Welcome to the blog!

 Hi all!

Welcome to the Journey to the Middle Kingdom blog! I plan to use the blog to discuss all things JTMK. The comic, the characters, Chinese mythology, Chinese language and culture, and just general thoughts I've been having as I've been writing the comic. Journey to the Middle Kingdom is an idea I had many years ago when I was teaching middle school. I wanted to share my love of the Chinese language and mythology, but package it in a fun coming of age story. First off, let's talk about the title of the series. What is the "Middle Kingdom?"

I took Chinese in university. One of the first things that caught me off guard was that the English word "China" sounds nothing like the way Chinese people call their own country. In Mandarin Chinese, the name of the country is Zhongguo, which is written like so:

 中國

So what does this mean? The first character is pronounced "zhong" and the second one "guo." Chinese characters contain meaning, they stand for a concept. The first character:

 中

Means "middle" or "center." It's easy to remember because the box is in the middle of the line. The second character:

 國

This is the character for "kingdom" or "country." So if you look at the two characters together, you get "Middle Kingdom." This goes back to ancient times when China was the center of Asia in terms of culture, economics, and military might. It still is in all honesty. 

So "Journey to the Middle Kingdom" is a journey to China itself. I'll be writing about the various myths and stories I've read over the years as part of my practice to learn to read Chinese characters. I hope you enjoy the blog! If you'd like to read the comic, click on the cover to the right.