This book is the collection of papers from the international conference "Hanzi renzhi – How Western Learners Discover the World of Written Chinese" organized by Andreas Guder from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. The included 27 papers are written by more than 40 researchers from China, the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, Portugal and Denmark. They discuss the topic of the conference for the first time from different scientific perspectives and presented the latest research results in the cognition and teaching of Chinese characters. The president of Beijing Language and Culture University wrote the preface. All the papers have titles in Chinese and English, abstract, key words, etc., and are available in both Chinese and English. The detailed introduction and contact information of the authors are also provided for further discussion with anyone who is interested in this field.

Andreas Guder, born in Munich, Germany, 1966, received his MA in German as a Foreign Language at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, and has been engaged in teaching Chinese as foreign language and Chinese character teaching since then. In 1998 he received his Ph.D. in Chinese Department at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. And from 1998 to 2002 he taught as an instructor for German Intensive Course supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at Beijing Institute of Technology. Since 2003 he has been the associate professor of Chinese language and translation at the School of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies in Germersheim, Mainz University. In 2006 he took over the responsibility for Chinese language teaching at Berlin Free University. And in 2004 he was elected president of the Chinese Language Teachers Association in German-Speaking Countries (Fachverband Chinesisch). Jiang Xin received her MA in Psychology from Beijing Normal University in 1993; and her PhD from the Psychology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is now an associate professor in Center for Studies of Chinese as a Second Language (CSCSL), Beijing Language and Culture University and supervisor of MA. Her research interest lies in cognitive process of language and language acquisition. The current focus is on Chinese character, vocabulary and reading development in research of teaching Chinese as a second language. She has undertaken a lot of projects of the Office of Chinese Language Council International (OCLCI) and the National Social Science Fund project Research on Foreign Students’ Reading Process, and has published more than 20 papers. Wan Yexin, professor and supervisor of PhD in Beijing Language and Culture University, and director of Chinese Character Association. He has been member of OCLCI Expert Consultation Group for Research on Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, and honorary advisor for Chinese Teaching Research Association of South California, USA. She has conducted short-term training for Chinese teachers at Los Angeles, has taught in Istituto Universitario Orientale di NAPOLI and has been invited for many times to University of Zurich to participate in the intensive Chinese character teaching experiments. She has published a number of papers on Chinese character teaching and published the book Outline of Pragmatic Chinese Character Study, also directed the National Social Science Fund project Research on Chinese Character Teaching in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.