Chinese Culture... In Chinese Quiz | Chinese

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What is Chinese called in Chinese?

Answer: Zhong Wen

Zhong Wen, literally translated into English means "middle language" while Zhong Guo (the word for China) means "middle kingdom".

2. There are four famous literary pieces in China, which one of the four translates into "The Romance of Three Kingdoms"?

Answer: San Guo Yan Yi

"San Guo Yan Yi" literally means "The life of three kingdoms".
"Xi You Ji" is "The journey to the west" (west travel record)
"Shui Hu Zhuan" is translated as "the Outlaws of the Marsh".
"Hong Lou Meng" is also known as "Dream of the Red Chamber".
"San Guo Yan Yi" talks about the power struggle between three kingdoms during the dynasty after "Chun Qiu".

3. If one character represents one written Chinese symbol, then how many characters are Chinese idioms commonly made up of?

Answer: four

I would say about 98% of the Chinese idioms are made up of four characters. Generally, these idioms would come from an ancient story. The idioms are like a summary to the sometimes-very-long stories.

4. What is the very first dynasty in Chinese history?

Answer: Xia dynasty

Legend says that the Xia is where the Chinese language was first invented as pictograms by a wise ruler (NOT an emperor) called "Huang Di). His wife invented the art of weaving silk.

5. There are many Chinese "units". Each unit can be used with a different object. For example, when talking about a book, the Chinese would say "y _ben_ shu" with ben as the unit for a book. What is the MOST CORRECT unit for a single horse?

Answer: Pi

Qun is the unit for a group of something. A herd (group) of horses would be called Yi Qun Ma (one herd of horses).
Ge is the most general unit--it can be used with almost anything. However, it would be disrespectful to call a teacher "ge". He should be referred to as "Yi Wei Lao Shi" (one single-honorary teacher).

6. China is a huge country, and people often refer to where they come from as just a direction. What would "Da Xi Bei" be referring to?

Answer: Xinjiang

Da - Big
Xi - West
Bei - North
Northwestern China - Xinjiang and fellow provinces!

7. The first emperor of China declared himself emperor in what dynasty?

Answer: Qin

Qin is when the emperor first started to unite all the little tribes and creating the blueprint of China as a country today. Ling is not a dynasty, I made that up.

8. The Great Wall of China was built for defence purposes. What kind of smoke (yan) did the soldiers use to alert the troops of an attack?

Answer: Lang (wolf)

When the soldiers on look out first see an attack, they would light up the Yan Cao (Smoke Hay) and a thick smoke would be produced. The smoke will then be observed by other lookout soldiers, and they will light up their portion of the Yan Cao, until finally, the whole wall would be "smoking" and the troops will be alerted.

9. Many of the transliterations in Chinese started appearing only during the past ten years or so. What is the transliterating for KFC, one of China's most visited fast food restaurants?

Answer: Ken De Ji

"Ken De Ji" is actually just a transliteration for Kentucky.
"Mai Dang Lao" - is McDonald's.
"Shao Mai" is actually a kind of Chinese food.
"Shen Zhen" is a city near Canton.

10. There are many mountains in China and their sights are very enjoyable. The five most famous mountains have been given the collective name "Wu Yue". Wu Yue refers to five mountains from the north, east, south, west and central China. The most well-known mountain within the group is the Dong (east) Yue--Tai Shan. In which province is this mountain? (Hint: Shan is the word for mountain)

Answer: Shan Dong

Tai Shan is the third tallest among the five moutains, but it is often referred to as the "Greatest of the five moutains". This is because since many famous philosophers and emperors have visited it, it is an archeology treasure chest.
Nan (south) Yue - Hu Nan houses the mystical Heng Shan which has natural settings for the famous legend "Journey to the West".
Xi (west) Yue - Shan Xi has the most dangerous mountain of the five. Hua Shan not only has very beautiful scenery, it also boasts the most deadly cliffs.
Bei (north) Yue - Heng Shang is in the province of Shan Xi. It is the tallest of the five mountains.
Zhong (middle) Yue - Song Shang, in the province of He Nan is said to have "72 peaks up at the top, and 70 temples down below".

11. The Chinese invented ice cream some 500 years ago.

Answer: True

According to the London Canal Museum, found at http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/ice/icecream.htm, "... it can be sated with some confidence that ice cream was invented in China in the first milenium. The process of freezing liquids by immersing them in a mixture of ice and salt, which react together to lower the temperature of the mixture below freezing point, was also invented in the distant past - it was first documented in the thirteenth century."

12. The most popular sport in China--Ping Pong, also known as table tennis--involved two players ralleying a white or orange ball, roughly the size of a golf ball, across a 9 ft by 5 ft table. What is a normal Ping Pong ball made of?

Answer: celluloid

A standard Ping Pong ball is made of celluloid, or, since 2014, plastic. The celluloid ball is hollow in the middle and gives a great bounce on hard surfaces (eg. the Ping Pong table). The ball is usually white or orange. In competitions, orange balls are usually used so that the referee can see the ball more clearly.
The first ping pong balls were actually made of rubber or cork.

13. What is the party whose rule in China commenced on October 1, 1949? (answer in Chinese)

Answer: Gong Chan Dang

Communist party is currently the ruling party in China. But in Taiwan, most people belong to Guo Min Dang or the People's party.
Zhi You Dang means Liberals and Fa Xi Si Dang is the Fascist party.

14. The Chinese always believed that on a map, China looks like this animal. What is the female version of this animal in Chinese?

Answer: Mu Ji

On a map, China is usually seen as a rooster. The northeastern part is believed to be the head and the western part is the tail.

15. The Chinese language has an alphabet made up of 340 letters.

Answer: false

The Chinese language has NO letters. The Pin Yin used it a way of spelling things out phonetically for the kids in China who are still learning the language. is also another way of writing out words phonetically in Chinese, it is rarely used now. This method uses symbols that served possibly as the template for the Romanji in Japanese.

Source: Author animia

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Chinese Culture... In Chinese Trivia Quiz

To know a language is one thing, but to know about the culture from which your language comes is yet another. This quiz is written in Mandarin.

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