筹办
choú bàn · HSK 7
to make preparations
📋 CHOW BAN-quet planner — arranging all the preparations for the feast
Chóu sounds like chow (food), bàn sounds like banquet. A banquet planner is someone who arranges and prepares everything — exactly what 筹办 means: to organize and make preparations for an event.
筹 — bamboo radical 竹 + 壽 (longevity, phonetic)
Originally written with the bamboo radical over 壽, 筹 depicted small bamboo sticks used as counting tallies or chips in ancient China. From this concrete sense of 'counting rod' it extended to mean 'to count, plan, or scheme,' as seen in modern words like 筹划 (plan) and 筹码 (chip, bargaining counter).
办 — 力 (strength) flanked by two 丶 dots
办 is the simplified form of 辦, which combined 力 (strength/effort) with 辡 (two 辛 'criminals/disputes') to mean 'to manage or handle a dispute'. The simplified shape keeps 力 in the center and reduces the surrounding element to two small dots, preserving the sense of 'doing' or 'handling' something.