User Comments - changbiyuan

Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex

a1pi2: I love it!

kimiik: Sure, the tomato's a fruit, but so's the cucumber, eggplant (aubergine), zucchini (courgette), bell pepper (capsicum), etc. etc., and there's no strict definition for "vegetable" so the distinction is all rather silly...

Tomatoes can, however, be classed as a 柿子! Which means that using that word (or the English word "persimmon") to refer to that orange fruit is a little bit vague. Last year after three or four attempts at asking the vendors what the fruit were called I finally deciphered "冬柿子" which makes sense as they're in season in the winter. These fruit have a weird, almost numbing aftertaste, I found. I liked them most blended up with some milk into a (really rich) smoothy.

As for the Asian pears, Amber, you can get those in Vancouver all over the place. Of course they're all in the protective styrofoam/paper packaging so you might not see them if you're not looking for them.

I've been told that durian has a very short span of its life during which it is actually tasty... not sure how accurate that is as I never dared go near it. (I wish I'd tried the dragon fruit rash mentions though.)

The fruit that I loved the most while in China was the mangoes... They're smaller and oranger than I'd seen elsewhere, but way cheaper and availabler.

As for the sex stuff... I'm not too surprised to hear about the behaviour rules in universities... In my limited experience they tend to treat students at that age as we would high school (or even elementary school) students in the West. Albeit as a 留学生 I wouldn't have had a firsthand experience but even there teachers expect students to do things like wiping the blackboard. (Um, I'm paying you... Do it yourself!)

I've heard that Chinese sex ed includes such gems as "AIDS is a foreigners' disease." So clearly if you're not dating outside your race then safe sex isn't too important.

Posted on: Chinatomy: Chinese Gods and 'Shanghai Diaries'

tvan, when I last went to get a Chinese visa from the embassy in Vancouver, there were signs mentioning the higher fees for Americans, "due to reciprocity." So I suppose it's more expensive for Chinese to go to the US than to Canada, and they're just doing unto others as has been done to them.

Just watched Aric's last episode and I'm sad to see the show ended so quickly. Enjoyed it though so I figure I'll go back and watch the rest.

As for this DA episode...

I find it somewhat disturbing how much the Chinese have perverted the concept of Buddhism. The very idea of praying to Buddhist figures, or having idols and expensive ornate temples, or even just calling it a "religion" demonstrate a flagrant ignorance of the philosophy's original intent.

Oh and Amber, if you post images like that which are hosted on Flickr you're actually obliged to provide a link back to the original. In this case they're Guan Yin, god of wealth, door gods, and kitchen god.

Posted on: Ending Your Sentence with 吧 (ba)

Yeah, I know "mom"; that was the allusion I was going for with "bom"... I neglected to think of "butt" though. Silly me.

The English English I find the most grating is "whilst"—it just sounds so stuck-up.

Posted on: Ending Your Sentence with 吧 (ba)

rjberki, if you don't say "bum" or "mum" does that mean you say "bom" then? If not, what do you use when you want to talk about a 屁股 and don't want to say something as crass as "ass"?

More on topic, speakers of Japanese or Canadian should have no trouble with 吧 at all. It seems to me to be pretty much identical to ね (ne) and eh. Does anyone knows of any noteworthy differences?

Posted on: You Must Listen to this Episode - 非...不可 (fēi...bù kě)

(Ug... I typed out this whole thing and then scrolled up a bit and saw tim777's much more concise response to the same effect... Oh well, I'm still posting.)

What was with the shushes of "off topic!" in this episode? The off-topic parts are the most interesting! Specifically it would have been nice to get an answer from Connie on Clay's wondering what 常 means such that 非 ("not") + 常 = 非常 ("very").

I always thought of 常 meaning often "often" but the etymology seems a bit clearer with the meanings from an annotation tool:

非 fēi non- / not- / un-

Posted on: Mobile Repairmen and AZERDocMom

I'd like to hear from any non-native speaker who has actually been able to decipher anything the mobile repairmen and scrap collectors say! (Perhaps with corresponding recording and transcript!) I think it would be a mark of true fluency, at least fluent listening, if that's such a thing. In anything I've heard, nothing, even the 有吗？ or equivalent portion sounds like actual Mandarin.

Posted on: Buying a Pet and Food Poisoning

Sorry, my point was that I agree that diarrhea certainly doesn't qualify for the term.

The one time in recent history I recall having food poisoning (that I think even a doctor would have called such) I didn't need a stomach pump as the dry heaving for a day or two covered that base already.

Posted on: Long Distance and Cultural Mysteries

About the subway lineups: Not sure if it's related, but in the months leading up to the Olympics I observed something a few times at train stations, which was officials ushering people into neat lineups before the train pulled in. Of course once the train arrived the doors didn't coincide with the queues, so everything turned to disarray, but it was a valiant effort.

With the temperature bit, and Chinese not needing heaters, it seems that it's often that they just dress for the season regardless of whether they're inside or outside! My teacher friends had students who would complain that the classrooms were too hot in winter, because they'd be decked out in coats and long underwear and such from outside. Dunno why they didn't try taking off their jackets before complaining about the warmth.

Posted on: Franklicious Comes to Shanghai

Very belated, but Frank, the pictures are awesome.

And Amber, I love that you're spreading the word "toque." Keep it up.

Posted on: Long Distance and Cultural Mysteries

memmifer: I have a plastic bag on my bike seat in Vancouver! Definitely cheaper than replacing the ratty old thing itself.

Is Shanghai out of the ordinary with the drink thing? I've never been there (except in the airport) but in other cities I can't recall coming across any restaurant that didn't have tea, even at the tiniest, cheapest (most filthy delicious?) restaurants we could find. (Though I do prefer cold water so I would have to take that along myself.)

As for rice, I love the fact that it doesn't come by default in China! It's pointless filler, unless you're starving. I gather the reason it has to be ordered explicitly (and comes at the end) is that, as has been discussed before, usually when the Chinese eat out, one person is paying. So that person doesn't want to seem cheap by loading everyone up on rice.