Pinyin Sudoku 33 - Li I

Li is one of the most common Chinese surnames, and written 李 it simply means "plum". Judging from the character, which is composed of "tree"(upper part) and "child" (lower part), this fruit seems to be seen as child of a tree - very nice.

Another "li", which is not included in this sudoku, is 逦, lǐ, and means "winding". It contains the radical "to walk" (lower part) and the "lì" in the upper part means "beautiful". It suggests that e.g. a winding road would be someting beautiful for the chinese, which is also very nice. I really like discovering aspects like this, they make this language really fascinating (and cause you to remember the queerest words, although you really don't need them ;-).

By the way, good that Ai WeiWei has been released. I really hope this is independent of Wen Jiabao's journey to 欧洲 - Ouzhou, Europe... He should stay free and be able to come to Berlin soon. After all, he is just an artist...!
http://www.spiegel.de/thema/ai_weiwei

Pinyin Sudoku 32 - Jia I

Today I was busy with the arts, especially the art of writing. That's why today's post is about jia, which can mean artist. For more meanings, check out this sudoku...

I'm also praying for my favourite painting artist, Ai Weiwei. If you read German, I recommend this journal: http://www.du-magazin.com/ (June 2011, No. 817)

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irz-d6jqxzo

Pinyin Sudoku 31 - Wu I

Another rather simple-to-write chinese character pronounced "wù" is 兀, which means "to cut off the feet". Reminds me of the "yì" meaning "to cut off the nose"...
Now is there a chinese character for every part of the body that could be cut off...?