter, to keep faith in it, to see it to the end – well that’s Beat I suppose. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs met at Columbia University, envisioning themselves as future literary figures but they were absolutely astonished when they sparked a literary movement. They didn’t even know they had, they were living in Europe, whittling away their days in the Beat Hotel, Paris immersing themselves in creative and hedonistic activity. Their circles in New York, San Francisco and Paris included people who were solely hedonists, they would be intricate cogs in the movement, providing distraction, entertainment and inspiration. Poetry by the people for the people.

Indeed, the original beats were Columbian University academics, they needed the influence of the hucksters and hipsters or they may have went the way of the formalists. Well, maybe not, the work that they produced was so fresh, raw and provoking – far from mainstream and it’s producers refused to compromise even though it appeared for years that their work would forever remain misunderstood and unpublished.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net http://www.visitscotlandtours.com

In any single month, more than 10,000 people search for the “Chinese alphabet” on the internet.

Question is:

Does the Chinese language have an alphabet?

If so, where is it?

Why don’t I “see” it?

To answer the above questions, let’s look at how Chinese writing evolved over the ages.

At the beginning, societies created symbols to refer to simple things. Symbols are signs and pictures that refer to actual objects. The earliest symbols looked like the things they represented.

For instance, the symbol for “bird” looked like a bird. Same for “mountain”, “tree”, “rain”, “child”, “knife”, “boat”. As time went by, societies grew bigger and became complex.

Naturally, the meanings of visual symbols changed as well. Symbols not only stood for physical things, but for more abstract things as well. Like “sunrise”, “friend”, “pray”, “play”, “safe”, “year” etc.

As a culture took shape, a written language made up of letters (i.e. the alphabet) was invented. A sound was attached to each letter so a string of letters could be pronounced. Symbols were thus replaced by words and phrases as the primary means of communication. Usually, that’s what happened with written languages. But not so with the Chinese language.

A Chinese alphabet was never invented. Rather, the evolution of the Chinese language took a special turn: Instead of visual symbols being replaced by a written language of letters, the symbols themselves became the written language. That’s why there’s no Chinese alphabet.

One of the reasons for this is that the Chinese language is tonal. This means there are several tones and each tone means a different thing. For instance, in Mandarin there are four tones. Cantonese has six tones.

In addition, words with the same tones often have different meanings. And their meanings can only be made clear by the context of the sentence. This unique feature of the Chinese language gives rise to “visual puns”.

The interplay of phonetics (i.e. sounds) and puns often reveal the hidden meanings of Chinese symbols or characters. Phonetics and puns give clues to the hidden meaning of images. Hence a picture of a fish is an expression of “abundance” because the Chinese word for “fish” yu2 ? has the same sound as “abundance” yu2 ? This is an example of a “visual pun” and there are lots of them in the Chinese language.

It’s easy to see why there is no such thing as a “full Chinese alphabet” or “Chinese alphabet letters”. Or why the Chinese alphabet is “missing”. An alphabet consists of a small number of letters (e.g. 26 in English) which make up all the words in the spoken language.

There are no letters in Chinese writing. Only thousands of individual symbols or characters each with their specific sound(s) and meanings. Since there are no letters in Chinese it naturally follows there is no Chinese alphabet.

Want to learn Chinese for pleasure and profit in less time? Like to creatively enhance your life with Chinese characters and symbols? Liow Kah Joon is your guide. Sign up for his free Chinese Symbols ezine at Living Chinese Symbols