I remember reading a book in the 80's about the Bible and the Chinese language. The Chinese characters are very old. Take the word WEST. The Chinese character for that word are made up of the charcters that make the words "8 people in a boat" and the character for "perfection" is made up of the characters that are the words "lamb on a tree." The Chinese character for PARADISE is made of the charcters "2 people in a garden." I forget the name of the book, but it was a two word title with the second word being Genesis.
"Eternity in Their Hearts" by Don Richardson, who also wrote "The Peace Child" I've been meaning to get that book for myself, it's great. In it he makes reference to another work that covers the Chinese character writing much more throughly.
I have one called "Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn't Solve" (by Nelson and Broadberry) that sounds very similar to the one you are mentioning (this one was also published as "Mysteries Confucius Couldn't Solve") but it is dedicated to the man who wrote "The Discovery of Genesis" (Heng).
Not sure, but I suspect if I dig through this one, I might find the title of the one you read...because this book was very much along the same lines. And VERY interesting reading...and now back on my nightstand for a second read thanks to this thread (and you getting me over to grab this book to find the title to see if it had been the same one! Ha!)
The Discovery of Genesis; by Kang/Nelson
Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn't Solve; by Nelson/Broadberry
Eternity in Their Hearts; Richardson
I thought the books on the Chinese Alphabet (the first two books) made some pretty compelling arguments in comparing the 'pictogram' characters with Genesis accounts. A couple such examples were: the Chinese character for boat is made up of the individual characters of: '8', 'people', and 'vessel' - perhaps a memory of the 8 people on Noah's Ark; and another example was the character for 'create', which is made from the combination of the characters for 'dust', 'a mouth', 'movement of life', and 'able to walk' -- which overlays well with the Genesis account where the Lord God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a walking, living being...
I have to admit, though, when I showed these books to a couple of close friends who grew up in Communist China that they were unimpressed (they contended that although some of the character arguments were 'interesting', many of them were a 'stretch', and the book was overly extrapolating). Nonetheless, I recommend these books for a good read.
Always thought Chinese language characters looked liked tiny pictures. Thought it was just me.
I have a web address that says the same about the characters....
www.wbschool.org/chinesecharacters.htm
in Him, Merry Christmas