This article examines Tang-Song alternative names of tea, centered on Lu Yu's Chajing (茶經), Cai Xiang's Chalu (茶錄), and Tao Gu's Qingyilu (清異錄), with the Zhongguo cha wenhua da cidian (中國茶文化大辭典) used as a supplementary reference. The material is handled in three levels: core Tang-Song terms that directly support the argument, earlier or adjacent names that clarify the prehistory of reception and beverage hierarchy, and Ming-Qing or later items that are used only for genealogical comparison. The article interprets alternative names not as a simple list of synonyms but as a cultural-semiotic system that records three linked operations: technical discrimination, sensory remembrance through imagery, and social valuation through metaphor. By focusing especially on the conjunction of Song-dynasty diancha (點茶), doucha (鬪茶), and Jianyao (建窯) black-glazed cups, the article argues that naming helped produce what may be called judgeable sensation: a condition in which the surface, foam, color, and durability of tea could be publicly compared. In conclusion, Tang-Song alternative names constituted a lexical infrastructure that joined sensation, technique, and society, while later tea-person bynames show how this naming culture extended into literati identity and cultural authority.

This study provides a comparative review of research on Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary, with particular attention to developments in L2 Chinese language education research and L2 Japanese language education research. Drawing on international scholarship as well as studies in L2 Chinese and L2 Japanese language education, it explores how Sino-Vietnamese knowledge has been interpreted and utilised across different research traditions. The review indicates that L2 Chinese language education research has focused largely on language transfer, learner difficulties, instructional approaches, and materials development, whereas L2 Japanese language education research has concentrated more on vocabulary inference, learning strategies, and the cognitive processes involved in lexical processing. The comparison reveals that the two traditions offer complementary perspectives. L2 Chinese language education research has accumulated substantial expertise in pedagogical practice and materials development, while L2 Japanese language education research has contributed important insights into learning strategies and cognitive mechanisms. Based on these findings, the study highlights the value of a more integrated approach to Sino-Vietnamese studies and underscores the role of Sino-Vietnamese knowledge as a linguistic resource for understanding language learning within the Sinosphere.

Writing and memorizing Chinese characters pose a major challenge for Vietnamese learners due to their complex stroke structures. To address this issue, “riddle-based character decomposition” has been effectively applied to simplify character recognition and retention. This paper investigates the riddle-based decomposition method in teaching Chinese characters to Vietnamese learners using descriptive, survey, comparative, statistical, analytical and case study methods. The results indicate that this approach fully leverages the form, pronunciation and meaning of Chinese characters through various techniques such as combining, splitting, pictographic representation and association. Teachers can integrate riddles into lessons to introduce new characters or analyze character structures, making Chinese characters feel more approachable, engaging and easier to remember. For example, “What does not fear being refined by fire?” refers to the character for “gold” (real gold does not fear fire: the characters “金” and “真” combine to form “鎮”); “Take half, throw away half” refers to the character for “milk” (half of “要” is “女,” and half of “扔” is “乃,” which combine to form “奶”). The study aims to systematize the key aspects of the riddle-based decomposition method, thereby contributing positively to enhancing the quality of Chinese language teaching in Vietnam.

This article examines the translation of Sinophone literary titles into Vietnamese from the perspectives of paratext, title function, and translation norms. Based on a corpus of 293 pairs of original Chinese titles and Vietnamese titles, including 253 unique source titles and 33 clusters with actual translation variants, the study proposes a multi-layered coding framework to analyze translation methods, local techniques, macro-strategies, target purposes, dominant equivalence, operational norms, and preliminary evaluation. The findings show that literal translation, Sino-Vietnamese rendering, and sense-for-sense translation are the three prominent modes; meanwhile, techniques such as retitling, addition, and omission, although less frequent, play an important role in restructuring the reception frame of the work. The article argues that the translation of literary titles should not be reduced to a linear transfer of meaning, but should instead be regarded as an act of paratextual renaming, in which equivalence, purpose, norms, and reception effects jointly participate in the formation of the work’s name in the target culture.

This paper examines the character-etymology annotations in The Chinese-English Dictionary (2015) as a lexicographic and pedagogical resource. It focuses on three research questions: how etymologically annotated single-character entries are distributed according to the Six Categories of Chinese Characters; how selected annotations connect character form, original meaning, and later senses; and how such information can be adapted for learners at different proficiency levels. The study identifies 673 etymologically annotated single-character entries in the first volume and classifies them through a procedure that compares the dictionary annotations with Shuowen Jiezi, modern etymological dictionaries, and the internal evidence of the entries. Four representative cases, “交,” “本,” “保,” and “辨,” are analyzed from the perspectives of etymological explanation, semantic development, and word-formation use. The analysis shows that etymological glossing can support semantic networking, vocabulary learning, and cultural interpretation, but it should not be treated as a direct explanation for every modern sense. The paper therefore proposes graded pedagogical use, concise statistical presentation, and clearer annotation of diachronic differences and scholarly controversies.