Un Mot "De" La Chine (A Word From China)

One of the aspects of Mandarin that struck me as curious was the use of the word 的 ("de") as a possessive.

In French too, the word "de" is used to denote the possessive - but in the opposite direction!

In French, the word "de" means "of".

e.g., L'histoire de France = "the history of France"

In Chinese, the word 的 has exactly the same pronunciation ("de"), but means 's (apostrophe s).

e.g., 毛泽东 的 红皮书 Máo Zédōng de hóngpíshū ("Mao Zedong's Red Book")

An interesting tidbit that doesn't quite qualify as the pièce de résistance but could perhaps elicit a "好的!" Hǎo de! ("All right!")