The Art of Mandarin

A friend of mine who's a profession writer told me that a blog must accomplish one of two things: express relatability or express expertise.

Even after publishing around 100 posts, my blog had content, but it didn't have a sense of purpose.  I left my blog on hiatus over the summer partly because I was afraid my blogs would be ignored.  I assumed that most people would rather consume infotainment, nothing that would hurt their heads. But I realized that I didn't need to cater to people who wanted distraction and entertainment.  I needed to write for the sake of writing, or art for the sake of art.

The other reason for my hiatus was because I started writing my novel.  Yes, I'm one of those people at social gatherings who start my conversation with "I'm working on this book about...," only to drone on about a half coherent plot.  My novel will tie closely to the themes of my blog.

Why titled, "The Art of Mandarin?"  "Tranquil Polmelo" doesn't roll off the tongue. My blog also isn't a guide to teach people Chinese.  There are plenty of websites that can help you the basics, or Google linguistics papers on the grammatical uses of particular Chinese words.

My blog is going to be about how Chinese sentences convey meaning and how meaning coveys the art of writing Mandarin.