User Comments - tvan
tvan
Posted on: New Year's Well-Wishes
January 23, 2012 at 5:03 AMHello Daikanyama, hmmm, maybe it's a Beijing thing. People here think it's not big deal.
Posted on: New Year's Well-Wishes
January 22, 2012 at 1:05 AMHello Zhenlijiang, "The Power of 'The Red Panty'," is indeed a classic translation. Sounds like some sort of X-Rated Kung Fu move.
Posted on: Driving in China
January 21, 2012 at 1:13 PMHello Humanitad-China, I commute about 50-60 km per day, seven days a week here in China. I mostly ride my bike to work (i.e. real bicycle, no electric pansy-cycles), but drive about once a week or so when a client comes to town. I actually feel safer on my bicycle for several reasons. One, the bicycle lanes here in China are to die for. They are small roads. Two, I can hear better on a bike and begin taking evasive actions sooner (e.g. bus driving the wrong way down the bike lane... really!). Three, speeds are slower so, if I do get dumped, it's mostly just a case of road rash and hurt pride.
In a car the good news is that you're protected by a big, heavy car. The bad news is that you're out in the middle of a bunch of insane novices operating equally big and heavy cars.
Posted on: ChinesePod Hall of Famers
January 21, 2012 at 12:59 PMI'm not anywhere near Massachusetts, but Yangcheng Hu is about five miles from where I live now. Glad to know that other people make messes of themselves eating hairy crab.
Posted on: The Great Four in China
August 29, 2011 at 12:21 AM关于现代的中国我觉得中国的四大伟是：第一，孙中山；诶二，蒋介石；第三，毛泽东；第四，邓小平。中国的博物馆经常提出第一，第二，和第四的人物。可是在大陆的“架空历史”上，好像第三个还没出生的。
In a similar vein, when museums list China's great leaders, they list Mao, Deng, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao. In fact, of course, there were many other prime ministers besides these four. I'm not sure if this reflects China's propensity for "Four Greats" or if's a tacit recognition that, under Mao and Deng, power largely rested in one person's hands.
Posted on: Military Training
May 29, 2011 at 2:29 AM@rizone, for practical purposes the meaning is identical For example, 下个星期见 and 下周见 have identical meanings. That said, there might be times when one usage is appropriate when the other is not, but I am can't think of one.
Posted on: Hard Drive Storage
May 22, 2011 at 8:50 PMAs another alternative, I often hear Thumb Drives referred to as U 盘.
Posted on: Understanding China's Geography
May 22, 2011 at 1:47 PM我现在住在江苏省昆山市新大陆花园... 昆山市是苏州的县级市。虽然昆山不大，但它是中国最繁荣的县级市。昆山有九个镇。最有名的镇是周庄水乡。昆山也是昆曲的起源。
BTW, I second both my thanks to cinnamonfern for the vocab as well as to Cpod for choosing a topic that often befuddles me.
Posted on: Car Crash
April 17, 2011 at 10:31 PM@bodawei, from my experience, the police in China are much less visible than the U.S. During rush hour, they come out, stand at busy intersections, and direct traffic; then they disappear. Per my Chinese friends, they mostly head back to the police station and drink tea. Probably not totally fair, but the only times other than rush hour that I have observed police taking an active role are 1) stopping traffic so that black BMW's can go through red lights and 2) stopping cars (especially me) because of traffic violations caught on video cameras.
Also, they seem to often be a lot more passive than Western police, at least the ones in the States. A couple of weeks ago I was drinking tea at a canal-side cafe. To make a long story short, two women started screaming at each other for some reason with a man standing off to the side. No big deal. However, when the two women started fighting, the man punched one of them in the head. Myself and two French guys got up and separated the parties. The entire incident was witnessed by one of those assistant police (副警) who, basically, did nothing. What I remember most vividly was the policeman patting the back of the guy who was screaming at one of the women (By that time one of the French guys had him on the ground in a headlock) and saying 没事没事.
Now in the States, the police would have called for backup, broken up the fight, and almost certainly booked the guy for battery. In that particular instance, it seemed that everybody just walked away. So I don't know if police are "thin on the ground" or not. But, in my experience, they don't seem to do much.
One final note, none of the Chinese moved, even after the guy punched a woman!
Posted on: The Spring Festival Gala
January 24, 2012 at 4:37 AMNo, I agree with Jenny that show was a bit lame... just so much Orwellian cheese. But the dancing robots rocked.