Month: July 2025

Why I Built a Hanzi-to-Pinyin Converter

As someone who grew up speaking Mandarin, I’ve always felt at home with the language—but even I find myself pausing over a tricky character once in a while. Whether it’s a word I haven’t seen since childhood, an unfamiliar lyric in a Chinese song, or a classic text that’s just outside my everyday vocabulary, it’s surprisingly easy to get stuck and wish for an instant pinyin “cheat sheet.” I realized I wasn’t alone—many friends and family members, whether they’re fluent speakers, second-generation learners, or just curious about Chinese, have run into the same challenge.

With that in mind, I decided to build a Hanzi-to-Pinyin converter that makes this process fast, accurate, and visually clear. My aim was to help people at every stage: native speakers needing an occasional prompt; parents and teachers supporting children; heritage speakers reconnecting with their roots; and of course anyone studying Mandarin from scratch. The ability to quickly see the pinyin for any Chinese text—be it a message, a poem, or the lines of a catchy tune—removes a little friction and opens up all kinds of learning moments.

One of the most interesting technical challenges came from polyphonic characters: those Hanzi with more than one possible pronunciation depending on their context. Right now, the tool uses the most common reading for each character, which covers most everyday situations. This makes things simple and effective the majority of the time. However, truly nailing the right pronunciation every time—especially for those characters that shift depending on surrounding words or grammatical function—would require a much deeper level of language understanding. That’s something I’d love to tackle in the future, probably by leveraging advances in natural language processing to bring in real contextual awareness.

For now, I’ve focused on reliability, straightforward presentation, and catering to a wide range of users. The converter is easy to use, with results lined up clearly so you can scan both the Hanzi and Pinyin at a glance. It’s already been a big help in my own reading and teaching, and I hope it proves just as useful for anyone who loves Chinese or wants to strengthen their skills.

Who Benefits?

  • Parents teaching children:
    See every pronunciation for each Hanzi, verify tone and reading, and use the grid layout for interactive reading time.
  • Language learners:
    Never get stumped by a multi-pronunciation character again. The tool’s interface makes advanced reading and self-study a breeze.
  • Mandarin music fans:
    Match every lyric—line-by-line, word-by-word—no more missed rhymes or confusion during your sing-along.

Try It Now!

Experience the future of Hanzi-to-Pinyin conversion at nric.biz/chinese-to-pinyin-converter.php. Feel free to share your feedback and help shape the next generation of Mandarin learning!

Originally posted on fated.net.
Tool available at: https://nric.biz/chinese-to-pinyin-converter.php

When Old Melodies Meet: Mixing 張洪量’s Classics

Discovering a Familiar Sound

Recently, as I was listening to 張洪量’s “心爱妹妹的眼睛,” something about the melody struck me as oddly familiar. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d heard those chords before, and after a few repeats, it finally clicked—the chord progression was the same as another 张洪量 classic, “你知道我在等你吗.”

Both songs have that signature C–Am–F–G chord progression running through most of their verses and choruses. It’s a classic progression, but I was surprised at how closely the two songs mirrored each other, not just in mood but also in musical structure.

A Mashup Idea Is Born

Once I noticed this, I was curious: what if these two songs weren’t just similar, but actually mixed together? Could I blend their vocals or melodies and make them feel like a single new song?

So I decided to give it a go. I fired up GarageBand, brought in both tracks, and started tinkering. There was one big difference between the two: “心爱妹妹的眼睛” is noticeably slower than “你知道我在等你吗.” To get them to fit together, I had to adjust the tempo of “心爱妹妹的眼睛” so it would match up rhythmically. With a bit of slicing, synchronizing, and some patience, the mix began to take shape.

The Mixing Process

I used the instrumental/backing track from “你知道我在等你吗” as the foundation, then overlaid elements from “心爱妹妹的眼睛.” Surprisingly, everything fit together beautifully once the tempos were synced. The magic of a shared chord progression brought the melodies together smoothly, and I was able to create a blend that retained the spirit of both originals.

What I love most about this experiment is how it highlights the underlying connections in music—sometimes, songs we think are completely different are actually built on the same musical foundations. All it takes is a bit of curiosity (and maybe a DAW like GarageBand) to uncover those links.

Listen and Let Me Know Your Thoughts!

I put the finished mashup on YouTube for fun. If you’re a 張洪量 fan, or just enjoy clever musical experiments, give it a listen! I’d love to hear what you think, and whether you know of other songs that secretly share the same DNA.