User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: 东京
February 7, 2008 at 9:00 AMDear henning, that is how I understood the phrase too. Thanks for your post, which reminded me of the subtle distinction made in Chinese between 生活 (sheng1 huo2) and 生命 (sheng1 ming4). If I'm not mistaken, 生活 more or less corresponds to "living/ a living" in English -- hence, "生活水准", "维持生活", "生活情况", "干生活" etc --. whereas 生命 connotes: life/ the fact of being alive. And "one's entire life"/ "lifespan" is 一生 (yi1 sheng1) or 一辈子 (yi1 bei4 zi3), hence expressions such as 一辈子的功劳 etc etc.
Posted on: 东京
February 7, 2008 at 7:25 AMOoh, thank you Uncle changye! Thanks for starting me off on Chinese-language searching. Until your post, I was completely unaware about that bright shiny world beyond the ".com" borders.
Posted on: Chinese New Year Plans
February 7, 2008 at 1:08 AMI'd like to wish everybody 新年快乐 too, in the spirit of a particularly heartwarming CNY story which has made this Auntie feel all warm and fuzzy. Last night, the An-Nur Mosque in Singapore cooked and served a Chinese reunion dinner for 100 needy Chinese who didn't have families of their own to spend it with. The food was all halal, of course (which must have been a culinary challenge!), but it was as chinese as the mosque could make it, down to hongbaos and oranges. And earlier in the week, volunteers from that mosque went to the homes of each of these 100 people to spring-clean them and make them nice for the holiday; this last detail just blew me away. So happy new year everybody!
Posted on: 东京
February 7, 2008 at 12:44 AMHello. I am typing this very softly, out of kindness to anybody who may be nursing a hangover this morning. Applying the principle of "reciprocity", I wonder how the name of my country's President (Mr Sellapan Ramanathan) might be written in Mandarin. I tried googling 新加破 and 总统, but nothing came up even though we do have a Chinese-language newspaper in Singapore. Most likely because there never is anything newsworthy about this tiny island!
Posted on: 东京
February 6, 2008 at 1:43 PMBtw, I had to look up "collocations" in my compact Oxford English Dictionary. Changye, wah!
Posted on: 东京
February 6, 2008 at 1:34 PMchangye -- Amen! Let's both do our best (me more than you, obviously!!!) to 好好学习天天向上 !
Posted on: 东京
February 6, 2008 at 1:22 PMIn this Auntie's (humble) personal opinion, ANY way which inclines towards understanding and acceptance, rather than towards the cause of rigidity and exclusionism, is the better way. boboyoru, just try to think of "ri koran" (li3xiang1lan2), who made some of the most beautiful recordings of the most beautiful Chinese songs since the 20th century... her singing is so beautiful that it matters not to me whether she was Chinese, Manchurian, or Japanese. She sang those beautiful songs so beautifully (eg. 三年) that they became "her" songs, regardless of her lineage. To me, that is a wonderful thing...
Posted on: 东京
February 6, 2008 at 1:10 PMDear boboyoru, this Auntie is from Singapore. I am ethnically Chinese, but my (desperately-poor) Chinese ancestors made Singapore/Malaysia their home approximately seven generations ago (i.e., in the mid 1800s). So the "home language" of my family is now English, as well as a dialect of Malay, the "native" language. Thanks to CPOD, I am learning Chinese now! Well, my family has a very meaningful business connection with a Japanese "zaibatsu". On top of that, I am the loving (and proud!!!) "Singapore Auntie" of two very beautiful and intelligent Japanese-Italian girls who are being raised in Singapore by their Japanese mother, and their Italian father. The girls' Japanese grandparents are true "edokko", who are extremely cultured and educated Japanese people. Am I not so incredibly lucky, to be their Auntie! The girls are 100% Japanese, 100% Italian, and 100% Singaporean... Please, please do continue to express your thoughts on this bb, boboyoru, in whatever language! Your English and your Chinese are so good...
Posted on: 东京
February 6, 2008 at 12:28 PM100% with you, uncle changye! Happy New Year to you and your friends!
Posted on: 东京
February 7, 2008 at 9:20 AMOops, that should have been 干活 (rather than 干生活), I think. Sorry. Hmm... come to think about it, you would speak of somebody as having "活到90岁“ etc, and of a "活生生的例子" (approx: "living example"), and I believe that there are some sashimi cognoscenti whose theory about eating fish is 最好是活活吃的, in the sense that the fish is still alive and gasping (albeit partially filleted). Btw, my family loves to eat live lobster sashimi (chinese-style), but I could have been adopted for all you know, given my inability to look at waving antennae and twitching lobster legs on the pristine dish.