ShaoLan Hsueh
| ShaoLan Hsueh | |
|---|---|
| Born |
薛曉嵐 Taipei, Taiwan |
| Residence | London, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater |
University of Cambridge National Chengchi University National Taiwan University |
| Occupation | Author, Creator, & Founder of Chineasy |
| Known for | Chineasy |
ShaoLan Hsueh (Chinese: 薛曉嵐; pinyin: Xuē Xiǎolán) is an entrepreneur and she developed a new method to teach Chinese characters.[1]
ShaoLan Hsueh was born in 1971[2] and raised in Taiwan by a ceramicist father, Hsueh RuiFang, and a calligrapher mother, Lin FangZi. She has two children, MuLan and MuAn.
[3] She received a Master of Business Administration from National Chengchi University in the 1990s, before moving to the United Kingdom where she obtained a MPhil from Newnham College, University of Cambridge.[1][4]
Her method to teach Chinese is a visual-based learning system called Chineasy.[5][6]
Chineasy
After a TED talk in 2013 ("Learn to read Chinese … with ease! ")[7] and crowdfunding though Kickstarter,[8] she published the book Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese in March 2014, with the graphic artist Noma Bar.[9]
ShaoLan Hsueh had the idea while trying to teach Chinese to her two children; she uses a simplifying system based on key "building blocks" which can be combined to create more complex characters and sentences.[2] She also uses simple illustrations to help learners to recognise the "building blocks" easily.[10] The books contains about 400 characters based on 64 "building blocks".
Awards & Recognition
- Winner--Wallpaper (magazine)’s 2014 Design Award for “Life-Enhancer of the year”
- Winner-- Best Design of the Year 2014 Visitor Vote, Design Museum
- Wood Pencil Winner — D&AD Award 2015 in ‘Branding/Brand Expression in Print’
- Wood Pencil Winner — D&AD Award 2015 in and ‘Book Design’.
- FastCompany—The World’ Top 10 Most Innovative Companies Backed by Kickstarter in 2015
- Wired Japan— Top 25 Design Projects in the world WXD 2015 (Wired by Design)
Editions
As of February 2015, Chineasy is translated in eleven languages: Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Finnish and Swedish.[11]
- (English) Shaolan Hsueh, Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2014 (ISBN 978-0500650288).
- (French) Shaolan Hsueh, Le chinois, c'est pas sorcier, Éditions Hachette (Marabout), 2014 (ISBN 978-2-501-09361-3).
References
- 1 2 (French) Shaolan Hsueh, Le chinois, c'est pas sorcier, Éditions Hachette (Marabout), 2014, pages 9 and 192 (ISBN 978-2-501-09361-3).
- 1 2 Carey Dunne, "How obsessively copying poems helps Shaolan Hsueh, who reimagined Chinese, stay creative", Fastcodesign.com, 24 April 2014 (page visited on 28 February 2015).
- ↑ ShaoLan Hsueh, Le chinois, c'est pas sorcier, Éditions Hachette (Marabout), 2014 (ISBN 978-2-501-09361-3).
- ↑ Charlotte Clarke, "Women in Business – Shaolan Hsueh, MBA graduate", FT.com, 5 October 2014 (page visited on 28 February 2015).
- ↑ ShaoLan Hsueh, Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2014 (ISBN 978-0500650288).
- ↑ "The memory game. A new way of teaching Chinese ideograms to foreign audiences", The Economist, 22 March 2014.
- ↑ "Learn to read Chinese … with ease!", TED talk, 2013 (page visited on 9 February 2015).
- ↑ Chineasy: The easiest way to learn Chinese, kickstarter.com (page visited on 9 February 2015).
- ↑ "Chineasy peasy: Noma Bar brings fun and colour to Chinese characters ", The Guardian (page visited on 9 February 2015).
- ↑ Frances Alonzo, "Q&A with Shaolan Hsueh: Learning 'Chineasy'", Voice of America, 9 April 2014 (page visited on 28 February 2015).
- ↑ Chineasy products, chineasy.org (page visited on 9 February 2015).