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;