A set of flashcards that can help children learn 160 Chinese characters and 320 words from vivid illustrations of ancient Chinese characters carved on oracle bones. These characters are frequently used in daily life (as well as taught in Chinese text books) and many of them are chosen to match children’s interests. Each card has an illustration on the front and modern characters with Chinese phonetics on the back.

This is the best set of flashcards on the market designed by a professional team dedicated to the introduction of 甲骨文 jia gu wen in early education. Providing the very origin of each Chinese character, the set connects children with the language being the only surviving pictographic language in the world. It is very good introductory teaching material to stimulate children’s curiosity and interest in learning.

Although the Chinese Hanzi system has evolved and changed greatly, the link to its origin is still strong. In the British Library, 450 oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty (between 1600 and 1050 BCE) are being digitalised. You can look them up in the Digitised Manuscripts section to have a close encounter.