26
Feb 2005
Junk Food Review 2
Over the years, one of the most popular features on Sinosplice has been the Junk Food Review that Wilson and I did at ZUCC in 2002. There have been calls for an encore, but since Wilson went back to San Francisco it’s been a little hard to coordinate. Well, the trip to Taipei was a perfect opportunity. Here it is:
The new design is sort of an experimental “comic book feel” I came up with. The layout looks better under non-IE browsers because stupid IE doesn’t support the “position: fixed” CSS declaration. Enjoy, and feedback is welcome.
25
Feb 2005Building Blocks
I honestly believe that Shanghai is the Chinese government’s testing grounds for internet filtering/blocking. The speed of the internet overall, as well as the number of sites blocked ranges so widely and changes so frequently that I’m not sure what other explanation there is. For the past few days, here in Shanghai a significantly higher number of sites were blocked than usual. Not my site, or del.icio.us, or Metafilter, but about half of the links I clicked on those last two sites wouldn’t work. My usual proxies didn’t work either.
Speaking of proxies not working, it seems that the number of China blogs hosted on Blogspot (AKA Blockspot) is increasing. I’ve got a bunch of China Blog List submissions waiting to be verified/added, but I can’t do that when even my proxies won’t work.
Why do so many choose Blogspot? There are so many options out there these days. I think if I were to have to choose a free blog service now I’d go with Blogsome. It uses the increasingly popular WordPress blogging platform, and it’s free and ad-free (except for a tiny text link in the footer).
Sidenote: I randomly came across these crazy China photos of an insanely tall man (as tall as the moon, you might say) posted on a Spanish Blogsome blog.
22
Feb 2005我的语音学习之路
正常的孩子都能自然学会他们母语的发音。其实他们根本不用“学”，因为在成长的过程中，孩子都会不知不觉习得母语最基本的语音。但是在这个方面我并不正常。
我还不到两岁的时候由于意外失去了两个门牙。虽然我没有门牙的样子挺可爱，但是缺失门牙影响到我学习母语的发音。因为我的舌头习惯了没有门牙的多余空间，所以当我的成人门牙终于长出后我在发音方面出现了许多问题。
小时候发音不准确听起来较可爱。长大了以后就是口齿不清。我父母当然不希望我有这样的问题。我还很小的时候他们就带我去看发音矫正专家。那个时候我的[s]，[l]，[r]，[ʃ] (sh)，[tʃ] (ch)，[dʒ] (j)音都发得不对。不过，在十岁之前我已经掌握了[s]，[l]，和[r]的音。上了高中后我还继续接受发音矫正因为我的[ʃ]，[tʃ]，和[dʒ]引发得不对。虽然大家都能听懂我的话，交流没有障碍，但是我的舌头的位置不对，说话好象气太多了。那时我觉得我的发音还凑合，很想放弃矫正训练。我妈妈却不让我放弃。她总是说谁也不知道我将来的工作会是什么，也许我的发音很重要，不能凑合。
作为高中生，去看发音矫正专家是很尴尬的事。我不断地跟我妈妈争论它必要与否。这样过了一年，我的发音还是没有什么进步。我妈妈总算妥协了。看来我的发音总是会差一点儿。
读大学的时候我对外语和语言学开始产生兴趣。我当了兼职对外英语老师。可是我的发音问题仍然存在。我很在意，但是没办法。
直到我来中国以后这种情况才有所改进。刚到中国时我学习中文非常认真，特别是发音。我花了不少的工夫学会拼音q，x，和j。学会了这些音我才懂了它们和sh，ch，和zh的区别。这个区别搞清楚了以后我才掌握了它们的发音。之后，我惊奇地发现：我终于会发[ʃ]，[tʃ]，和[dʒ]的音了！那天我实在太高兴了。过了那关后我感觉别的语言方面的挑战就没那么难了。
现在想想，我妈妈本来说得就对，但当时我没有耐心接受她的明智的建议。后来是中文给了我机会成功。而且正是因为在语音方面的成功才使我有自信往语言学的方向发展。这也是我觉得我和中国很有缘分的原因之一。
22
Feb 2005Look out, Taiwanese women!
Apparently there are evil smirking foreigners around every corner in Taipei, just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting Taiwanese girls who have just withdrawn money from an ATM.
Wilson pointed this poster out to me. It’s posted all over Taipei right now.
21
Feb 2005Hong Kong Update
I just got an e-mail from my friend Katherine, whom I met up with in Hong Kong on Friday:
You should definitely come back to HK and we’ll eat some real food. There is this place i was thinking of taking you for dim sum, and yesterday afternoon this hit man carried out a killing right in the restaurant! How crazy is that? Who carries out hits in HK??? in the middle of the afternoon in a dim sum restaurant??? Now we have to go. My mother is going to freak when she hears about this, we’re always eating dim sum there.
Crazy Hong Kong.
20
Feb 2005Robbed of Hong Kong
When I bought my tickets I arranged for a day and a half in Hong Kong on the way back from Taiwan. I wanted to take in as much of that Hong Kong glitz as I could in 36 hours. To my dismay, I was totally robbed of the Hong Kong experience. Prepare yourself for some extended whining.
My last night in Taipei I must have eaten something bad. I think it was the Korean food, although it’s hard to tell because I ate three times that previous night. The next morning I promptly unloaded the contents of my stomach. Feeling horrible, I managed to make it to Hong Kong without further incident.
My original plan was to pull an all-nighter in Hong Kong since I was only there for one night, but that idea was quickly abandoned. After arriving, I went straight to the Ramada Hotel in Kowloon and slept. I had plans to meet up with several people in Hong Kong, but I was in no condition to chat with people I’d never met before. (My apologies to those people.) I did call Katherine, who was a teacher at ZUCC during the SARS semester. She has lived in Hong Kong all her life, and I already knew her. Turns out she was sick too, but agreed to try to meet up the next day.
So how was I robbed? One of Hong Kong’s biggest attractions is the food. Hong Kong cuisine is pretty universally regarded as top-notch — even the street food. I was looking forward to pigging out. But even a whiff of those delicacies sent waves of nausea through me. In my condition I was almost completely unable to eat the entire time I was in Hong Kong.
Another famous tourist destination in Hong Kong is Victoria Peak, from which a stunning view of the city can be taken in. It’s said to be especially beautiful at night, and I’ve seen the pictures to prove it. Feeling a little better, I set out around 5pm get up there and see the view. I took the Star Ferry, but sat on the wrong side (I didn’t realize at first that the boat just reverses direction when it goes back across), so I got a crap view of the harbor. What I did see, though, was that Victoria Peak was completely covered in fog. I couldn’t see it at all. The top of the IFC 2 building couldn’t be seen either. I abandoned that plan, deciding instead to walk around Hong Kong Island. Not long after, though, my intestinal condition sent me scurrying back to my hotel via subway.
Feeling worse again, I went back to sleep for a while.
When I woke up I decided to walk around Kowloon more and see more of the signature Hong Kong streets. It started raining, though, so I ducked into some little place for a massage. It was a legit establishment, but the masseuse was a bit saddistic. At first I thought she was asking “are you OK?” in order to adjust the level of pressure. Later, when I started making uncomfortable noises, she’d say, “pain?” and I’d reply “YES!” to which she’d just laugh and continue at the same pressure.
The next morning I slept in until 11:30, with some effort. I still felt pretty terrible, but the hotel maids apparently weren’t aware of the 12:00 check-out time or the meaning of “DO NOT DISTURB.”
I went to Kowloon Park. That was pretty cool… I liked the flamingoes and the aviary. Then I bought and sent some postcards in Central. I met Katherine at 2, and was able to get some food down. (Shouldn’t have eaten that delicious chocolate cake, though. I immediately regretted it. My stomach was churning viciously within an hour.)
Katherine took me to meet her boyfriend, who runs a very nice Indian clothing store called Sanskrit. Very impressive operation, and he was a cool guy.
Then I rode the “world’s longest escalator” (wow, what a thrill) and headed up Victoria Peak via tram anyway. I had time to kill before I had to be at the airport, so I figured I might as well. It was cold and wet, with bad visibility.
On the train back to the airport I talked to a rabbi from Israel. The initial conversation went something like this:
> Him: Is this the train that goes to the airport?
> Me: Yes. Are you a rabbi?
Ah, interlocutionary finesse of this caliber cannot be learned, my friends. (He really looked like a stereotypical rabbi, with the black clothing, the beard, the wide-brimmed black hat, being old etc.) His English was only so-so, but we had a decent chat. He told me that in Argentina in the 1960s someone told him that the scariest thing in the world today was “the Yellow Threat” (meaning China).
Sensing a unique opportunity, I decided to ask him about something I recently read about in The Da Vinci Code (which I finally read in Taipei). So I asked him about Shekinah, whom Dan Brown describes as the ancient female counterpart to Jehovah. I got a confusing description. He said in the Kaballah’s attempt to explain how a purely spiritual being (God) could create a physical being (Man), it developed a series of stages, one of which was Shekinah. OK. Anyway, I’ve definitely had more boring train rides. Nicest Israeli rabbi I ever met.
I didn’t take any pictures in Hong Kong because I didn’t want to bother with my temperamental camera, which only works half the time now.
The flight back to Shanghai wasn’t good either, but I can sum it up succinctly in two words: China Eastern.
Lesson learned: Don’t pin high hopes on a one-day vacation, because not only are there weather factors that can’t be controlled, but sometimes one’s own health fails as well.
I’ll try to make it back to Hong Kong in the future. It was a crazy, interesting place.
12
Feb 2005Taiwanese Men Bite
I’m in Taipei, staying at Wilson‘s apartment and still kinda just hanging out and getting a feel for this place. We’ll start some trips around the island tomorrow.
Some observations…
There are large men here. It used to be that back in Hangzhou I could just look for the big Chinese guy and that would be Wilson, at 6 feet 1 inch tall and 200 lbs. Here in Taipei I’ve seen quite a few guys as big as Wilson.
I’m not exactly “enchanted,” and I’m not getting many friendly vibes. Gone is the curiosity relentlessly poured on me, but in its place, at times, is something other than indifference.
My first night in Taipei I went with Wilson and Wayne to a club. I was minding my own business, but some guy (not one of the larger ones, and kind nerdy) insisted on doing the “I’m dancing here now, so you better move” thing, getting in my space. I didn’t budge, so his backside probably got a little more intimate with my leg than he intended. Next thing I knew he was yelling FUCK YOU at me, furiously giving me the finger. I laughed at him, to which he responded by throwing a glass at my head full of something that stung my eyes. In moments we were all out on the street. What happened exactly is all a blur, but it looked like Wilson dealt out some punishment to that guy while I got swarmed with security. When the taser came out, we jumped in a taxi and got out of there.
Next morning I just had a bruised hand (don’t worry, mom!), whereas Wilson had a big bruise on his waist from where the rabid guy from the club had literally bit him. Crazy. (Don’t worry, Mrs. Tai, he’s fine!)
Aside from that, Taipei is a much smaller city than I imagined, and it’s also lower tech. The Japanese influence is very obvious to me; at this superficial stage of my observations the “China-Japan fusion” view of Taiwan seems very accurate.
Lastly, sometimes when I talk to Taiwanese people and their Chinese sounds really funny, I think that they’re mocking my Chinese. But then I remember that’s just their natural accent. Oops. I’m still not used to that accent. It’s kinda cute, though.
UPDATE: Pictures of the bite are now online.
09
Feb 2005Year of the Cock
It’s now the year of the cock. (The Chinese like that word.)
Just like last year, ridiculous “safety laws” did nothing to dissuade the Shanghainese from unleashing a hellstorm of fireworkery within my very own apartment complex. The constant dull roar coming from outside led me to believe every residential community in the area was under similar siege from 11pm until 12:30. Here’s a shot snapped from my roommate’s window which shows my balcony taking the brunt of the pyrotechnic excess, a mere 3 meters away.
Note that we live on the 20th floor of a thirty-story building.
I’m leaving for Taiwan shortly. Happy New Year!
07
Feb 2005Redcoat Alf
Remember Alf? He used to keep a blog about his life in Hangzhou. Well, ever since Blogger became practically impossible to use in China, Alf has gone on hiatus. So, with his permission, I’ll share one of his recent photos.
Alf and Greg recently acted as European soldiers for a Chinese TV series. Altogether, there were only six foreigners to represent a British and a French army. How did they do it? Well, only one army was shown at a time, and the six foreigners were always in the front ranks of the army. Behind them were a whole bunch of Chinese guys in wigs. Alf played the French general (who spoke English), but he and the other five foreigners wore a different coat and hat than the one in this picture. Then, for the British army, another guy played the general and Alf and gang wore the outfit pictured here. Priceless.
Unfortunately, the lead actress was wounded during the filming, so the series might never see the TV screen.
06
Feb 2005To Taiwan, Hong Kong
I’m leaving for Taipei on February 9th, the day after all the Chinese New Year’s Eve festivities. I inquired about the “direct flights” (which actually still go through Hong Kong airspace, they just don’t land), but apparently only ̨°û¡¡(Taiwanese citizens) can get those tickets. Good thing I got that info, because a clueless travel agency was trying to sell me those tickets. That would have been unpleasant when I showed up at the airport with tickets for a flight that I was not allowed to be on.
I’ll be staying with Wilson in Taipei. He’s doing some business there for his mom (who is from Taiwan). Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with the infamous Wayne as well.
On February 17th I’ll head back to Hong Kong from Taiwan. I’ll stay in Hong Kong for a day and a half. Don’t really know anyone in Hong Kong. I was hoping Derrick would be there, but he’s not moving to Hong Kong until after the summer. Looks like Wanbro is there now; I don’t know him, but it would be cool if I could meet him. We’ll see. It’ll be such a ridiculously short stay in Hong Kong that wandering wide-eyed through the glitz all alone wouldn’t be a problem anyway.
03
Feb 2005One jiao — what is it good for?
This is a one jiao note. A jiao (AKA mao) is a tenth of a yuan (AKA RMB). If, for the sake of convenience, we put RMB at 8 to the American dollar, that makes a jiao worth $0.0125. That’s slightly more than a penny. Jiao are necessary for making change (much like pennies), but you can’t really buy much with one jiao unless you’re in the vegetable market.
I certainly don’t like a pocket full of jiao, but I tolerate keeping coins to make change. One of the advantages (in my book) to living in Southern China is the predominance of coins over paper bills for the lower denominations (1 jiao, 5 jiao, 1 yuan). I get really annoyed, then, when I get handed paper jiao (pictured above). Paper jiao are for Beijingers!
So what do you do when you get handed paper jiao and you know you’re not going to be using it right away? I know some foreigners that don’t take their change if it’s paper jiao. You can try to give it to beggars, but some of them turn up their noses at anything less than 1 yuan. (The blind erhu players are usually less picky.) I once handed out paper jiao to kindergarteners as “prizes.” I got some funny looks for that. Even kindergarteners don’t like them.
My roommate Lenny gave me the best answer I’ve heard yet: use them for bookmarks. Genius. Any other ideas?
01
Feb 2005Pronunciation: Chinese and Japanese
Ever since I learned the proper pronunciation in Mandarin of pinyin x, q, and j, I’ve had my doubts about the true pronunciation of Japanese. According to the Japanese textbooks I learned from, the Japanese し (romanized as shi) is pronounced nearly the same as the English word “she.” Any textbooks that wanted to go into picky differences would be likely to talk about the differences in vowel sounds between English and Japanese, not the “sh” sound.
I have a very clear memory of a chat with a Japanese exchange student named Miya in my junior year at UF. She made an offhand comment about how foreigners couldn’t pronounce the Japanese し sound quite right. Having already spent a year in Japan, I was pretty confident in my pronunciation abilities, so I took on the challenge. She told me to make a huge “show all your teeth” grin and say し. At that point I was still saying “she.” I tried it, and then she did it. With the mouth in that position, the difference becomes rather obvious. I could hear it, but I couldn’t account for it. I shoved it into the back of my mind, where I keep the rest of the inconvenient knowledge.
Learning pinyin x taught me an important lesson. Two sounds that may sound pretty much identical to me can sound very different to native speakers of the target language. This was very important when learning Chinese, because pinyin x and sh, q and ch, and j and zh must be differentiated in Mandarin Chinese.
The difference with Japanese is that there are no such sound pairs. There are no similar sounds “competing” with し in Japanese, so the English pronunciation of “she” can easily be understood by native speakers of Japanese as し. The same goes for じ (ji), ち (chi), and their derivatives (しゃ, しゅ, しょ, じゃ, じゅ, じょ, ちゃ, ちゅ, ちょ). This explains why educational materials in English on the Japanese language don’t distinguish between the “sh” of English and the Japanese “sh,” but it doesn’t excuse it.
To finally settle this issue, I turned to the Wikipedia. It’s amazing how authoritative and comprehensive a resource it has become. I often find it to be a very helpful and succinct reference for linguistic issues. The articles I compared were Japanese language: Phonology, Pinyin in IPA, and International Phonetic Alphabet Chart.
Here are the IPA symbols for relevant sounds:
- X Chinese:[ɕ]
- SH English:[ʃ] Japanese:[ɕ] Chinese:[ʂ]
- Q Chinese:[tɕʰ]
- CH English:[tʃ] Japanese:[cɕ] Chinese:[tʂʰ]
- J English:[dʒ] Japanese:[dʑ] Chinese:[tɕ]
- ZH Chinese:[tʂ]
I’m not going to go into detailed analysis as to why the Japanese sounds are more similar to the Chinese sounds than to the English sounds (this post is already boring enough), but they are. Short version: the Chinese pinyin sounds x, q, and j and the Japanese sounds “sh,” “ch,” and “j” are all palatals, but the English sounds are not. In the case of pinyin x and Japanese “sh” they’re identical: [ɕ].
Ever since my ZUCC days I’ve noticed that (diligent) Chinese students make excellent students of Japanese. It’s easy to chalk it up to some similar cultural features and a largely overlapping character set, but it goes beyond that. For one thing, the Chinese meticulously study the pitch accent for every Japanese word. That’s something not often done in the West. Presumably the Chinese do it because the importance of tones in the Chinese psyche carries over to the study of Japanese, even though tones and pitch accent are very different in both nature and importance to their respective languages. In my opinion, the Chinese are obsessing unnecesarily there. In the case of pronunciation, though, the Chinese seem to have a natural advantage when studying Japanese.
Related: Pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese: Setting the Record Straight
30
Jan 2005Cartoon Traffic
Bruno Bozzetto has managed to create several highly amusing Flash cartoons with only the simplest of drawings. Watching his “Yes and No” (traffic do’s and don’ts) and “Europe and Italy” (general observations of society), I couldn’t help but make a connection to China. Those two are both worth a look.
Via Screenhead.
29
Jan 2005马丁·路德·金
每年一月份美国有一个节日叫做Martin Luther King Jr. Day。马丁·路德·金真的是一位非常伟大的美国人。他是美国民权运动的最有名的积极分子。他的演说也相当动人，尤其是他的I have a dream演说。不知道中文翻译怎么样，但是我每次读它我不得不佩服马丁·路德·金的勇气。
马丁·路德·金1968年被暗杀了。
28
Jan 2005Spicy Sprite
Spicy Sprite
Why can’t Coca-Cola leave Sprite alone in China? Why does it keep coming up with freakish flavors? First Mint Sprite, and now this. “Sprite on Fire.” Chinese name: 火辣雪碧.
I took my first sip with great trepidation. It didn’t really seem any different from regular Sprite though. After a few more gulps, I was noticing a slight spicy sensation. It didn’t taste like cinnamon; it seemed to have some of that spicy effect that you get from Atomic Fireballs. But it wasn’t very strong at all. Totally unworthy of being called “火辣” (“fiery hot”).
Later I found a news release about it on the Coca-Cola site. The spice is identified as ginger. That sort of explains the Chinese connection. They didn’t explain why they keep releasing Sprite flavors in China that suck so much, however.
27
Jan 2005Human-Animal Chimeras
I don’t normally cover current events in my blog, but this is so crazy I had to share it.
Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.
Nice to know that the Chinese aren’t “wussing out” in this cutting edge, ethical minefield. Pigs with human blood, mice with human brains, mice producing human sperm and ova so that a human baby’s parents could be mice… just read the article.
Thanks to Matt for sharing.
26
Jan 2005Murakami Haruki
Murakami Haruki (or Haruki Murakami to most of the Western world) is one of my favorite authors. His novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is probably my favorite book. I was introduced to his works in college Japanese class when we read the short story 「蛍」.
Micah is also a big fan of Murakami. He recently brought to my attention that the new novel Kafka on the Shore has been translated into Chinese and been for sale already for some time. Hardcore fan that he is, Micah read it in Chinese. The English translation is now out.
The difference in publication dates made me wonder why. Was it a quality issue? Does Murakami value his English-reading audience more than his Chinese-reading audience? Or maybe it’s because Murakami can actually read the English version? I’m not sure if authors approve translations in cases like that. I’m a little curious about all this.
This rash of Murakami links came about when I checked out what Murakami-tagged bookmarks people have in del.icio.us. In a weird coincidence, I also found a short story by Murakami called Tony Takitani involving Shanghai (briefly).
Finally, if all this has interested you in the least, you may be interested in my own contribution to the Murakami links: a Chinese wiki of Murakami’s works. Titles are given as published in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan, which yields some interesting differences if you dig that sort of thing.
25
Jan 2005Re-upping
I’m down to my last week of teaching kids, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on. As a result, my entries have been a little sparse lately. There’s still plenty left in me to write about, but it’ll have to wait a little longer. A possible upcoming visit to Taiwan could be very interesting.
Besides finishing up classes, I’ve also got to do a bunch of paperwork to stay legal. My previous visa and work permit will expire with my contract, so I’ve got to renew all that. Last week the HR boss lady gave me an envelope with some documents and the following instructions:
John,
The address to process your work permit:
South Zhongshan Rd. #865 1F
Take the following documents with you:
- Work Permit Extension Application
- A copy of the company’s business license
- A copy of your new contract
- Your current work permit
- Your passport and a photocopy (including the current visa page)
- Your residence permit and a photocopy
The work permit renewal takes 5 days, and then I have to take the new work permit along with a bunch of documents (mostly the same ones) to a different office to get my visa renewed.
Ugh. Boring, yes, I know. Such is bureaucracy.
21
Jan 2005Hangzhou Tsunami
It’s a bit late to broach the subject of the December 26 tsunami disaster, but I’m going to forge recklessly ahead anyway.
Soon after the tsunamis hit, photographs began circulating the internet, supposedly showing the waves hit the shores of the regions that were devastated. I remember getting one of those e-mails and thinking, “yeah, that’s a big wave all right. How terrible.” And that was it. I didn’t question the authenticity of the photos.
The embarrassing thing is that the photos were taken in Hangzhou, of a yearly spectacle on the Qiantang River called a tidal bore. I’ve watched the tidal bore from the exact same location featured in some of the pictures, and I didn’t even recognize it! (The year I went, the waves were not nearly as big, though.)
See the rest of the “Hangzhou tsunami” pictures on Snopes.com. Thanks to Heather for sending me the link, and to Richard for reminding me of it.
21
Jan 2005CS and the Chinese Military
“CS” is the abbreviation Chinese teenagers use for Counter Strike (rather than the Chinese name 反恐精英), the world’s most popular FPS network computer game. When I taught college English at ZUCC in Hangzhou, there were quite a few boys in my classes that were crazy about the game and devoted almost all their free time to playing it in internet cafes. They even got Wilson (who was teaching there then) to play them.
Tian has a funny post (with pictures!) about the Chinese military using CS as training. Check it out.