14
May 2006
Craisins for China
If you’ve never had to buy presents in the USA to bring back to Chinese friends, you probably don’t understand how hard it is. Nearly everything is made in China these days, and quite often those same products are sold in China as well. Quite a few times I’ve bought presents in the USA thinking, “you can’t buy this in China,” only to discover upon presentation of the gift that it is, in fact, available in China. In Shanghai, the issue is even worse. Furthermore, a lot of things that you can’t buy in China the Chinese don’t want (think: most American candy).
Since bringing back gifts is a non-negligible part of Chinese culture, this creates a major problem: what presents do you buy for the Chinese when visiting the USA?
I recently mentioned that I had found a good present to bring back from the USA and give to Chinese friends. Don’t expect it to revolutionize West-East gift-giving; it’s only a minor item. But it seems to have gone over well. I brought back packs of Craisins.
Craisins make a good present for several reasons:
1. If you can even get them in China, they’re certainly not widely available. I’ve never seen them here.
2. The Chinese typically don’t know what cranberries are, and often have never heard their Chinese name before (蔓越莓), giving them a sort of exotic quality. Some Chinese have heard about them (particularly in association with American Thanksgiving), but few have tried them.
3. You can’t bring fresh fruit through customs, but no one wants to eat fresh cranberries anyway. So dried, sweetened, and packaged is good.
4. The dried, sweetened fruit thing is very similar to a lot of Chinese snacks, so they’re easier for the typical Chinese person to accept. (Many foreign foods aren’t.)
Craisins have a special meaning for me as a linguistics student as well:
1. The name “Craisins” is a good example of a blend (cranberry + raisin).
2. Leonard Bloomfield, key contributor to structural linguistics, uses the “cran-” in “cranberry” in discussions of morphology as a (now classic) example of a bound morpheme that exists in only one lexeme (although this status is possibly changing, thanks to modern marketing). The “cranberry” example is often cited by Chinese linguistics professors (I have heard it many times already) even though most of them are not exactly sure what a cranberry is.
Thus I was able to present Craisins to my linguistics professors and classmates as a “souvenir with linguistic characteristics.”
Most importantly, they ate them all up. Nothing says “I’m not just being polite” like devouring the entire bag.
12
May 2006Chinese Character Stroke Stats
Yet another blog has risen from the ashes over at JohnBiesnecker.com and yielded an interesting entry called Characters aren’t really that hard. (Read this entry before it’s gone, as John is quite the nihilistic blogger and all content is ephemeral.)
This time John has attacked the theory that Chinese is hard. The chief reason that full (or even half-ass) mastery of Chinese is difficult is those darned Chinese characters, so that’s the focus of John’s analysis.
He provides stroke count statistics for groups of the most commonly used Chinese characters. The result is somewhat heartening. Check it out.
This kind of statistical work has certainly been done before by Chinese scholars, but it’s not very easy information to find online. I made a half-hearted attempt and didn’t find it. (Yes, that’s a challenge to you readers to prove that you’re better than me.) Plus, John offers it in English.
What I did find was some software that could be interesting: 汉字经 and HanziStatics [sic] (汉字统计程序). If anyone has some free time to check those out, let me know what you think (Chinese ability almost certainly required).
11
May 2006Spammers, You Flatter Me
Some of what I write attracts criticism, and even the occasional hateful comment. It’s nice to see compliments every now and then. What’s not nice is that these days the vast majority of my admirers are spammers. Scrolling through my blog’s collected spam I see the following:
– Excellent site, added to favorites!!
– This is a great site. Not everyone has to agree but I sure do. Can’t wait for some more posts.Keep it real.
– Best site I see. Thanks.
– Your site is very cognitive. I think you will have good future.:)
– So interesting site, thanks!
– HI! I love this place!
– I’m really impressed!
– Your home page its great
– Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!
– I like your site
So if you’ve got a blog, my advice to you is: beware the flatterers.
09
May 2006Looking back on the visit
I have just returned from yet another visit home. I no longer have many reverse culture shock experiences (e.g. the cliché “Americans are so fat” one), but I notice lots of little things. This is how I measure the growing disconnect between modern American culture and me. Here are some of my observations from my last visit:
– Having lived in China for so long, I no longer like sweets as much as I used to. I find myself somewhat repulsed by the ubiquitous sugary goodies, and I have to carefully space the ones I want to enjoy if I want to stomach them.
– I no longer want pizza when I go home. Between Papa John’s, Hello Pizza, and New York Pizza (Jing An Temple), I’ve got all my pizza needs covered in Shanghai, with a satisfactory array of styles and prices. The same goes for pretty much all fast food.
– I have zero interest in American TV anymore. Anything that’s good will come to China on DVD. (Same goes for movies, unless there’s something really new that I want to see.)
– My parents’ ADSL connection was often slower than my connection in Shanghai. I know it’s partly because my parents’ connection isn’t very good, but still… how sad.
– White girls get hotter every time I go home. (Also Hispanic girls, black girls, etc.)
– Life is hard without an ayi. (Oh, China, you have spoiled me rotten.)
– Americans complain about the cost of real estate, but many homes in Florida are actually cheaper than homes in Shanghai.
– The last couple days of my visits are always characterized by frantic shopping trips for friends in China. I’m getting better at remembering all the people I should shop for, and even getting better at figuring out good presents to buy. (More on this soon.)
While I was home, I pretty much only heard mainstream music. Two songs stood out: Ridin’ by Chamillionaire (what a stupid name, but I can’t help loving this song) and SOS by Rihanna (good use of the Tainted Love beat). And what do you know… both can be found through Baidu (here’s how).
07
May 2006Zhang Ziyi in TV Commericals
Zhang Ziyi
If you do search for Zhang Ziyi on Youtube, you’ll find quite a few commercials. As I see it, this is good for Ziyi fans as well as those interested in either learning Chinese or seeing Chinese commercials. (Unfortunately, some have no audio.)
Here are some of the commercials featuring Zhang Ziyi to be found on Youtube:
– Coca-Cola (1)
– Coca-Cola (2)
– Lenovo computers (1)
– Lenovo computers (2)
– Maybelline (1)
– Maybelline (2)
– Pantene (1)
– Pantene (2)
– Visa (feat. furious kung fu action)
– Visa (feat. Pierce Brosnan)
– Bottled water (Korean)
– Asience (hair care)
I’m not a huge fan of Zhang Ziyi, but while looking through YouTube for a ChinesePod blog post I found so many commercials featuring her that I thought it was worth mentioning.
05
May 2006The Experts
An entry on The 88s entitled America’s China “Experts” has asked:
> Just who are America’s China “experts?” And the question we all really want answered: do any of them actually speak Chinese?
To my dismay, the second question (emphasis mine) was not answered, but it’s an interesting list nonetheless. Well, interesting to me personally in that after some consideration I found that I really didn’t care who most of those people were. But maybe I should? Maybe you could convince me to care? Maybe.
I’ll never be a sinologist.
03
May 2006Stand Up Comedy
While home my sister took me to see some stand up comedy here in Tampa. Two of the comedians were John Heffron and Tracy Ashley. We had a good time. The next day I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone, telling her what I’d been doing, and I wanted to tell her that I went to see stand up comedy. But I completely did not know how to say “stand up comedy!” I went into a long-winded description of the event which left me completely convinced: I need to know how to say stand up comedy in Chinese!
Shortly thereafter, I was chatting with Brendan online, and I asked him if he knew. Big xiangsheng fan that he is, his response was “单口相声” (one-man xiangsheng). That was a clever way of putting it, and probably pretty easily understood by the Chinese.
I later did a proper Google search and turned up 现场喜剧 (live comedy), which often had 表演 (performance) tacked onto the end. You can find such a usage on the Chinese version of the Wikipedia entry for David Letterman. (That source strikes me as a particularly good example of the surreal beauty of the internet.) I have my doubts as to whether 现场喜剧 can be readily understood by most Chinese as “stand up” without further elaboration, though.
I was actually reminded of China a bit as I listened to Tracy Ashley’s act. She was talking about her experience being black in Minnesota. (Apparently there are not many black people there.) Her description of the awkwardly enthusiastic greetings between black people in Minnesota that don’t even know each other made me think of foreigners in small-town China. (OK, the parallel doesn’t go too far, and then there’s also Marco Polo Syndrome, whose likelihood is directly proportional to the size of the Chinese city….)
All this entry illustrates–if anything–is that when you bring stand up comedy together with Chinese culture, it’s a little awkward.
This is dedicated to my commenters that hate my professor because he discusses his quirky off-topic theories in class.
01
May 2006在美国过五一
虽然在美国我们不过“国际”劳动节，但是今年我在佛罗里达州跟家人一起过。昨天也过了生日。这些都是借口：我现在还是没什么新的东西给大家看。所以我催促大家去看另外两个“超级老外”的中文博客：
1. Brendan的中文非常好，而且文章写的认真得让我惭愧。请看看在北京找不着北。
2. “怪人”的博客一直写得很棒，但他最近写的“我误解过的中文单词”特别吸引了我的注意力因为我曾经也有同样的误解（除了最后一个）。
五一以后我要回沪。
01
May 2006History as the Final Judge
This is part three of my professor’s lecture on speech acts. This part is even more of a digression than the thoughts on race and “the weak,” but it’s related to the Confucian quote, and, more specifically, ideas about history.
My professor was saying that he thought that social order required there to be a “final judge” (最后审判者). For the West, that “final judge” has been the Judeo-Christian God and the accompanying system of morality. However, China’s “final judge,” my professor argued, was certainly not religious in nature. So what was it?
According to him, through the ages the Chinese have feared not the judgment of some god or moral system, but rather history. He felt that for China, history is the final judge.
What did China’s emperors have to fear? Certainly not the wrath of anything divine. The only thing they feared was how historians recorded them.
Similarly, parents toil their entire lifetimes because their vision is firmly locked on the future. Their children will have better lives, and they are willing to accept a role in the history of that better future.
I’m not going to write too much about this… This is the kind of thing that doesn’t get written down in my notebook (since it’s almost completely irrelevant to speech acts), but it certainly captures my attention and imagination a bit more.
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Apr 2006Speech Act Rules and the Weak
In the same lecture on the rules of speech acts in which my professor quoted Confucius, he talked quite a bit about race. His point was that the rules of speech acts govern what we can and can’t say about race in society.
According to him, the rules depended on who “the weak” (弱者) were. The weak could be spoken of positively by the rest of society, but if they were spoken negatively of, there would be strong resentment. Furthermore, the priveleged in society could not be spoken of too positively, as that would incur the wrath of the weak.
As an example, he gave holidays. Why are there Teacher’s Day but not Student’s Day, Secretary’s Day but not Boss’s Day*, Nurse’s Day but not Doctor’s Day, Labor Day but not Rich Man’s Day? To this a student asked, “well what about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day?” My professor laughed. “Parents are the most downtrodden of all!” he replied. The class, chuckling, agreed.
He went on to talk about a Chinese song which had been popular in the 70’s. The song glorified the Chinese people, along with their “yellow skin,” “black hair,” and “black eyes.” At that time, everyone thought it was a great song. And yet, such a racially-fixated song would be out of place in Chinese society today. Why?
Back then China was really struggling. It had not yet experienced the economic growth that it would under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. China was undeniably a member of “the weak” on the world stage. As such, it could glorify its racial features, and no one would have a problem. As China’s economy grew over the years and the nation prospered, it became less “weak,” and the situation changed.
As a similar example, my professor pointed out the situation in the United States. Black Americans could have black pride, but white pride was frowned upon (particularly by “the weak” in society). Similarly, Americans–including black Americans–would not really care about Chinese racial pride, because to Americans both black and white, the Chinese are still “the weak.” He predicted that a Chinese show of racial pride would, however, be offensive to many Africans.
It was an interesting lecture.
* Apparently in China there is no Boss’s Day.
26
Apr 2006Confucius and Speech Acts
In a lecture on the rules of speech acts, one of my professors recently quoted Confucius. Believe it or not, I have seldom run into this kind of thing. The only other time I can recall Confucius coming up was in a discussion on sex back in Hangzhou. (The quote then was “食色性也.”) Anyway, this time it was:
> 质胜文则野，文胜质则史。
Now I’m no scholar of ancient Chinese, but seeking to better understand the teacher’s point after class, I asked the teacher himself as well as a few scholarly friends about it. The explanations I got were varied because four of the characters are open to a lot of interpretation: 质, 文, 野, 史. The characters with relatively fixed meanings are 胜, meaning “exceeds,” and 则, which indicates a result, and means something like “will be.”
One common interpretation of the quotation refers to writing. In this case it means something like:
> When content exceeds rhetoric, [writing] will be rough. When rhetoric exceeds content, [it] will be pretentious.
The quote can also be applied to people, in which case you also get a translation rather similar to the above.
My professor used the quote in a less orthodox way. He was talking about history, which could be divided into the emperor’s “official history” (史) as well as the people’s oral tradition (野), which was a less stable method of recording actual events, but which didn’t overlook certain unpleasant events that the emperor didn’t want to record. I find this idea much harder to translate, because it’s harder to assign specific meanings to 质 and 文, but I guess it goes something like this:
> When events outweigh revision, legend results. When revision outweighs events, an unbalanced history results.
My, that’s a very clumsy translation. (Hey, I’m on vacation!)
The essence of the quote lies in the part my professor didn’t quote:
> 文质彬彬，然后君子。
That is, when 文 and 质 are in balance, the results are ideal.
See chinakongzi.com for an interpretation of the quote in Chinese. Ancient Chinese is one of those gaping voids in my Chinese education, so any corrections or revisions are welcome.
In the next couple days I will elaborate on the point my professor was making when he spouted this Confucian wisdom.
24
Apr 2006Liking Google Calendar
I just started using Google Calendar, and I’m liking it. Previous calendar apps had never had quite enough to hook me, but I think Google has finally done it. It also helps that my ChinesePod co-workers are using it. Micah is too, and maybe Brad and John B will too?
Here are some tips to get you Shanghai dwellers started:
1. Obviously you need to go to Google Calendar and open an account first.
2. In the left sidebar you’ll see a Calendars box. Click on the plus sign to the right of “Other Calendars.” Now you’ll be on the Add Other Calendars screen. Click on “Holiday Calendars.” On this screen I added “US Holidays,” “China Holidays,” and “Christian Holidays.” Add whatever you want, then click OK.
3. Now I want some Shanghai events. Go to the Shanghai Upcoming.org page and click on “Subscribe…” then copy the iCal link for the Shanghai events (or you can obviously just copy it from here). Now go back to Google Calendar’s Add Other Calendars screen. This time click on “Public Calendar Address” and paste in the Upcoming.org Shanghai events iCal link. Click Add and then OK. (After you do that, you will probably want to change the display name. Do that by clicking on the little arrow tab to the right of it in the Calendars box, then clicking on “Calendar Settings” and editing “Calendar Name.”)
4. Now go back to your Google Calendar and you should see a lot more events on there now. You’ve got tons of Shanghai events, Chinese holidays, and holidays from your own country. Note that your calendar can never get “too cluttered” because you can toggle each separate calendar’s visibility by checking or unchecking the individual calendars in the Calendars box in the sidebar.
5. You probably want to create your own personal events, but don’t forget that you can divide your own events into separate calendars too. For example, I have one for my classes, one for work, one for personal stuff, and one for birthdays. That toggle visibility thing really comes in handy. Don’t forget you can change the colors too.
I’m still just discovering the genius of this thing…
23
Apr 2006Successful Beer Bartering
satellite dish = beer
Thanks to Dan of Shanghaiist who spread word of my “satellite TV for beer” deal, yesterday I successfully traded a satellite dish with box for 4 cases (96 bottles) of Sol beer. Lenny and John B can verify that the Sol is much tastier than the satellite dish could ever be. Thanks also to Peter for his generous bid.
I’m leaving for the States tomorrow for a two week visit. Will there be any beer left when I get back? Hmmm…
This visit home is a first in a way because of the awesome deal I got on my plane ticket. It’s the first time I have paid less than 8000 rmb for a round-trip plane ticket to Tampa–I only paid 5600 rmb! It’s also the first time I’ll have less than two connecting flights. This is the simplest (best) route I’ve ever taken: Shanghai – Chicago – Tampa. The American Airlines direct flight from Shanghai to Chicago just started.
Anyway, if posts are light, it’s because I’m busy trying to gain 10 pounds in 2 weeks.
21
Apr 2006Visual Learners in China
I am a visual learner. I want to see new words written down. I like to see concepts diagrammed. I understand more easily and remember much better that which I see.
So far, this seems like a handicap for me at ECNU. With only one exception, none of my classes this academic year have made much use of visual aids. (And when I say “visual aid,” I use such a loose definition as to include just writing anything on the board.) This semester has been especially bad in this respect, with three classes where the professor typically just sits there and talks the entire time, never going near the board. This wouldn’t be so bad if the professor were lecturing on some sort of material we had already read about beforehand, but for those classes the material all comes straight from the professor (although there are some recommended texts). So most of the time, class content is 100% aural.
The one class where the teacher consistently uses the blackboard is an undergrad class on Modern Chinese I am auditing to get extra credits. That class is so hugely different from my graduate courses it’s almost laughable, but it should be easier–it’s a core undergrad course. We have one set text, and the teacher goes straight through it. Much of what the teacher writes on the board is in the book anyway. When the teacher writes on the board, he writes in extremely neat, clear handwriting. (One of my professors has handwriting so bad it gives me nightmares.) Is this undergraduate class representative?
It’s my first time in graduate school anywhere, so in all honesty I’m not sure exactly what to expect. As a graduate student, I don’t expect content to be spoon-fed to me as if I were still an undergrad. It just seems like there should be some visual content in my graduate classes. I’ve heard rumors of PowerPoint, but have never seen it in any of my classes.
So all this leads me to wonder… are visual aids just for babies undergrads (in China)? Does China’s system of higher education possibly favor those who are not visual learners?
Never having been a graduate student anywhere else or an undergraduate student in China, these are questions I cannot answer on my own.
19
Apr 2006谢老师的问题
谢老师在研究如何利用Blog, Wiki, Podcasting来学习中文。以下是他的问题和我的回答。
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你是如何想到利用博客练习中文？你在上海华东师范有很多练习的机会，为什么还要利用博客？
我2002年开始写英文blog，认识了许多写博客的朋友。其中有一位刚刚开始写英文博客的中国女孩，网名叫Leylop。可能是她启发我了。虽然在生活中我认识不少的中国朋友，但是跟他们交流并不能代替写博客的经历。首先博客是写的。我写得比较非正式，但是话语和文字本来就有很大的区别。写文章我可以慢慢找最恰当的词汇，（够耐心的话）可以改改所有的错误，可以不怕说错、不怕别人插嘴。其次写博客的观众基本上是无限的，跟平时说话有很大的不同。通过博客我可以看到各界的意见，不限于我的交际圈子。再次博客不受日常生活时间限制。我和朋友都较忙的时候，也许有几个星期不见面。但是博客随时都可以写，凌晨2点也可以，所以主要的问题不是时间而是灵感。
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你的网站公布以后，你是否有时间来阅读别人的回复？从这些回复中你能学到什么？
每一次有人留言我都会看。我承认在留言当中我跟访客交流得不是特别多。这是因为我看新的留言的时候不一定有时间写回复。有时候也会忘记。但是我还是非常感谢留言的访客。有时候我也会直接问读者一些汉语方面的问题，比如“莫名其妙的广告”、“第三声：两个问题”、“大鱼，小池”。他们的回答总是很有帮助。
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在你看来，博客是不是一个很好的语言学习工具？
博客肯定是个很好的语言学习工具！不是的话我早就会放弃她。唯一的缺点是应该经常写新的文章，要不然读者会“跑掉”。有时候觉得想中文博客的话题真是个挑战。
19
Apr 2006Satellite TV for Beer
Do you live in Shanghai? Do you want satellite TV? Well, here’s your chance to get a satellite dish with the box. All you have to do is come over and pick it up. But you have to leave beer.
The satellite dish and box once belonged to a co-worker of my roommate Lenny. The guy left Shanghai, and left his working satellite dish and box with Lenny. The thing is, neither Lenny nor I watch much TV, so neither of us is interested in installing it or dealing with the descrambling card hassle.
But if you like satellite TV and you have some beer to donate, this is your lucky day.
Here’s the deal: e-mail me before Friday night telling me the type and quantity of beer you want to offer us for the satellite dish (please don’t let it be Bud), along with your contact info. Whoever makes us the best offer gets to come and pick it up on Saturday.
Sorry, no pic… but I won’t demand a picture of the beer either.
18
Apr 2006April Chinese Links
The links have been piling up lately, and I thought I’d share a few related to China and studying Chinese.
1. Slate seems to think ChinesePod is pretty damn cool: Learning to Flirt in Chinese. Slate doesn’t really mention anything academic, but I’m working on that.
2. ChinesePod is not the only Chinese podcast game in town… there’s also Mandarin Chinese with Serge Melnyk. You compare.
3. A list of “Core Simplified Characters.” Great reference for anyone who’s trying to learn traditional after learning simplified or vice versa.
4. You’ve probably seen Pīnyīn.info, but have you seen the blog Pīnyīn News? Good stuff.
5. Sinosplice commenter Annie has also put together a 4 Part Pinyin Tutorial. Each part has an instructional MP3, a text in PDF format, and a drill MP3. Also check out Pinyin Practice, which offers lots of online drills.
6. The Ohio5 ViewPoints Series will give beginners practice listening to Chinese through Quicktime video clips. Actually seeing the various speakers’ faces as they talk helps.
7. Condensed China: Chinese History for Beginners. China does really need to cut down on its history.
8. The most common Chinese characters in order of frequency. More than just a list, it actually gives character readings, meanings, and examples.
9. Just in case you ever need a list of 10-500 random Chinese names in traditional characters, there’s the Chinese Name Generator. Oh, but they all have three characters, and it won’t tell you how to pronounce them or what they mean. I can’t think of any possible use for this thing (except for maybe adding fake Chinese names to the credits of your homemade kung fu movie?), but there it is. (Also, don’t miss the pseudonym generator or the lucky company name generator.)
10. The zdt (Zhongwen Development Tool) is an easy to use, open-source Mandarin Chinese flashcard application. Supports simplified and traditional characters, lets you add characters as you browse, and has optional Adso database support (120,000 entries).
Many of these links were found through del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/tag/mandarin.
16
Apr 2006Happy Easter!
祝大家复活节快乐！ (I wish you all a happy Easter!)
(Image found on Japancast.)
P.S. And a very happy birthday to a very special someone…
P.P.S. I don’t believe in any “war on Easter,” but as a Catholic I do believe that Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus and not chocolate bunnies. Still, I find this kind of thing funny.
14
Apr 2006My Ayi on Politics
The other day as Xiao Wang (my ayi, a 32-year-old woman from the Harbin area) arrived, I was watching the news. Wen Jiabao (温家宝) was making some statement or other. Xiao Wang didn’t pay any attention. She started fixing dinner.
It suddenly occurred to me to get Xiao Wang’s take on Chinese politics, so I asked her what she thought of Hu Jintao (胡锦涛). I think it confused her a little, because Wen Jiabao was on TV, and I was talking about Hu Jintao. But her response was, “I don’t watch the news much.”
Not satisfied with that, I pressed her: “but don’t you have some opinion about the government?”
Looking up at the TV, which now showed a People’s Congress session in Beijing, she replied, “look at them… they’re all a bunch of Southerners.”
Thus ended the conversation on politics.
13
Apr 2006腾不出时间
T·富勒曾经说过：
> 那些最能充分利用时间的人根本腾不出多余的时间。
看来我就是那种“最能充分利用时间的人”因为我连写好中文blog的时间都没有！
我没有放弃我的中文blog……