竹 is one of the most stable pictographs in the entire CJK system — it shows two pairs of bamboo leaves drooping symmetrically, and the character has barely changed since oracle bone times. Whenever the bamboo radical ⺮ appears at the top of a character, the meaning relates to "made of bamboo" or "having bamboo-like joints / segments." This radical produces a remarkable family: 笑 (laugh), 筆 (writing brush — a brush with a bamboo handle), 答 (answer — written on bamboo slips), 算 (calculate — done with bamboo counting rods), 節 (joint / season / restraint — from the visible nodes on a bamboo stalk).

In East Asian symbolism, bamboo represents resilience, integrity, and quiet endurance — bending in the wind without breaking, hollow inside (humble) yet strong outside, growing in spare seasons when other plants fail. The compound 松竹梅 (pine, bamboo, plum — the "Three Friends of Winter") is a classical artistic motif representing fortitude.

Korean reading "juk." 竹刀 (jukdo, bamboo sword used in kendo), 竹槍 (jukchang, bamboo spear — historically a weapon of farmer uprisings, e.g., the Donghak rebellion), 竹林 (jungnim, bamboo grove — and the Korean name for the legendary "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove"), 爆竹 (pokjuk, firecrackers — the original Chinese firecrackers were burning bamboo segments), 松竹 (songjuk, "pine and bamboo" — symbol of unwavering integrity).

Mandarin zhú, 2nd tone. 竹子 (zhúzi, bamboo), 竹林 (zhúlín, bamboo forest), 爆竹 (bàozhú, firecrackers), 竹笋 (zhúsǔn, bamboo shoots). And one cannot omit 熊猫吃竹子 (xióngmāo chī zhúzi, "the panda eats bamboo") — pandas, found only in central China, eat almost nothing else.

Japanese on-reading チク (chiku) — 竹林 (chikurin, bamboo grove), 爆竹 (bakuchiku, firecrackers). Kun-reading たけ (take) — 竹 (take, bamboo), 竹の子 / 筍 (takenoko, "bamboo child" = bamboo shoot, a culinary delicacy). The compound 松竹梅 (shōchikubai, pine-bamboo-plum) is famously used in Japanese restaurants as a tier system: 松 (matsu, top) > 竹 (take, middle) > 梅 (ume, basic) — three quality levels named for the Three Friends of Winter, allowing customers to choose without saying "cheap."

Memory aid: two pairs of drooping bamboo leaves — the picture is the meaning.