Study Chinese: 竹 (zhu, bamboo)

As you can see, the Chinese character “竹” looks just like a bamboo stem and leaves. The Chinese people are very fond of bamboo. This is because they believe that bamboo is incredibly strong and capable of resisting strong winds and cold temperatures. As a result, bamboo is known as one of the “Three Friends of the Cold”. (The other two are the pine and plum trees, which, like bamboo, seem to be “fearless” of the cold.)

There was once a Chinese poet who would plant bamboo wherever he went, even when staying with others for only a few days. When asked the reason for such behavior, he responded, “I can not be without it, not even for one day”. Also, there is a Chinese idiom to describe that if you know understand the bamboo quite well, you do not need to look at it, and you can draw a very vivid one with your eyes closed, because the bamboo is in your heart.

Bamboo can be used to create many beautiful things. When it is written as a radical(“?”), it refers something related to bamboo.