Character building: Chineasy peasy

The Chinese language has long been considered the most difficult to learn, largely on account of the vast number and complexity of its characters. Writer Shaolan Hsueh and illustrator Noma Bar have got together to write Chineasy (Thames and Hudson). Below are the symbols for ‘tree’ (far left), ‘woods’ and ‘forest’ (left to right, top row), and then (left to right) the symbols for ‘origin’ and ‘to come’, which together mean ‘originally’.