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唱

to sing

chàng
11 strokes · 口 (mouth) + 昌 (flourishing, sound chāng) — a mouth in full voice · HSK 2

What 唱 is made of

口 + 昌 = 唱
口mouth kǒu
昌flourishing

Where 唱 comes from

昌 is two suns stacked — brightness doubled — and lends both its sound and its energy. Put a mouth 口 beside that double brightness and you get singing: the voice at its most radiant.

唱 in Chinese culture

唱 anchors two pillars of Chinese social life: 唱京剧 Beijing opera, where a single 唱 phrase can take years to master, and KTV, where no mastery is required at all. Refusing to sing at KTV takes more social skill than singing badly.

Example

唱歌 chànggē — to sing (songs)

他唱歌唱得很好。
Tā chànggē chàng de hěn hǎo.
He sings very well.

How to remember it

A mouth 口 shining like two suns 昌 — SINGING at full brightness.

K歌 'K-singing' (from karaoke) is so embedded that 唱K is a standard verb phrase — and booth-sized solo KTV pods in malls let you 唱K alone between errands.

Same sound, different tones

昌
1st chāng
flourishing
常
2nd cháng
often
场
3rd chǎng
field
唱
4th chàng
to sing

Words unlocked by 唱

唱歌 chànggē
to sing
合唱 héchàng
chorus

Related characters

LEARN 唱 WITH STROKE-BY-STROKE WRITING → DOWNLOAD ZHIZHI
One character a morning · 455-character HSK library · iOS