User Comments - crandles

Posted on: Rainbow

Interesting. I've always read that Southeast Asia was home to citrus and that, in particular, citrus reticulata (mandarins) originated in southern China. It was from this region that citrus spread out to the mediterranean. The term tangerine is supposed to have come from the port at Tangiers through which Chinese mandarins passed.

A brief summary is available here

http://mountainmandarins.com/documents/10Oct2005-MMGA.pdf

Also the first citrus tree manual 橘錄 by 韓彥直 was written in the Song dynasty.

Posted on: Nearby Tea House

Going back to the top and the request for how to say "americano" in Chinese.  Back in the 90s in Taiwan, "americano" was 淡咖啡，which I guess referred to the process of adding water to an espresso.

Posted on: Terrorized at the Airport

恐怖分子 was an old word for me.  I used to live in Taiwan in the 1990s.  The first Gulf War started soon after I moved there and, I guess, because I had a beard that reminded them of a Middle-Easterner, the Taibei police would often stop me and demand ID.  This went on for about six months, but I will always remember hearing them mutter 恐怖分子。

Posted on: Chinese Characters and the History of Sex in China

This was a very interesting lesson.  I was surprised by a few things I heard about the oracle bones (the turtle plastons or cow scapulae usedin telling the future).  I was always taught that the "bones" were written on only AFTER the prognostication had taken place.  That the writings were in effect a record of the ritual.  I think David Keightley talks about this in his book Sources of Shang History. So, I'm not convinced that the way the crack altered a character's shape had too much to do with changes in the language, but its an interesting thought.  The same with the sound--although I've also heard what Changye said about the reconstructed pronunciation of 卜. An interesting thing about the divination is that the question was frequently in a binary form--will Lady X give birth to boy; will Lady X not give birth to a boy.

Christine, apparently the Xuande 宣德 (1426-1436) emperor wrote the 德 'de' in his name without the horizontal stroke above heart character.  If you look at some of the pottery marks you can see that the line is missing from pieces made in his reign.

The sex museum in Tongli is really quite nice. Its on the grounds of a former mission school for girls. The courtyard has some interesting sculpture in it.  The director 劉達臨 Liu Dalin has written a number of books about the history of sex in China--a good number of them are on sale in the gift shop.

For homosexuality in China, Silentnoise, you might want to take a look at Bret Hinsch's Passions of the Cut Sleeve. In fact, the phrase "cut sleeve" is a reference from the Han dynasty that came to mean homosexual relations. At times it was condoned at other times it was condemned.  Male prostitutes in the Song were subject to heavy physical punishment; and in the Ming and Qing periods, judicial beatings were often given.

Some sad stories are told in Qing court documents, such as one where two men lived together and kept their relationship secret from the rest of the world but in a drunken stupor, one of them let the secret out.  The other partner was  so mortified that he murdered his lover.

There was a good deal of gay pornography in the late Ming early Qing period but it was condemned by contemporaries.

Sorry to have gone on for so long.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing

Great lesson. Zha jiangmian is one of my favorite foods--when I lived near ShiDa in Taipei, I had it nearly every day.  The Korean dish has the same name but tastes quite different, I think.  There's a movie about a famous Korean zha jiangmian restaurant that some people may be interested in watching.

There's also a cold version that I've found sometimes.  Its quite good too.

The hulu gourd is sometimes called a calabash in English.

Posted on: Instant Noodles

Changye, you're right about "dog does not generall eat dog."  The English expression "dog eats dog" is based on the earlier expression "dog does not eat dog."  But someone wanted to describe how vicious and terrible the world has become, so they took the old expression and turned it around.  For more, see http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/dog_eat_dog/

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hong Kong

Great lesson.  Hate to mention it, but you have a typo in the introduction--'here' instead of "'hear' that squeaky cart".

Now I have to go find some dinner.

Posted on: Gifts Chinese People Like and 'Chinatomy' Premiere!

I imagine the reason razors are appreciated is that when I haven't gone to those stores catering to foreigners, the razors I've bought have been dull and often single blades. So be warned if you go to a 浴场 be forewarned if you want to shave.