Last week I posted a hint to a puzzle from two weeks ago.... which I am now proud to say has been solved by Melbourne University puzzle enthusiasts Michael L. and Jemma X.! Congratulations guys, your prizes are in the mail.
Here's the solution; click for a bigger view:
I was inspired to create this puzzle after I tried to look up the Chinese word for "gong", as in the big round metal thing one beats dramatically with a mallet. This is very misleading request for a smart online dictionary because the pinyin "gong" has way more entries than 锣. So in this puzzle, each character on the bottom row has a pinyin pronunciation which could also be read as an English word, represented semantically by a character somewhere on the top row, for example: 躬 -> gōng -> 锣.
Note: 派 is perhaps not a standard translation for "pie" but if Ronald Maidanglao uses it, it's good enough for me. Let me know if you still have questions; I swear there's a decent explanation for each pair.
My brain hurts now...