User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@Chanelle77

I like your little mystery about the colour of glass etc. (unfortunately no answer yet.)  In China one is confronted by lots of little mysteries.  For example, when I listen to Zhejiang Radio there is an announcement in English on the hour: eg. 'It is 11 am Beijing time. This is Zhejiang Radio, the travellers' voice.'  These hourly announcements are the only English used on this station.  Why do they say '11 am Beijing time'?  There is no other time in China; the whole country is on Beijing time.  Why is it the travellers voice?  It seems unlikely that their listeners are travellers.  The typical Chinese tourist would not have time to listen to the radio. 

 Why are holidays in China quoted as including the weekend, as in 'we have seven days' holiday, from Sunday 1 October to Saturday 7 October inclusive'.  Isn't this really five days' holiday, running from Monday to Friday?  Do they think that people do not notice this sleight of hand?  We actually only get three days holiday, because you have 'make-up' days on Saturday 30 September and Sunday 8 October?  So, they say that you have a ‘seven day holiday', but if you take into account the make-up days, you actually get only a three day holiday.  Why is no one upset about this? 

Why are there firecrackers going off daily (in Hangzhou), all year?  One explanation commonly offered is that whenever a new business starts up they let off firecrackers, and if so there must be an incredible number of new businesses starting in Hangzhou all the time. 

Why is the head left off the chicken when cooking hot pot?  With other chicken dishes the head is normally included. 

Why is there an obsession with plastic flowers as well as with landscaping (Hangzhou again)?  Many suburban buses are strung inside with plastic flowers; there is sometimes a vase with plastic flowers firmly fixed to a ledge up front near the driver. 

Why do the Chinese call both a bicycle with an electric (battery-powered) motor and a Vespa-like scooter also with an electric (battery-powered) motor by the same name - 电动车 dian dong che?  They may look radically different (one has bicycle wheels and the other has little scooter wheels) but I guess they are both driven by an electric motor.   Similarly, the word for motorbike seems sometimes to cover both motorbikes and scooters (they both have petrol engines). 

Young women usually walk along the street arm in arm, or hand in hand, but there does not seem to be any kissing in a Chinese greeting or farewell. 

Why are there 158 tissues in a box of tissues?  And 138 grams of crystallized jujubes (Chinese dates) in a packet?  The jujubes packet says that people with ‘a weakness' should eat 100 grams of the product each day, so 138 grams is not a useful quantity.  What is the right amount for someone who does not have ‘a weakness'?  

Anybody who has a mystery - please PM me, I collect them.

Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原

@Christian

Thanks for your references - I will investigate. Let you know if I find anything else.  

@Pete

My first reaction is that sounds like a lot of work - but I guess when you love what you do!!! I look forward like the others to the enhancements.  Like bendidelaowai I am sadly addicted .. next we'll be asking for help with managing our obsessions.

The funny thing is that I have a copy of 唐詩一百首 - is this one in a series 一，二，三.. or is your version a more complete book with 300 poems?  A friend I have mentioned before gave it to me, together with some of her father's 书法 - some small one character pieces I use as bookmarks and some large table size pieces that deserve to be framed .. it's on the to do list.  

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@trevorb

There are people offended by these epithets but really we need to keep perspective.  A friend originally from Guizhou suffers all kinds of derogatory names from the good and civilized burghers of Beijing - really it is not so much that we are non-Chinese; it is mainly that we are different that some people cannot cope with.

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@urbandweller et al

You're right about zoning laws separating incompatible uses (with more or less success) but it does not explain the grouping of like with like.  For that you have to turn to economics (ouch) and game theory - we see examples in almost area of commerce. An interesting one is radio and TV - how many times have you heard complaints that there are so many channels/station doing the same thing?  At the urban scale my best example is downtown Manhattan - you want a camera you go to the 'camera' district.  I have almost explained the tendency with these examples - a supplier does not want to risk being too far from the action. 

For a more complete explanation we would need a separate Chinesepod posting - or google industrial organisation; or game theory. A classic example in game theory is the Prisoner's Dilemma - google it.  There are other classic stories/research narratives such as ice-cream sellers on a beach. 

... whoops, I have already been accused (above) of being 'off-topic'.  :-( 

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@miantiao

I wish I could advise you about whether to keep your car but I'm probably the wrong person - a) I don't own a car (but I have a motorbike I am very fond of) - b) I tend to hoard things way past their use-by date. 

can't imagine your mouth getting you into trouble :-)

& yes, freedoms are eroding - is this one factor in the growth of blogs, chat etc.? - somewhere you can go, like a safety valve..

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@demee

I'm not a wine buff (I drink red) but I remember giving a bottle of Aust cab sav as a gift to my host at dinner - he immediately reefed the cork out and they ganbe-ied it in minutes.  I suspect Aussie wines are a preferred drop - and you can get them at many supermarkets, starting at about 80 or 90 RMB a bottle. 

@miantiao

We lived in Darwin and in the Alice for a few years.  Just blow-ins really, but enjoyed our time there.

Just about everything else is in the south-west, why not Bundy rum? The ads say that it's smoother :-)

I see you must be a Holden man - is that your Monaro?  Looks too low to the ground to go far in the north!?

Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原

@pete

I really enjoyed this poem - you are setting a consistent standard of interesting background research and great analysis.  Makes me realise how much HELP I need to read these - any tips on a suitable general reference?  Googling seems a bit hit and miss. 

Actually watching the sun go down in Xi'an reminds me of a trip with my son - we wandered around the 'renovated' city walls loving the sunset and the atmosphere until it was quite dark, then discovered that we were locked in - and the 保安 couldn't find a key to let us out! So one of them took us down a very precarious ice-covered vertical ladder clearly signed Danger No Exit ..

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@miantiao

Concerning your ad for Bundaberg rum (the big white 北极熊  would give a little chuckle if he knew) - I remember crossing the Barkeley in the seventies and dropping in at the two or three roadhouses that existed then in the 700 odd km stretch from Camooweal to Three Ways.  There behind the bar were row upon row of FLAGONS of Bundaberg rum, answer demand for the drink of choice in those days - rum and milk.

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

As Ken says with silk the price tells you whether it is real or fake, the disprepancy is so large.  I actually think the vast majority of vendors are not trying to be deceptive, just selling cheap alternatives.  Oh， if you want good silk products go to Hangzhou.. If you want a discount, shop with a Hangzhou native. Really, a native Chinese speaker does not cut it in Hangzhou.      

But on the subject of FAKE - I think the word often has a different connotation in China to the West - it is short-hand for cheap and lower quality.  Whether a fake is an illegal COPY is another matter. The last line of the lesson conversation has two readings - one reading is pretty much without deception.  

Eg. Needed a new phone battery and the vendor's patter included the merits of a 假牌子 (fake brand).  No deception there - and the battery does not say Nokia or even Nokea.  The first one offered was impossibly cheap - I chose a more expensive 'fake' - still roughly one-tenth the price of a Nokia - and it has been working fine for a couple of years.

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

@miantiao

You're being modest - I have opened a 'miantiao' file - your conversations/observations are both educational and entertaining (might be the Oz humour).

Thanks for taking the time with explaining the conversation above - I have never seen that structure before. 

As a city person (I can hear the traffic on the Harbour Bridge where I live at present and our 'view' is the building opposite, like in those old American movies) I am most impressed with where you live - sounds like the setting of a Tim Winton novel - or maybe like that place in the ABC show of a few years back called 'Sea Change'!  Can't think of a better place to lay bricks.