Radical 亠

6 strokes

產

stand 立 (177) + cliff 厂 (149) = produce 产

Notice that the bottom stroke of “to stand” has merged with the first stroke of “cliff ”. We will see this happening again in a couple of instances (Characters 295 and 640), but it doesn’t always happen (see for example Character 257).

This is an example of the sort of decision we have had to make all the way through writing this book. Do we invent a new fragment made up of “lid” plus “horns”, or do we use “stand” but point out when something slightly non-standard happens? In the end we have done the latter, for three reasons — we want to keep the number of fragments to a minimum, everyone else calls this “stand”, and it is where the character 产 came from. But if you prefer (as always) you can make up stories to go with the other choice.

生产 (133) shēngchǎn to manufacture

[产生 (133) chǎnshēng to produce, give rise to]

Imagine standing on a cliff overlooking the sea — it’s the ideal spot for a factory to produce buckets and spades. / Teddy buys the first ones and slides down the channel leading to the beach.