User Comments - Tal

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

I've just read this article on the BBC News website which it seems to me offers pertinent data and insights. Anyone still wondering about this may find it of interest.

Posted on: Strange Chinese Food

Nice to see cockroach farming making inroads in China, these versatile creatures surely deserve... er, more recognition. Dontcha think?

Posted on: Shaven Dog

And I was nearly gonna say "only in China, yo." Like the avatar, dude, it's you! Yeah Mr. White, yeah science.

Posted on: Teaching Japanese Go

Fortune favors the bold! ;-)

Posted on: Teaching Japanese Go

You might be interested in Qianhong, Windows freeware which I found very useful for learning the moves and basic strategy a few years ago. Actually knowing how to play this game is a great way to astonish and interest Chinese people, who will usually be baffled and titillated that a foreigner knows how to play the game. Before I came to China I recall reading a travelogue written by a foreigner in China back in the 90s. He described how he would take a chess set on train journeys with him. All he had to do was take it out and he'd make new friends everywhere he would go!

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

I do take your point(s) which are well made. I certainly agree that movies and TV shows play a significant part in the stereotypes of Westerners popularly believed in by Chinese people, which will of course affect this whole issue. You do say though that your experience is of Hong Kong, and so I'm afraid is simply not representative of the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong was ruled by Britain for most of the last century, and thus is altogether a more civilized and decent place. If you choose to spend any time on the mainland I'm sure you would see a broader canvas, and appreciate the general accuracy of the other views I have expressed.

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

Elsewhere here I readily concede that I am generalizing in the views I have expressed. I don't doubt for a moment that there are many fine and enlightened Chinese men, especially perhaps among that (relatively tiny) section of society concerned with higher education and/or the life of the mind. I do not deny the existence of elite groups, whose mores and conduct may differ from society as a whole, but I maintain that these groups are not necessarily representative of China as a whole, which largely remains (like it or not) a peasant society. My experience has taught me that 'academics', (particularly those of 'a younger generation', *chuckle*), tend to form a subculture of their own, often with an almost inevitable 'superiority complex' built in. Breathing the sweet air of Academe can perhaps lead one to a pleasantly distorted view of reality. But I'll repeat myself: every human that draws breath views the world through their own subjective lens. That's 'reality' for them, and no amount of discussion will (or perhaps should) convince them otherwise.

Posted on: Monkey Show

我很同意，但是在中国人们不关心动物，其实这样的表演当好玩。

Posted on: B.O. in the Library

Another of these little spats over unfamiliar words! Why should there be so many of them... on a language study website for goodness sake. A way for the ornery knifey-spoony types to let off their (seemingly endless) steam perhaps? Or just another chance for yank-bashing? Anyway, continues on page 94 no doubt, *chuckle*.

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 3: The Jealous Friend

心疼 (that's xin1teng2) has more than one meaning. One is 'to love dearly' - it's a stative verb here.

e.g. 父母都心疼自己的孩子。 All parents dearly love their children.

A second meaning is 'to feel sorry' or 'to be distressed'. In certain contexts this can be translated as 'anguish'

e.g. 这么浪费，叫人觉得心疼。 Such waste makes the heart ache.

I feel sure there is an amusing tragi-comic link to be found between 'love' and 'anguish', but fortunately I don't feel like looking for it right now! ;-)