22
Nov 2004
Modesty and Honesty
I had a full weekend, and I’m feeling a bit lazy. So rather than write about one of the new topics bouncing around in my head, I’ll make a sequel to my last entry, which generated an absolute fury of comments. I’m thinking that there may be so many at this point that some people don’t want to read any new ones.
So this entry consists mainly of a comment by Wayne (the original inspiration for the last entry):
John, you neglected to mention that we were also talking about ‘false modesty.’
The Chinese laugh at the concept of ‘false modesty.’
Here is some more food for thought.
Suppose Garry Kasparov (the great Chess champion) walks into the room and a journalist asks him, “Garry, are you a talented chess player?”
And Garry responds, “I am so-so.”
Question: Did Garry just lie?
It is quite obvious that Garry’s chess ability is better than ‘so-so.’ He is in fact not telling the truth because his ability is far beyong ‘so-so.’ Therefore, it is fair to declare Garry a liar, i.e. he is not telling the truth.
However, most Chinese would think it is absurd to say that Garry is lying because being modest exempts one from lying!
Hmmm, I guess the question here is: did the journalist honestly not know how good Garry was, and if not, did Garry know (or suspect) this? That would make the difference between an intent to deceive and polite modesty.
On the subject of modesty, I find Chinese modesty tiring. I know that it’s an important part of their culture, so I do my best to adopt it. But I feel so fake deflecting compliments with formulaic responses every time when I’d rather just smile and say thank you.
Some Chinese people would probably argue that it’s perfectly fine for me to just say thank you, that nowadays some Chinese people do that. But I feel like it’s not the norm, and I don’t want to just play my foreigner card; I’d like to handle these social situations the Chinese way when possible.
18
Nov 2004Versions of Truth
My friend Wayne (no, not that Wayne) is a great source of interesting conversation topics. The other day he and I were eating at a Turkish restaurant by Xiangyang Market with two friends. One friend was a Chinese girl, and the other was a Chinese American girl. Wayne suddenly asked us this question: “Have you ever noticed that the Chinese and Westerners seem to have different concepts of truth?”
Of course we wanted to know what he meant by that. His reply: “OK, let’s do a test. Here we have two girls, one Chinese and one Western. I’ll prove my point with a question. Suppose John had two eggs for breakfast. I ask him what he had for breakfast, and he tells me three eggs. Did he lie?”
The Chinese girl, after a few moments’ thought, replied “no.”
The American girl immediately answered, “of course.”
We were impressed. His question demonstrated his point beautifully. We concluded what Wayne probably already had: that the Western concept of a “lie” is based on a concept of objective truth independent of human intent, whereas the Chinese (and perhaps Asian in general) concept depends on a human intent to deceive.
To the American, saying I had three eggs when I actually had two is a lie simply because two does not equal three. My intent is irrelevant.
To the Chinese, it’s ridiculous to call this statement a lie because it wasn’t outright deception. I didn’t stand to benefit from the inaccuracy, and no one would be harmed by it either.
I don’t doubt that philosophers and anthropologists have already been all over this issue, but I’ve never paid a great deal of attention to that kind of thing. I think most attempts to reveal how fundamentally different two cultures are amount to mostly a load of bunk. I’m more of the school of thought that believes cultural differences are interesting, not dividing. I believe division comes mainly from ignorance and miscommunication between cultures.
But then something like this comes along, and it’s right in front of my eyes in black and white, and I’m left a little stunned. I wonder what subtle ripples of this “fundamental difference” have affected me. I probably haven’t even noticed.
16
Nov 2004To my commenters
First and foremeost, I’d like to say thank you. This blog receives a ridiculous amount of comments, and I enjoy reading them (for the most part). I especially like the comments that really contribute something (often on-topic, even!). Gin, Jing, wulong, JFS, Chris, Prince Roy, Brendan, ÍÐµÄ — you guys are especially good at that, time and again, and I do appreciate it.
Second, I’d like to say I’m sorry. I have been lax in my efforts to create an atmosphere that encourages the kind of comments I want to see and I want to share on my website. I’m going to start being more active in eliminating the trolling.
I’m all for freedom of speech, but I’ve got to draw a line somewhere. I am not trying to single out any one person here; I think the unwarranted negativity comes from multiple sources. But I want to improve the overall quality of my weblog, and the comments are a part of it. I also think there are some commenters out there that might have something worth saying but are afraid to venture into the “fray.” Differing opinions or corrections are always welcome, but my comments shouldn’t be a “fray!”
What has really spurred me to action on this was when I thought about how seldom my own family comments nowadays. And I understand why they don’t. That is not OK.
So that’s it. Civil comments. Starting now.
15
Nov 2004Calvin & Hobbes in Chinese!
Ever since I first started reading it as a kid, I’ve always been a huge fan of Calvin & Hobbes. No other comic strip has ever impressed me on so many levels. I remember when I first came to China and brought presents for the special Chinese people that helped me get on my feet, the most prized ones I would give away were Calvin & Hobbes collections. They were one of the few really good items I could think of that you couldn’t get in China.
But that was back in 2000. Today at Shanghai’s Scholar bookstore (思考乐) in Xujiahui, I stumbled upon these:
The store had Something Under the Bed is Drooling, Revenge of the Babysat, Yukon Ho!, and Weirdos from Another Planet. Notably absent was the original self-titled collection. I’m really stoked that the Chinese can now share in this cultural treasure.
After I got over my excitement, though, I started wondering… how good could the translations be? The titles of the two books I picked up were translated OK. Something Under the Bed is Drooling became “Who is under the bed drooling?” (谁在床下流口水), and Yukon Ho! became “Off to the North Pole” (到北极去).
More disappointing were the names of the two main characters. Most fans know that Calvin was named for theologian John Calvin, and Hobbes was named for political philosopher Thomas Hobbes. I know I’m no translator, so maybe there were good reasons, but it was sad to see Hobbes’ name translated as something like “Jumpy Tiger” (跳跳虎). That name seems much more appropriate to Winnie the Pooh’s friend Tigger, whose Chinese name also happens to be — guess what? — 跳跳虎. “Hobbes” in Chinese is 霍布斯. Not cute enough, I suppose.
Calvin’s name became 卡尔文, which is very close to the preferred Chinese transcription of the theologian’s name, 加尔文. Unfortunately, the transcription 卡尔文 is the one used for Calvin Klein’s Chinese name.
But what’s in a name? The real test is how the comics themselves read. I don’t have the books anymore; I sent them home with my girlfriend under strict instructions to read and enjoy ASAP. Hopefully I’ll know soon. If she doesn’t love Calvin & Hobbes, I’ll be forced to conclude that the comics must be poorly translated into Chinese.
13
Nov 2004Number Character Variants
If you’ve studied Chinese characters, you know that each number has its own Chinese character. As a joke, many Chinese-illiterate foreigners boast that they know three Chinese characters: 一 二 三 (1, 2, 3). After 3, though, the characters start getting a little harder to remember.
Or do they? Recently I discovered this little-known character: 亖. It means 4. I didn’t find a similar one for 5, though.
Still, there’s a lot more to Chinese number characters below the surface. One set of “standard variants” are the 大写 (“capital”) characters used on checks and other transactions. Banks require their use on forms. Each digit 0-9, as well as 10, 100, and 1000 has a “capital” form, much more difficult to alter than a 一.
In the following chart, the first column is European numerals (that’s right, I didn’t say Arabic numerals, and I did it on purpose), the second column is the standard Chinese character, and the third column is the “capital” Chinese character.
Still, there are a lot more variants than the official “capital” forms. Check out the following ones. Standard non-capital forms are in bold.
- 1 一 弌 （all pronounced yī)
- 2 二 弍 弐 （all pronounced èr)
- 3 三 弎 （all pronounced sān)
- 4 四 亖 （all pronounced sì)
- 20 二十 廿
- 30 三十 卅
- 40 四十 卌
How many more can there be? I don’t know. I’d be interested to learn, though.
Note: The European number system is used everywhere in China and has been for some time. Traditional Chinese numbers are sometimes used as well, however.
Related Link: 大写数字wiki
Update: Thanks to zhwj for his additions to the list.
13
Nov 2004New Site Ads
Recently I was cleaning up the China Blog List. Some of its image links had gone dead. I had to replace the Living in China image as well as the Chinese Forums image. At first Roddy couldn’t find the proper size, so I made him a new one:
He returned the favor:
I think I like the one he made better.
P.S. If anyone else wants to e-mail me one, I’ll post it if I like it.
11
Nov 2004The Veteran Sensation
Last Friday I went with Brad to a bar called Mural. It’s really popular on Friday nights, especially among the expat community. It has a comfy loungey interior, and, perhaps more importantly, it has a 100rmb ($12.50 US) deal for open bar until 2am.
The bar was probably something like 80% expats. Most of them were looking to kick off the weekend in drunken splendor. It had been a while since I’d been in that kind of atmosphere.
I’ve been in Shanghai for close to a year now, and I’ve got exactly two expat friends in Shanghai. One of them is my co-worker and one of them I knew before the move. I’m long overdue to make a few more expat friends here. It’s no secret that I have no love for Shanghai’s high-rolling China-oblivious expat crowd, but it would be ridiculous to prejudge or label such a large group of diverse people, and there’s no sense in rejecting one form of prejudice in favor of its flipside. It was time to get to know some new people.
I soon discovered a pattern, though. Most of the expats at Mural were young English teachers fresh out of college who had been in China for less than a year. Many were almost ready to go home. When they learned that I had been in China for over four years, the tone of the conversation would shift. I was “experienced,” I “knew Chinese,” I “understood China.” I didn’t make any of these claims. The people I talked to projected this impression.
I suddenly felt like a high school senior at a freshman party. I wore my four years in China like a letter jacket.
I’m not sure how I feel about all that. It was just an odd sensation.
10
Nov 2004Phone booth sanctuary
They say phone booths are becoming extinct, but we still got ’em in Shanghai.
09
Nov 2004Asking the Wrong Person
I get a fair amount of e-mail from strangers with questions about China. I don’t answer all of it because, to be honest, sometimes I’m busy and just don’t get around to it. Still, I like to help people, so I do my best to answer e-mails if the questions fall within my realm of experience.
Recently I got this e-mail:
> I am starting a business in Beijing and would appreciate some advice from you regarding the following:
> 1. How do you conduct business in Beijing?
> 2. Do you take a lease out on a premises or can you purchase a premises?
> 3. Are business contacts made through networking or by way of introductions?
> 4. Given the government of the day am I subject to scrutiny by the police, government officials, etc.?
> 5. How receptive is the government to a foreigner investor by way of starting up a business, money being transferred to another country, local compatibility?
> I greatly appreciate your help in this regard.
Uhhhh… yeah….
I responded:
> Judging by your questions, you are very, very far from ready to start a business in Beijing. I’m not at all qualified to answer your questions, either.
> I recommend that you:
> 1. Do some (non-blog) research on China.
> 2. Pose your questions to someone who might know the answers.
> Good luck.
I’m not sure where people might get the idea that it’s easy to start a business here. It’s pretty complicated.
However, I have wondered about some of this myself (particularly matters related to #4 and #5), so if anyone can offer appropriate links (no one still reads actual books, right?) in the comments, that would be cool.
UPDATE: Maybe I was wrong about it being complicated. Jeremy from Danwei.org left a very helpful link in the comments. Thanks, Jeremy!
07
Nov 2004Window Washers
Saturday morning I stepped out of the shower to be suddenly acutely aware that a man’s form was dropping into view right outside my 12th floor bathroom window. Needless to say, that kinda freaked me out.
It wasn’t some peeping tom going to great lengths to peep me (no, I don’t think that would ever happen); it was a window washer. After I got dressed I snapped a shot of the guy from my bathroom window.
These guys have been painting window frames (an ugly orange color) and washing the windows of my apartment building for something like a month already.
While completing all the necessary work, they’ve assembled this bamboo construct around the base of the building for safety. It’s quite an eyesore.
06
Nov 2004Political Kid
Today I was out on the street taking some pictures. My camera starting giving me trouble (the thing is 4 years old, and it’s starting to go), so I stopped on the sidewalk and was trying to get it to work right.
As I stood there, this little boy walked by with his dad. A few moments passed, and I saw in my peripheral vision that the little boy had turned around and come back, and was hovering a few feet away from me. He was working up the courage to use English to talk to a foreigner. Finally he did, and the ensuing dialogoue went something like this:
Kid: Hello!
Me: Hello.
Kid: Are you American?
Me: Yes.
Kid: Bush win Kerry. It is a big news. You know?
Me: Yes, I know.
Kid: You like Bush?
Me: No, I hate Bush.
Kid: You hate Bush?
Me: Yes. Do you like Bush?
Kid: No, I hate Bush.
The conversation then went the usual rounds of other topics, and he let me take his picture. I’m sure his dad put him up to it (unless his English class just finished the “2004 American Presidential Election” chapter), but still… very surreal.
Disclaimer: this is a post about a conversation with a Chinese boy, not a political statement on my part. I was just being truthful about what I said to the boy.
05
Nov 200410 Things the Chinese Do Better
Tian brought this article to my attention, and I had to share it: “From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do far better than we do,” from a Canadian job site.
You can’t take the article too seriously, because it cites some pretty atypical “things” in its list, and I feel that living in Shanghai I should probably be aware of them if they’re widespread. Still, it’s an interesting read.
(For those from outside of China that are interested, the ones in the official list of 10 that I have not personally experienced in my four years in China are #7 and #10. #5, #8, and #9 I’ve seen, but they are not very common.)
04
Nov 2004The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary
by 中国社会科学院语言研究所词典编辑室 (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003)
Review by: Roddy
04
Nov 2004Justified Cruelty
In September I went to Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia. During that time, my host took me on a few trips, and I hung out with these two kids a bit. These two pictures were taken near the Western Xia Tombs (Î÷ÏÄÁê), which are basically out in the middle of nowhere.
I found it cute how the kids were so into catching the grasshoppers. Presumably they, like many Chinese children, don’t get many chances to play outside in a natural environment. And by “natural,” I don’t mean some dinky park in the middle of the city where you’re not allowed on the grass.
What wasn’t so cute, though, was when I found the boy pulling off the wings of the grasshoppers so they couldn’t fly away.
I told him not to do that, that it was cruel — how would he like it if a big bug pulled off his legs so he couldn’t run away? He responded that it didn’t matter because a grasshopper is a º¦³æ — a pest. I pointed out that in the middle of nowhere a grasshopper couldn’t be much of a pest, could it? Then he ran off with the grasshopper and drowned it in a puddle.
I didn’t have a rebuttal for that.
02
Nov 2004To hanzify or not to hanzify…
Hanzi (汉字 or 漢字) is the Chinese word for “Chinese character.” The Chinese language has been written in hanzi for a very long time. As the Chinese tell me, hanzi have been in use since approximately 3000 years before the Big Bang. It’s quite a tradition.
When an institution has been in place for that long, it can be incredibly hard to implement change. For example, when the new Communist emperors wanted to reform and “simplify” hanzi, some old fuddy-duddies opposed. Still, significant change was effected, but only in the writing system of mainland China. The two bastions of traditional characters to this day remain Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories well known for their linguistic backwardness — many of the people there can’t even speak good Beijing Mandarin!
The PRC’s Emperor Mao had an even more radical scheme. He was in favor of eventually replacing Chinese characters with pinyin — a romanized form of Chinese. This idea was so upsetting that some experts believed it may reverse the Big Bang itself. It is also one of the stronger pieces of evidence that Emperor Mao’s personal doctor cited for his belief that in his later years Mao suffered from WTF Syndrome.
But allow me to get to my point. While those are all old issues better forgotten by fashionable people, there are new issues. More radical issues. No one is trying to further simplify Chinese or replace it with pinyin, but something else upsetting to the fuddy-duddies is happening. English is creeping into Chinese!
Now, I’m not talking about English being thrown in here and there, like someone saying “sorry” instead of “dui bu qi,” the cultural equivalent of an American saying “amigo.” Those are inevitable results of internationalization. They’re different. I’m talking about an English word becoming the preferred nomenclature, in Chinese.
Some examples:
- Pose. When Chinese people take pictures, they might tell those having their picture taken to strike a pose. The traditional Chinese way to say this is “摆个姿势“. Nowadays, though, you frequently hear young people say “摆个pose”. Why the word “pose” might be singled out for adoption I have no clue.
- High. When young Chinese people talk about a feeling of excitement, they often use the word “high” in its adjectival form, as in “很high的感觉” (a ‘high’ feeling). This usage is not related at all to drugs.
- Kitty. I’ve been told that Hello Kitty is officially known in written Chinese as something like “凯迪猫,” which is basically “Kitty Cat.” The thing is, no one pronounces the “kitty” part as it as written, kǎidí. They all say “kitty 猫,” following the English pronunciation. (Incidentally, I’m really suprised by the “decision” to drop the “hello,” a word the Chinese normally seem to adore.)
- Cheese. The traditional Chinese word for “cheese” is 奶酪. In recent years phonetic transcriptions of the English word have cropped up on trendy menus (mighty catalysts of monumental linguistic change, as we all know), like 芝士 and 起士, but the actual word for cheese you hear coming from young Chinese people’s mouths is quite different. It is undeniably the English word “cheese,” although the final /z/ sound is often pronounced as an /s/ sound.
To Chinese language purists, this English creeping into Chinese must all be very terrifying. Why? Because English words cannot be written in Chinese characters! What’s the big deal about that? Well, Chinese is always written in Chinese characters! And only in Chinese characters! The reason, as mentioned before, has something to do with the Big Bang and the stability of the space/time continuum. The fate of the universe, it seems, rests precariously on the tongues of this new reckless generation of Chinese youngsters. Yikes!
01
Nov 2004我的中文名字
很多中国朋友问我：“你的中文名字你自己取的吗？怎么取的？”他们好像都很好奇外国人关于取中文名字的想法。
我的英文名字叫John。John的中文翻译是约翰，所以我在大学刚开始学中文时老师给我取的中文名字是约翰。其实我一向都不喜欢“约翰”，觉得很难听，而且一点都不像我的英文名字。虽然我不喜欢但当时我根本不知道怎么选中文名字。因此我只能忍着。
两年以后我来到中国。我刚到中国的时候中文水平很差，选名字还是很不容易。但到了中国我就一直很想找一个合适一点的中文名字并希望早日使用它。
我先要选择中文名字的姓。怎么选姓呢？我是这么想的：大多数的中国人是单字姓，而且姓往往是固定的。如果我想长期住在中国，我也最好选这样的姓。我的英文姓是Pasden，如果直接音译，写出来后就不像中文固定的姓，而且也不会是单字姓。但是如果把“Pasden”压缩成一个中文字，我想“潘”这个姓比较合适，因为它不仅是百家姓中的一个，而且它的拼音正好由“Pasden”开头的“Pa”和后面的“n”组成。在选了“潘”这个姓之后很久我才取了中文的名。因此我最早的中国朋友都叫我“小潘”。
有了中文姓以后我很努力地去找中文名。中国人可能没法了解外国人取中文名字有多大的难度。花了不少功夫查字典后，我找到了一个，便去向中国朋友询问，希望能得些意见。他却回答：“不好。你不能用这个字做名字！”然后我只好重新开始再找。
最后我选中了“吉”这个字。有三个理由：（1）它的拼音和“John”一样是J开头的。（2）他表示吉祥的意思。这在中国是个很好的概念，而且我觉得非常适合我因为我的运气一直很好。（3）既好看又好写。
我用这个中文名字已经快四年了，对它有了很深的感情。不过好像也有它的缺点。我的一个中国朋友曾说它像猴子的名字！日本人看“潘吉”这两个字就读作“ハンキチ”。听起来很滑稽，也像“ハンカチ”，手帕的意思。美国人也会说“pan ji”像英文的“pansy”。是花的名字，也有“娘娘腔的男人”的意思。可是不管怎样，“潘吉”已经是我的名字，我不会改了，就像不会改我的英文名字一样。
31
Oct 2004Spoiled Brat Formula
I’ve taught some lessons at quite a few kindergartens around Shanghai. Without a doubt, there are kindergartens with “good kids,” and then there are kindergartens where the kids are all spoiled brats who won’t listen to the teacher at all.
If it’s an expensive private kindergarten, there’s a very good chance that the kids are mostly spoiled, and the school’s “discipline” has little effect.
If it’s a “boarding kindergarten,” a kind of kindergarten popular in Shanghai where the kids only go home on weekends, then the kids are much more unruly. The poor little guys are clearly attention-starved. Teaching these kids makes you a believer in ADD.
On Monday evenings Micah and I teach at a rich private boarding kindergarten. It has, easily, the most poorly behaved kids of any kindergarten I’ve seen in China. Recently when our company did a Halloween activity at that school, one of my co-workers, a kindergarten English teacher, commented that she had never seen such wild kids before either.
My favorite class there is the pre-K (Íаà) kids. They’re only between 2 and 3 years old. Normally I hate teaching the pre-K kids because they’re so young that they can hardly learn anything — especially a foreign language — and I feel like teaching them is a complete waste of my time. In this case, though, I like them because they’re too young to have been already completely spoiled rotten by their parents.
Last week when I went to that kindergarten I had barely gotten past the “greeting” part of class when four kids spontaneously jumped out of their seats and started busting out kung fu moves. They were followed by four more. I was suddenly surrounded by eight little Chinese martial arts munchkins, and my protests were completely useless.
31
Oct 2004Hip Hop
上个星期五我和一些朋友去Caesar’s Pub（新闸路1708号）因为有嘻哈表演。门票才30，包括一瓶啤酒。
我真的没想到表演会那么好！我以前不知道上海有那么多热爱嘻哈音乐的年轻人。
我最喜欢的是X-44的一首歌叫“偶遇”。你也可以听，但当然还是现场表演好。