User Comments - pearltowerpete

Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子

Hi xemrac

I think if the world is to be a more flourishing place, a lot of us -- all over the world -- need to rethink cultural values that have placed greed and excess over human and environmental good.

Hear, hear. As Bob Dylan asked about mankind, "who's gonna take away his license to kill?"

As educators, we at ChinesePod have a responsibility to expose our listeners to a variety of aspects of Chinese history and culture, including things they may find distasteful.

Frankly, because of our sensitive position behind the "Bamboo Curtain," we are not able to talk as meaningfully about a lot of huge problems, events and trends as I would personally like.

Posted on: Sympathy for the Farmers -- 悯农

Hi tassspurlov

Thanks for sharing your wife's perspective, and for your kind words. The new motto of this show is "Poetry for the Interested Masses "  ;-)

Hi tvan

I heard the same thing, although sometimes the children were in Ethiopia or India.

Posted on: Sympathy for the Farmers -- 悯农

Here are a few of the key words mentioned in the podcast:

翰林院 hànlínyuàn Hanlin Academy

国子监  guózǐjiàn Imperial Academy

放之四海而皆准 fàngzhīsìhǎi'érjiēzhǔn -- universally true

四海之内皆兄弟 sìhǎizhīnèijiēxiōngdì -- within the four seas, all men are brothers.

Posted on: Reporting a Loss

Hi kimiik,

Courtesy of Jiaojie:

“中华民族”是一个民族学名称，泛指定居于中国领土上的所有民族。不可以说“中国民族”，要说：“中国有很多民族”。“中国有56个民族”。

"Zhonghua Minzu" is an ethnological term. It refers to all the nationalities that live on Chinese soil. You can't say "Zhongguo minzu"-- you can only say "China has a lot of nationalities," or "China has 56 nationalities."

Posted on: Sympathy for the Farmers -- 悯农

Hi all,

Here is today's poem.

锄 禾 日 当 午，汗滴 禾 下 土。

chú hé rì dāngwǔ hàndī hé xià tǔ

谁 知 盘 中 餐，粒粒 皆 辛 苦。

shéizhī pánzhōngcān lìlì jiē xīnkǔ

春 种 一 粒 粟，秋收 万 颗 子。

chūn zhòng yīlì sù, qiū shōu wàn kē zǐ

四 海 无 闲 田，农夫 犹 饿 死。

sìhǎi wú xiántián, nóngfū yóu èsǐ

Posted on: 中国和西方的农民

Hi davidkaneda

You took the words right out of my mouth. I visited the Porcelain Museum in Yingge with my Taiwanese auntie last year. I was fascinated to learn that "bone china" really does include bone powder. It poses an interesting ethical dilemma for us animal rights folks...

Anyway, back to the discussion at hand: Farming.

Posted on: 中国和西方的农民

Hi xulong0409

我认为我们不能说 “中华曾经是世界各国憧憬之地。”

自从古代以来，偶尔会有几个国家或地区迷上中国，比如说，在唐朝时，日本借用中国的一些习俗，文化等。

但对其他国家来讲，中国一向是个“黑箱子。” 当然其他国家有一些商业关系，购买茶，陶瓷等，但并不是很佩服或了解中国。

在亚洲，中国的影响一直相当的大，但世界各国憧憬之地是谈不上的。基本上，欧洲，非洲，北美，拉美等地区到改革开放以后才开始跟中国有来往。

Posted on: Reporting a Loss

Hi jshang

Thanks for the explanation and citation.

But putting politics aside, all humans are people, 人类, homo sapiens. And the U.S. Declaration of Independence states that  "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."

Yet in the real world, we can see huge inequality  and cruel oppression everywhere. An idealistic claim written by revolutionaries, and an extraordinarily broad definition of a nationality, cannot change reality.

Let's look at the word ethnic group

 a group of human beings whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.

Tibetans, whose traditional customs, philosophy, religion, and political structure are very different from the Chinese, cannot meaningfully be considered "ethnically Chinese."

Most important, the majority of Tibetans do not consider themselves Chinese, regardless of what government propaganda says.

Posted on: 中国和西方的农民

Hi urcto

Your ideas are very interesting. I wonder how many Chinese agree with you that China should not be unified? I certainly know some, but I think that most still believe in a unified China.

其实，我跟我朋友谈过这件事儿。她也同意你的观点，甚至说对上海，江浙，珠江等地区来讲，独立是一件非常有利的事儿，自己赚的钱自己就可以花，不用缴纳出去。但要是它们独立了，中国很多贫穷地区的农民就没得吃了，全都靠补贴和中央政府的投资。

America is certainly not heaven on earth. In fact, our welfare system lags far behind many other developed nations. But I'm glad your uncle and his family are doing OK.

And by the way, some of the richer coastal regions in America would be much better off independent, instead of subsidizing the poorer interior. But for better or worse, that will not happen anytime soon.

Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子

Hi changye

Thanks for an interesting and optimistic interpretation of "vulgar prosperity."

But it would be nice to see some of this wealth getting redistributed to peasants and workers, instead of ending up in the hands of Rolex, BMW, and Gucci (or the people who make knock-offs of these.)