三毛 (Sānmáo) · Sanmao, pen name of Taiwanese writer Chen…

Meanings

1 Sanmao, pen name of Taiwanese writer Chen Mao-ping, famous for travel essays about the Sahara Desert
2 Sanmao, iconic ragged-boy cartoon character created by Zhang Leping in 1935

About Sanmao

1943–1991 · 作家 writer

Taiwanese writer whose essays about life in the Sahara with her Spanish husband José, starting with 撒哈拉的故事 (1976), made her a best-selling author across the Chinese-speaking world. She also wrote the lyrics of 橄榄树.

Also called 陈懋平

Characters

Examples

HSK 7-9

三毛的《撒哈拉的故事》影响了一代华人读者。

Sānmáo de 《 Sāhālā de Gùshi 》 yǐngxiǎng le yídài Huárén dúzhě.

Sanmao's 'Stories of the Sahara' influenced a generation of Chinese readers.

HSK 7-9

小时候我最喜欢看《三毛流浪记》。

Xiǎoshíhou wǒ zuì xǐhuan kàn 《 Sānmáo Liúlàng Jì 》.

When I was little I loved reading 'The Wanderings of Sanmao'.

Tips

culture

Her birth name was 陈懋平, but as a child she could not write the complicated 懋, so she simply left it out, and later changed her name to 陈平.

memory

三毛 means 'three hairs', the three strands on the cartoon orphan's head that show he goes hungry. The writer joked that she took the name because she was 只值三毛钱, 'worth only thirty cents', a 毛 being a tenth of a yuan.