tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22041292284871376482024-02-20T02:08:30.967-07:00Adventures in TranslationAnecdotes about an American dude trying to keep up with his Chinese skills.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-27978378926679699102013-03-27T15:31:00.001-06:002013-03-27T15:31:58.139-06:00Chinese nursery rhymes! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnq6XZbBHoHwnBwJuV7mOKSuvtsTcC5utqOdX8pOOGkHvy3SSoN8mDjZ-9wO37FTxhNLqrvqHUPW41He6wCe8u_0zyYxC8da85HZC2aoSOGeIL-CHW3oEw-SQgAXppacKnJ9GhGmsdtM/s1600/xbt.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnq6XZbBHoHwnBwJuV7mOKSuvtsTcC5utqOdX8pOOGkHvy3SSoN8mDjZ-9wO37FTxhNLqrvqHUPW41He6wCe8u_0zyYxC8da85HZC2aoSOGeIL-CHW3oEw-SQgAXppacKnJ9GhGmsdtM/s1600/xbt.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnq6XZbBHoHwnBwJuV7mOKSuvtsTcC5utqOdX8pOOGkHvy3SSoN8mDjZ-9wO37FTxhNLqrvqHUPW41He6wCe8u_0zyYxC8da85HZC2aoSOGeIL-CHW3oEw-SQgAXppacKnJ9GhGmsdtM/s1600/xbt.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnq6XZbBHoHwnBwJuV7mOKSuvtsTcC5utqOdX8pOOGkHvy3SSoN8mDjZ-9wO37FTxhNLqrvqHUPW41He6wCe8u_0zyYxC8da85HZC2aoSOGeIL-CHW3oEw-SQgAXppacKnJ9GhGmsdtM/s320/xbt.png" width="320" /></a>Over the last few months I have been learning some Chinese nursery rhymes (<span style="color: #cc0000;">童谣 tóng yáo</span>) and children's songs to sing to Liam. Obviously it has taken some time since I have not blogged for many months! <br /><br />Here are a few favorites, with my attempt at making translations that are fairly accurate and (occasionally) rhyme in English: <br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">小白兔 </span>Little White Bunny</span></strong><br />
This is the first rhyme I said to Liam in Chinese. I found it online and thought it was cute. Liam's reaction was that of mild distractedness. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">小白兔,白又白, </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: black;">xiǎo bái tù, bái yòu bái,</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">两只耳朵竖起来, </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">liǎng zhī ěr duo shù qĭ lái,</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">爱吃萝卜爱吃菜, </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">ài chī luó bo ài chī cài,</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">蹦蹦跳跳真可爱。 </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">bèng bèng tiào tiào zhēn kě ài.</span>
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">Translation:</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Little white bunny, oh so white
</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Two little ears that stand upright
</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>He'll eat carrots, veggies too
</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Jumping, hopping, cute-a-lee-doo!</em></span><br />
(I know, "cute-a-lee-doo" is not a real word.)<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>摇到外婆桥</strong> </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Grandma's Bridge</span> </strong><br />
This is kind of a Chinese "row your boat" song. The verse below is just one of the many versions/verses. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">摇啊摇,摇啊摇</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">yáo a yáo, yáo a yáo</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">船儿摇到外婆桥</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: black;">chuán'er yáo dào wài pó qiáo</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">外婆说好宝宝</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">wài pó shuō hǎo bǎo bao</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">外婆给我一块糕</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">wài pó gěi wǒ yī kuài gāo</span> <br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">Translation:</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Row-a-row, row-a-row</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>To Grandma's Bridge our boat will go</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Grandma says, good baby</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Grandma gives some cake to me.</em></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">三轮车</span> Tricycle</span></strong><br />
Not the tricycle in the "Big Wheels" sense, more of a three-wheeled bike with a big platform on the back, usually piled high with vegetables, scrap iron, pig carcasses, etc.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">三轮车 跑的快</span><br />
sān lún chē páo de kuài <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">上面坐个老太太</span><br />
shàng miàn zuò ge lǎo tài tai<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">要五毛给一块</span><br />
yào wǔ máo gěi yī kuài <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">你说奇怪不奇怪</span><br />
nǐ shuō qí guài bù qí guài <br />
<br />
<strong>Translation: </strong><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>The tricycle is real speedy</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Ridden by an old lady</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Asked for a nickel, got a buck</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Isn't that just my luck?</em></span><br />
(I played it kind of loose with this translation. The last line is more like "Isn't that weird?")<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">卖油条</span> Selling donuts</span></strong><br />
Chinese street donuts are not like Krispy Kremes. They are stretched out pieces of dough thrown into a pot of boiling oil, best enjoyed hot and dunked in a bowl of fresh soy milk. Yum!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">街头巷尾 卖油条</span><br />
jiē tóu xiàng wěi mài yóu tiáo <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">卖来卖去 卖不了</span><br />
mài lái mài qù mài bú diào <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">哗啦啦啦啦啦</span> <br />
huā lā lā lā lā lā <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">变成老油条</span><br />
biàn chéng lǎo yóu tiáo <br /><br /><strong>Translation:</strong> <br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Selling donuts all over town</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>They sell and sell but never run out</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>La la la la la la </em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>They become old donuts.</em></span> <br />(I couldn't think of a good way to rhyme this.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">數字歌</span> Counting Song (shù zì gē)</span></strong><br />
This is a nice little song that teaches you to count to ten. Kind of like "One, two, Freddie's coming for you..." from Nightmare on Elm Street, but not scary.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">一二三,爬上山</span><br />
yī ér sǎn, pà shàng shān <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">四五六,翻跟头</span><br />
sì wǔ liù, fān gēn tou<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">七八九,拍皮球</span><br />
qī bā jiǔ, pāi pí qiú <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">伸出两只手</span><br />
Shēn chū liǎng zhī shǒu <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">十个手指头</span><br />
shí gè shǒu zhǐ tou<br />
<br /><strong>Translation: </strong><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>1,2,3, climb the mountain</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>4,5,6, do a somersault</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>7,8,9, bounce a ball</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Put out your two hands</em></span><br />
<span style="color: purple;"><em>Ten fingers!</em></span><br />(No way this can rhyme without changing the meaning entirely)<br /><br />That's it for now. See you in another six months!</div>
Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-25440567165346006772012-06-25T17:04:00.001-06:002012-06-26T14:10:15.556-06:00The most awesome tomb ever <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiES5GiuJNHbTNCjCnXMXqiKIhXSvCCmaJGu0MpU98W5m6B3HFMCQJ6JLtThV_mTU15QKth394sZDm8vQfzL8DwAtehPNz93TLMBnnYdMf-AYGtNpvADUo7odRVlwXGGClHO_pI5KseJ9A/s1600/qinling002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" rca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiES5GiuJNHbTNCjCnXMXqiKIhXSvCCmaJGu0MpU98W5m6B3HFMCQJ6JLtThV_mTU15QKth394sZDm8vQfzL8DwAtehPNz93TLMBnnYdMf-AYGtNpvADUo7odRVlwXGGClHO_pI5KseJ9A/s320/qinling002.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>The fabled tomb of Qin Shihuang might look like this. </em><br />
<em>(from </em><a href="http://www.cchmi.com/tabid/770/InfoID/13701/Default.aspx" target="_blank"><em>China Cultural Heritage</em></a><em>)</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ancient tombs and burial treasures are awesome. <br />
<br />
Booby traps and diabolical machines are awesome. <br />
<br />
So it goes without saying that ancient, booby-trapped tombs filled with treasure and diabolical machines are absolutely, mind-numbingly awesomely awesome!<br />
<br />
Such is the tomb of China's first emperor, <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/31755.htm" target="_blank">Qin Shihuang</a> (<span style="color: #cc0000;">秦始皇 Qín Shǐ huáng</span>). <br />
<br />
In 1974, in rural Shaanxi Province, a group of farmers who were digging a well stumbled across one of the greatest archaeological finds in history. <br />
<br />
No, it was not the <a href="http://shanghaiist.com/2012/06/19/mystery-mushroom-artificial-vajayjay.php" target="_blank">double-penetration sex toy that someone threw down an 80-meter well that villagers thought was a type of rare mushroom.</a><br />
<br />
It was one of the now iconic terracotta soldiers, that number in the thousands, silently guarding the tomb of Qin Shihuang, one of the most venerated figures in Chinese history.<br />
<br />
Since that discovery, other underground chambers have been unearthed, containing terracotta versions of warriors, horses, acrobats and every other type of person who would have been part of the imperial entourage. However, the main burial chamber eluded discovery, even though it was pretty clear where it was. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPDWbUM2mN8F9VXFJFB1hGCaIbNYQZ8U2vplzvxyVY97-LDS6QsOVI_Z0DB1sY8ibEtrPpSP4tWXaWT5oHMup36XhtVfr9OEdfJ-5inLkhGD-Zn78EM1BpCtyJKGB2LHO1UrmnRL3wHiU/s1600/Sima_Qian_(painted_portrait).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" rca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPDWbUM2mN8F9VXFJFB1hGCaIbNYQZ8U2vplzvxyVY97-LDS6QsOVI_Z0DB1sY8ibEtrPpSP4tWXaWT5oHMup36XhtVfr9OEdfJ-5inLkhGD-Zn78EM1BpCtyJKGB2LHO1UrmnRL3wHiU/s200/Sima_Qian_(painted_portrait).jpg" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Si-Ma Qian wrote the book </em><br />
<em>on the best tomb ever</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The main source of knowledge about the tomb (and most other ancient Chinese history) comes from the "<a href="http://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han?filter=d270" target="_blank">Records of the Grand Historian</a>" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">史记, Shǐ jì</span>). It was written by Si-Ma Qian (<span style="color: #cc0000;">司马迁 Sīmǎ Qiān</span>), in around 100 BCE, approximately a hundred years after Qin Shihuang's death. Here is an excerpt from that momemtous tome: <br />
<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<strong>Original text:</strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"> 始皇初即位,穿治郦山,及并天下,天下徒送诣七十余万人,穿三泉,下铜而致椁,宫观百官奇器珍怪徙臧满之。令匠作机<span class="mpt3">弩</span>矢,有所穿近者辄射之。以水银为百川江河大海,机相灌输,上具天文,下具地理。以人鱼膏为烛,度不灭者久之。二世曰:"先帝后宫非有子者,出焉不宜。" 皆令从死,死者甚众。葬既已下,或言工匠为机,臧皆知之,臧重即泄。大事毕,已臧,闭中羡,下外羡门,尽闭工匠臧者,无复出者。树草木以象山。</span><br />
<br />
<strong>Translation:</strong> <span style="color: #351c75;">When the First Emperor ascended the throne, the digging and preparation at Mount Li began. After he unified his empire, he sent 700,000 people to work. They dug down deep to underground springs, pouring copper to place the outer casing of the coffin. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Palaces and viewing towers housing a hundred officials were built and filled with treasures and rare artefacts. Workmen were instructed to make automatic crossbows primed to shoot at intruders. Mercury was used to create a hundred rivers and the ocean, and set to flow mechanically. Above, the heaven is depicted, below, the geographical features of the land. Candles were made of "mermaid"'s fat whose light would not extinguish for a long time. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">The Second Emperor said: "It is inappropriate for the wives of the late emperor who have no sons to be free", ordered that they be put to death, and many died. After the burial, it was suggested that it would be a serious breach if the craftsmen who constructed the tomb and knew of its secrets were to divulge those secrets. Therefore after the funeral ceremonies had completed, the inner passages and doorways were blocked, and the exit sealed, immediately trapping the workers and craftsmen inside. None could escape. Vegetations were then planted on the tomb mound such that it resembled a hill.</span><br />
<br />
If you didn't catch all that, here are the bullet points:<br />
<ul>
<li>The underground palace is filled with rare and strange treasures (<a href="http://benmojo.blogspot.com/2012/04/chinas-two-lost-treasures.html" target="_blank">see my post on two of them!)</a></li>
<li>There are traps with crossbows set to kill intruders who dare enter the tomb</li>
<li>The tomb floor is a scale model of the country, complete with geographical features, and rivers of mercury that flow via some mysterious mechanical system</li>
<li>An ancient star map is painted on the ceiling</li>
<li>Candles made from mermaid fat illuminate the necropolis (Ooo-kay)</li>
<li>The entire complex is filled with the corpses of doomed craftsmen and concubines, who will most likely re-animate and be <em>very</em> pissed off.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTs6OkbZ9rC_TKfnqKI7rsEIP9JlMFEtksn96P51lk1RPz6W85ZZJ4uGCD2bvYDj1xJXmguV_lT6qRV_Ldszms2dtDM_mnCdP9WXkB-L74CtAh9uH32hkp39Oxrq7Ror8tA5baOv5jH4I/s1600/Lara_Croft.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" rca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTs6OkbZ9rC_TKfnqKI7rsEIP9JlMFEtksn96P51lk1RPz6W85ZZJ4uGCD2bvYDj1xJXmguV_lT6qRV_Ldszms2dtDM_mnCdP9WXkB-L74CtAh9uH32hkp39Oxrq7Ror8tA5baOv5jH4I/s320/Lara_Croft.png" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Lara Croft has wet dreams </em><br />
<em>about this tomb</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Even though it was clear that the tomb was located beneath Mount Li, nobody had been able to confirm this. Then, in 2002, a team of archaeologists used remote sensing (the technology, not the "men staring at goats" kind) and ground-penetrating radar to peer into the heart of Mount Li (<span style="color: #cc0000;">骊山, Lí shān</span>), where the central tomb was thought to be located. </div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
In a word, they found it. The scans showed a soccer-field sized area with walls around it, and a central pit about 15 meters deep. </div>
</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
The team also did tests to see if there was a higher concentration of mercury in the soil around the site, which would be the case if mercury vapor were leaching into the ground from the mechanical mercury river system. Incredibly, there was a high concentration of mercury, with higher levels to the south, suggesting the flow may have stopped and the rivers settled on the southern side of the tomb. </div>
</div>
<br />
Another notable discovery was that there were only two "tomb passageways," (<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="mpt4">墓</span><wbr><span class="mpt4">道 </span><span class="mpt4">mù</span> </span><span class="mpt4"><span style="color: #cc0000;">dào</span>). Later emperors always had four at the cardinal points of the compass, but Qin Shihuang had only two on the east and west sides. These are essentially passages that lead to and from the tomb. Another mystery...</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpcuvL48LVzwBi3VU3UIPPNDPh-bi8dFlqh6dONvqJiTTAe-5Mf5v_WHrovbEFJthYa1qKeoAquvSMXguaeBpMveti3m1F_1KWShb0aB4HfBlx8IItG-MZldGxjyPAgQAieoNE1z8I9J8/s1600/800px-Andrias_davidianus_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" rca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpcuvL48LVzwBi3VU3UIPPNDPh-bi8dFlqh6dONvqJiTTAe-5Mf5v_WHrovbEFJthYa1qKeoAquvSMXguaeBpMveti3m1F_1KWShb0aB4HfBlx8IItG-MZldGxjyPAgQAieoNE1z8I9J8/s200/800px-Andrias_davidianus_01.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>The critically endangered </em><br />
<em>Chinese "mermaid"</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="mpt4">Now, I know you are wondering what "mermaid fat" is. Assuming for a minute that they didn't have actual mermaids back then, we have to look for other explanations. One thought is that the word translated here as mermaid (<span style="color: #cc0000;">人鱼 rén yú</span>), might actually refer to the Chinese Giant Salamander. This critically endangered creature is referred to as the Baby Fish (<span style="color: #cc0000;">娃娃鱼 wáwa yú</span>) since it has an eerie vocalization that can sound like a human infant crying. Another theory is that whale fat was used. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="mpt4">In any case, the idea was probably to have a bunch of long-burning candles in order to deplete the tomb of oxygen and better preserve the contents. </span><br />
<br />
Unfortunately there are no plans to excavate the tomb, since China does not feel confident that it can extract and preserve the contents of the tomb right now. One archaeologist said it would be at least 50 more years until the tomb was explored. <br />
<br />
Until then, we'll just have to imagine the depths of insanity that await those first explorers...Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-1197497763242791472012-06-21T09:00:00.000-06:002012-06-21T09:00:27.542-06:00Chinese name for baby!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and the kids</td></tr>
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A name is very important. It gives a person a basis for their identity, at least their identity as their parents saw it. In the case of my son, born a month ago, his name came to us during the early stages of the pregnancy, when we were just starting to think about names: Liam Xiong Williams. <br />
<br />
We were thinking of another name for his middle name, Ahanu, meaning "He Laughs" in one of the American Indian languages. But then we thought of a Chinese name and it stuck. <br />
<br />
Since we decided on a Chinese name for his middle name, I figured I had better come up with a full Chinese name for him. So here it is!<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-size: large;">魏廉熊</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Wèi Lián Xióng </span><br />
<br />
My Chinese name is 魏熊 (Wèi Xióng), so we have the same surname, Wei, which I was given since it is the first syllable in Williams. <br />
<br />
Lián <span style="color: #cc0000;">廉</span> is an old word meaning honest or incorruptible. It is often used in the Chinese version of the English name "William" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">威廉 <span class="mpt1">Wēi</span> </span><span class="mpt2"><span style="color: #cc0000;">lián</span>), so since Liam is the second part of William, it makes sense that Lián means Liam! </span><br />
<br />
And Xiong means bear, which I have as my Chinese name because it is my nickname from my Mom, and now Liam is our little bear cub. Michala's grandfather was also nicknamed Bear, and Liam's cousin has the middle name Dov which means bear in Hebrew. So, many levels of significance. <br />
<br />
Of course, Liam might decide that he likes Italian or Portugese or Ancient Aramaic, or maybe he will not take to languages in much the same way I don't take to cold cow tongue sandwiches. Who knows? In any case, its the name we came up with for him. We consider it strong, unique and special, just like the kid himself.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-15427235029899336512012-04-03T07:52:00.001-06:002012-06-21T14:32:45.175-06:00A Tale of Two Treasures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="color: #cc0000; text-align: center;">The legends of these<br />
two treasures point to<br />
the first emperor of China,<br />
Qin Shihuang.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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This recounts the legends of two of China's most ancient, valuable and mysterious treasures. They are the <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/4014.htm" target="_blank">Jade Disc of He</a> (<span style="color: #e06666;">和氏璧 - Hé Shì Bì</span>), and the <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/84716.htm" target="_blank">Pearl of the Marquis of Sui</a> (<span style="color: #e06666;">随侯珠, Suí hóu zhū</span>). <br />
<br />
Together they are known as the Two Treasures of the Spring and Autumn (<span style="color: #cc0000;">春秋二宝 Chūn qiū èr bǎo</span>). That is because they were both discovered during the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history, which lasted from 770-476 BCE. <br />
<br />
Both of these priceless artifacts disappeared after being in the possession of many rulers and emperors over hundreds of years. What were they? Where did they come from? What happened to them? Read on, adventurers...<br />
<br />
<b>The Marquis' Pearl</b> <br />
<b></b> <br />
Legend has it that an ancient leader (c. 700 BCE) known as the Marquis of Sui (<span style="color: #990000;">随侯, Suí Hóu</span>) once happened upon a large, wounded snake by the side of the road. Feeling sorry for it, he had his servants apply ointment to its wounds, bandage the snake, and place it back in the grass. After the snake had fully recovered, it came to visit the Marquis, carrying a glowing pearl in its mouth. The great snake said: "I, Son of the Dragon King, thank you for saving my life, and have come to offer my gratitude." <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://nickjamesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/pearl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="169" src="http://nickjamesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/pearl.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Marquis Pearl: What was it?</span></td></tr>
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The serpent's mysterious gift became known as the Pearl of Marquis of Sui, <span style="color: #cc0000;">随侯珠 (Suí Hóu Zhū</span>). Several theories exist as to what exactly this thing was. (Notably, the divine snake-delivery method is not questioned. Apparently, that kind of thing happened all the time back in the day.)<br />
<br />
The "real pearl" theory is mostly dismissed since a real pearl would probably have degraded over the hundreds of years it was passed down, and natural pearls are not as big as the Marquis Pearl was supposed to have been. Other experts think it may have been a diamond, since one description says it "can light up a room like a candle." <br />
<br />
Descriptions vary, but some hint that the object was larger than a person's thumb, and glowed in the dark, or at least shone brightly under moonlight. This description (it was sometimes called the "Pearl that Shines at Night" <span style="color: #cc0000;">夜明珠 yè míng zhū</span>) has led some to believe that the Pearl was actually a chunk of fluorite, or fluorspar, which is found in some areas of China. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfblaGtfRWo2ecsBkXwOUuXN0DKWRoN8fgh3MHRW2clqbj0CCTY8CrHzpdfe6-ayGjZm6xoiNVhMBufXY6kG2meNQsmDeLl2zcqgpJVehGyXKK1SApMegwzEZu7kWHrzSjG1_jeMwfBNc/s1600/Fluorite-154626.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfblaGtfRWo2ecsBkXwOUuXN0DKWRoN8fgh3MHRW2clqbj0CCTY8CrHzpdfe6-ayGjZm6xoiNVhMBufXY6kG2meNQsmDeLl2zcqgpJVehGyXKK1SApMegwzEZu7kWHrzSjG1_jeMwfBNc/s200/Fluorite-154626.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Fluorescing fluorite</span></td></tr>
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Fluorite could fit the bill since it can be fluorescent, phosphorescent, photoluminescent, thermoluminescent and even triboluminescent. That means a really rare piece would glow: when exposed to UV light, for a while after being exposed to UV light, when exposed to regular light, when subjected to heat and when scratched, crushed or rubbed. <br />
<br />
In any case, it disappeared from the historical record after the reign of Qin Shihuang, the ruler who unified China, standardized measurements and writing, had the terracotta warriors made, and invented the Internet. Speculation is that he had the Pearl buried with him when he died in 209 BCE, in his amazing, crossbow-booby-trapped.tomb, which features mechanically controlled flowing rivers of mercury. (More on that in a later post!)<br />
<br />
Qin Shihuang's tomb remains sealed, so if it is ever opened, we may know the answer. Until then, the Pearl's secret stays buried. (Or in the private collection of some rich tycoon in Taiwan).<br />
<br />
<b>The Jade Disc of He</b> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5CqtUhGPdmzO9jTqDyDaJCbsCwXjzCKL4dtlpF2-tzXwJrkZNg3dM9joG1Ix35t3wZWfpVYf3gBk2trWZJYtoTY6e0OjsMni_72HwDt31QeBJIv1TWLcMrrgHC7qyWr1giyNfGChVFJM/s1600/bh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5CqtUhGPdmzO9jTqDyDaJCbsCwXjzCKL4dtlpF2-tzXwJrkZNg3dM9joG1Ix35t3wZWfpVYf3gBk2trWZJYtoTY6e0OjsMni_72HwDt31QeBJIv1TWLcMrrgHC7qyWr1giyNfGChVFJM/s1600/bh.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Bian He presents the jade three times</span></td></tr>
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<br />
The first known story of this mysterious artifact is recorded in the Legalist philosophical work "Han Feizi," <span style="color: #cc0000;">(<span lang="zh" xml:lang="zh">韓非<span lang="zh" xml:lang="zh">子</span></span> Hán Fēizǐ</span>), written by none other than the philosopher Han Feizi (ca. 280 BCE – 233 BCE). Han retells the legend thusly:<br />
<br />
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 BCE (a big year for mystical treasures), a man named Bian He (<span style="color: #cc0000;">卞和 Biàn Hé</span>) found a chunk of rock in the hills of his home near Jing Mountain (<span style="color: #cc0000;">荆山 </span><span class="mpt1" style="color: #cc0000;">Jīng</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><span class="mpt1" style="color: #cc0000;"> shān</span>) in the State of Chu (<span style="color: #cc0000;">楚国 </span><span class="mpt3" style="color: #cc0000;">Chǔ</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;"> guó</span>) (present day Hubei Province) while he was cutting firewood. Convinced that it was a piece of valuable, unpolished jade <span style="color: #e06666;">(璞玉 pú yù</span>), he brought it to King Li (<span style="color: #cc0000;">厉王 </span><span class="mpt4" style="color: #cc0000;">Lì</span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;"> wáng</span>), who had it looked at by a jade expert. The expert said: "<b>石也.</b>" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">shí yě: "It's a <span style="color: blue;">[freakin']</span> rock <span style="color: blue;">[you dumb hick]</span>."</span>) <br />
<br />
As a punishment for trying to trick the king (and probably for calling in the expert, who likely charged a totally unreasonable fee for simply showing up), the king had Bian He's left foot chopped off, a common punishment of the time known as <span class="mpt4"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">刖</span></b></span><wbr></wbr> (<span class="mpt4"><span style="color: #cc0000;">yuè</span>). </span><br />
<br />
Years later when the next king, King Wu (<span style="color: #cc0000;">武王 </span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;"></span><span class="mpt3" style="color: #cc0000;">Wǔ</span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;"> wáng</span>), took over, Bian He went to him and presented his "rock" again. The king had his jade expert look at it. The expert said: "<b>石也,</b>" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">shí yě: "It's <span style="color: blue;">[still] </span>a <span style="color: blue;">[freakin']</span> rock <span style="color: blue;">[you <span style="color: purple;">[one-footed]</span> dumb hick]</span>."</span>) And - you guessed it. They cut off Bian's right foot for attempting to swindle the king. <br />
<br />
King Wu was succeeded by King Wen (<span style="color: #cc0000;">文王 </span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;">Wén</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><span class="mpt3" style="color: #cc0000;"> </span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;">wáng</span>), but at this point Bian He finally caught on, and was afraid that if he went back with his treasure, most likely something very bad would happen to him since he had no feet left to chop off. So he took his chunk of rock and hid and wept for three days and nights until he was crying blood. Ow.<br />
<br />
King Wen heard about this and fetched the miserable Bian He to ask why he was crying. <br />
<br />
"There are many footless folks in these parts," the king said, somewhat outrageously. "So why are you so upset?"<br />
<br />
"I'm not crying about my feet," replied Bian He. "I'm crying because people think my treasure is just a rock, and they think that I'm a liar!" <br />
<br />
So King Wen relented and had a jade-worker break open the stone, and of course there was a beautiful piece of jade in it. Henceforth the priceless treasure was known as "The Jade Disc of He." (<span style="color: #cc0000;">和氏璧 - Hé Shì Bì</span>) <br />
<br />
Why "disc,"you ask? At some point after King Wen cracked open Bian He's piece of jade, it must have been carved into a disc, since that is part of its legendary name.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oC15SlxjPCTjob_qVe0PM-pLuY829j2tjKRBwf9-Bf1fQwFMnJBhidyMo-0jlIbQXcz6JsnitgJvMOOYXkUnyzGb7gd_ON-4ck6Szm85YeuSF8VqLvJgBf2jWfsh02Yze1hsYFoKN_k/s1600/bi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oC15SlxjPCTjob_qVe0PM-pLuY829j2tjKRBwf9-Bf1fQwFMnJBhidyMo-0jlIbQXcz6JsnitgJvMOOYXkUnyzGb7gd_ON-4ck6Szm85YeuSF8VqLvJgBf2jWfsh02Yze1hsYFoKN_k/s200/bi.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #e06666;">璧(jade disc)</span></td></tr>
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From neolithic times, Chinese cultures had been carving jade into flat discs with a round hole in the center, known as "bi." (<span style="color: #e06666;">璧 bì</span>) The original purpose of these discs is not known, but the earliest ones were found in burial sites, so they probably had some kind of afterlife-type significance. One belief is that they are a type of information storage media brought by aliens from the planet M'Hoxxk, but no one else subscribes to that view besides me.<br />
<br />
Han Feizi recorded the beginning of the story, but the legend of He's Disc merely starts there. The thing was passed down, stolen, used as a bargaining chip and finally lost sometime between the Tang and Ming Dynasties, or possibly earlier.<br />
<br />
In 283 BCE, during the Warring States Period, the King of Qin heard that the King of Zhao had the Disc. He sent word that he would trade 15 cities for the object. Intrigue ensued, but essentially the King of Zhao held onto it until the famous Qin Shihuang (<span style="color: #cc0000;">秦始皇 Qín Shǐ huáng</span> (259-210 BCE)) defeated all of the other warring states in 221 BCE and united China as the First Emperor under the Qin Dynasty. <br />
<br />
It's not clear how Qin Shihuang got the Disc, but he did, as well as the Marquis Pearl and other cool stuff, as evidenced by the words of famous bureaucrat, Qin Chancellor and Legalist philosopher Li Si (<span style="color: #cc0000;">李斯 Lǐ Sī</span>). In his famous treatise, "Advice against expelling immigrants," (<span style="color: #cc0000;">谏逐客书 jiàn zhú kè shū</span>), (which Li wrote because he was an immigrant and wanted to stay in Qin) he <a href="http://ctext.org/jian-zhu-ke-shu" target="_blank">penned</a>:<br />
<br />
"Now, Your Highness controls the jade of Kun Mountain,<span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">possesses the treasures of Sui and He</span></span>, holds the Bright Moon Pearl; wears the Sword of Tai Ah; rides Qianli, the Horse of Legend; flies the Jade Phoenix Flag, and holds the Drum of the Spirit Water Lizard. None of these treasures originated from Qin, yet Your Majesty speaks of them. Why?" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">今陛下致昆山之玉,有随、和之宝,垂明月之珠,服太阿之剑,乘纤离之马,建翠凤之旗,树灵鼍之鼓. 此数宝者,秦不生一焉,而陛下说之,何也?</span>) <br />
<br />
The point being that the king has all these amazing treasures that are not indiginous to his homeland and yet are valued, so Li Si is saying that people from abroad (like himself) can also bring value to the kingdom. I think Obama used Li Si's argument in a debate with John McCain when they were talking about Mexican immigrants. (That's not true)<br />
<br />
In any case, the "treasures of Sui and He" likely refer to the Disc and the Pearl. The "Bright Moon Pearl" might also be a reference to the Marquis Pearl as well. During his reign, Qin Shihuang made many decisions that would have long-ranging consequences. One of those was having the Disc made into an Imperial Seal, known as the Heirloom Seal of the Realm (<span style="color: #cc0000;">传国玺 chuán <span class="mpt2">guó </span></span><span class="mpt3"><span style="color: #cc0000;">xǐ</span>). </span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh69wbf_SeRX4LDNW0pTRbrGZOGQUNQaEHhVw_8JRK34dp50Zk_I6ckh5Z5oszYaeZBSOaW1uMdSlTOdpBy1ei0ab2A3yrkzdepv0JhD5cz9rVE7AG9X5I_oOrq0yXhFHNwCStaJDB9NnU/s1600/chuanguoxi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh69wbf_SeRX4LDNW0pTRbrGZOGQUNQaEHhVw_8JRK34dp50Zk_I6ckh5Z5oszYaeZBSOaW1uMdSlTOdpBy1ei0ab2A3yrkzdepv0JhD5cz9rVE7AG9X5I_oOrq0yXhFHNwCStaJDB9NnU/s200/chuanguoxi.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Live long and prosper.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">The inscription on the </span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Heirloom Seal may look like this. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span class="mpt3">It was inscribed with the phrase (also written by Li Si) "Having received the mandate of Heaven, may he live long and prosper forever." (<span style="color: #cc0000;">受命於天既壽永昌 shòu mìng yú tiān jì shòu yǒng chāng</span>). It was carved in the "birds and worms" script</span><span class="mpt3"> <span style="color: #cc0000;">(鸟</span></span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;">虫</span><span class="mpt1" style="color: #cc0000;">书, </span><span class="mpt3" style="color: #cc0000;">niǎo</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span><span class="mpt2" style="color: #cc0000;">chóng </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">shū)</span>, a highly stylized form of seal script popular during the Warring States Period. (The image at left shows the inscription written in birds and worms.)<br />
<span class="mpt3"></span><br />
<br />
Over the next 1,600 years, the seal was passed between the emperors of nine dynasties. Defeated leaders would pass the seal on to their successors, and the seal was seen as a legitimizing symbol of the emperor's authority. It was lost sometime between the end of the Tang Dynasty in 907 and the start of the Ming in 1369. Or was it? One theory says that Qin kept the Disc and had it buried with him, and had the seal made from some other slaggy piece of jade that was lying around the palace. <br />
<br />
In any case, after the seal disappeared, the country declined over the next thousand years from its peak at the height of the Tang Dynasty into the current bizarro-communist situation of today. Coincidence?<br />
<br />
That concludes the tale of two treasures. Some day the mystery of their fates might be revealed. Stay tuned...Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-83592103621869325532012-03-27T20:11:00.001-06:002012-03-28T10:20:39.471-06:00Art Attack! Xu Beihong <br />
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<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPQmrRzPDyzO0T7j7_FJq4HVA_bJ-p6ZN7FLCgqGEaKRVM2_eV6CNTa_lfuZHSPvEHNlfcgaS___Wh53ykJWj4utQ3Bm4PnL8x175bENO129R7qEGLUHbfcrZLwLl1oHb8TaiYvGO_Zw/s1600/IMG_20120124_143707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPQmrRzPDyzO0T7j7_FJq4HVA_bJ-p6ZN7FLCgqGEaKRVM2_eV6CNTa_lfuZHSPvEHNlfcgaS___Wh53ykJWj4utQ3Bm4PnL8x175bENO129R7qEGLUHbfcrZLwLl1oHb8TaiYvGO_Zw/s320/IMG_20120124_143707.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Spring Rain on the Li River</i>, by Xu Beihong, 1937</td></tr>
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<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<span style="color: #212121;">I recently took a trip to the Denver Art Museum to check out the exhibit on the Chinese artist, Xu Beihong </span><span style="color: #212121;">(<span style="color: #cc0000;">徐悲鴻 <span class="mpt2">Xú</span> <span class="mpt1">Bēi</span> </span><span class="mpt2"><span style="color: #cc0000;">hóng</span>). </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #212121;"><span class="mpt2">Xu Beihong (1895-1953), whose name means "Greatness and Sorrow" (he changed it from his original name "Long Life and Health" after he found art), was an influential artist and art teacher in the early years of China's post-Imperial history. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121;"><span class="mpt2">The Denver show was the first time his works have been displayed in the United States. He was scheduled to have an exhibition in the U.S. in 1941, but the attacks on Pearl Harbor happened so the whole thing was cancelled. </span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gkBWEFjWANdibP6jhhbWzQN_a7MsqApuGKoYNBRljfERCd8sIN54TnxpS3lvrDz2xf4L-H2tMb6Zjvw3UViPxaOrqCvzfya5O5CQzgexmE6P_Ih2Tcac69-wLjCD5eQ-tphWnqeLpg0/s1600/Beihong2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gkBWEFjWANdibP6jhhbWzQN_a7MsqApuGKoYNBRljfERCd8sIN54TnxpS3lvrDz2xf4L-H2tMb6Zjvw3UViPxaOrqCvzfya5O5CQzgexmE6P_Ih2Tcac69-wLjCD5eQ-tphWnqeLpg0/s200/Beihong2.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: black;">Homemade chop</span>: 阳朔天民</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Xu was interesting because he was a master of the classical style of Chinese painting, but was also one of the first Chinese to master Western oil painting, and use it to portray scenes from Chinese legends. <br />
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<span style="color: black;">One thing that stuck out for me when checking out his exhibit was all the different seals, or chops, that he made and used on his works. Chops are usually made from carved stone or horn, and often serve as a sort of signature to a painting. But in addition to his chops with his name on them, he also made chops that are kind of whimsical and seem to reflect how he was feeling at the time. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">It seemed like some paintings even required their own seal to be made. For instance, when he was living in Yangshuo, (which we visited last year), he painted a lot of mountain and river scenes. (See above: Spring Rain on the Li River)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The seal (above left) for many of those paintings says: "Resident of Yangshuo, Heaven," (</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">阳朔天民 Yángshuò tiān mín</span>), or as the translation in the museum said: "Such good fortune allows me to be a resident of Yangshuo." </span>If you have ever been to Yangshuo, you know what he means. It is a beautiful place filled with rivers and amazing karst mountains that jut up out of the earth. </div>
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Another seal says: "Destitute hero from the south" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">江南贫侠, jiāng nán pín xiá</span>), apparently a reference to his fondness for martial arts. </div>
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Yet another of his chops says "Pavilion of No Maple" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">无枫亭 wú fēng tíng</span>). <a href="http://www.yixingart.com/wenyuan/07-16.htm" target="_blank">The story behind this is</a> that when Xu worked as a professor at Nanjing University in the 1930s, a hot female student "planted a maple tree in his courtyard," which may or may not be a euphemism for something. In any case, his wife at the time, Jiang Biwei,<span style="color: #cc0000;"> (蒋碧微, Jiǎng Bì Wēi)</span> totally freaked and ripped the tree out of the ground with her bare hands in a jealous berserker rage.<br />
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Xu was bummed about the tree, so he carved a seal to commemorate the lost maple. I may have embellished the story a little, but in her memoir, "Beihong and Me," Jiang does say that Xu had a little "<span style="color: #cc0000;">师生恋</span>" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">shī shēng liàn</span>), or teacher-student affair when he was at Nanjing U! </div>
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After he divorced Jiang in 1945, Xu dedicated most of his paintings (and many of the ones at the DAM) to his second wife, Liao Jingwen <span style="color: #cc0000;">(<span class="mpt4">廖静文</span><wbr></wbr> </span><span class="mpt4"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Liào Jìng Wén</span><span style="color: #cc0000;">)</span></span>. He would include a line on the side of the piece that said: "For my beloved wife, Jingwen, to keep." (<span style="color: #cc0000;">静文爱妻存</span> <span style="color: #cc0000;">Jìng Wén ài qī cún</span>) Okay, all together now: <i>Awww</i>. </div>
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<br />
I thought the DAM put on a nice show of his works. Seventy years after it was originally supposed to happen, Xu made an impressive first foray into the American art scene.</div>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-55061171969800554362012-02-04T23:01:00.001-07:002012-02-04T23:03:08.488-07:00V26, Yeah![Due to popular demand, here is the story of my most successful foray into acting while in China. The following took place in like 1998.]<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMv1KBqoR3wM8fMpVTmcGraV4DRXSVdOlXGCyRRwPqJnU6_jz2LdpdS424lTxikXMKYSNpRoZjTuE68LYrkW265jLv8QKV9XrZ3kEs5sv1_uuGgG8rCY2tWLcZwDSZMNx8ishXv5H73I/s1600/v26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMv1KBqoR3wM8fMpVTmcGraV4DRXSVdOlXGCyRRwPqJnU6_jz2LdpdS424lTxikXMKYSNpRoZjTuE68LYrkW265jLv8QKV9XrZ3kEs5sv1_uuGgG8rCY2tWLcZwDSZMNx8ishXv5H73I/s200/v26.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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“They want a foreigner,” she said. “A
fat one.”</div>
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Standing in her
apartment on the north side of the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing, Chloe Wan was
saying she wanted me to help out a friend of hers. The friend’s boyfriend was a
director, mainly for TV commercials. He was working on an ad for a product
called V26, the “American Diet Shake.” And since many Chinese marketing executives
believe that using a foreigner in their commercial will convince people that
their product is “international” and “world recognized,” he wanted foreigners.</div>
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He needed a fat
white person to be in the ad. At first I was offended. “No way,” I said. But strange
opportunities are not to be dismissed lightly. I had learned that when somebody
offers you an outrageous proposition, you can usually learn from the
experience, meet interesting people, or get paid. So I agreed to do it. They
would pay me 500 kuai (about 60 bucks at the time), and all I had to do was
jump around for a few minutes. Plus I would be on TV. I had been in an ad
before, back in 1992. That ad was for Ya Di Jiu, a brand of baijiu, which is a strong,
clear, flammable alcoholic beverage. My part was to yell: “Made from pure
grains, doesn’t go to your head!” in Chinese and then drain the small cup,
which was really filled with Sprite. But I had never seen the ad on TV, and
this was a chance to actually see myself in a commercial. </div>
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<span style="color: red;"> </span>I arrived
at the “studio,” which was actually a birth control education center that had
been rented out to the advertising company to do filming in. I took in the
scene. The area was a large auditorium, with cameras and lights everywhere. It
appeared that several different scenes were being filmed at once. I greeted Chloe
and the director, who explained his vision for the ad. My part of the V26 ad
involved a really fat guy, a medium fat guy (me), and a skinny guy, to show the
transformation from fat slob to slim stud, effected by drinking V26. The three
of us were to jump separately in front of a blue screen, and in the end a
gigantic cup of V26 would be superimposed in the frame. In the final version,
it would look like two fat guys were jumping into a tall, cool tumbler of V26,
and a skinny guy was jumping out the other side. But the really fat guy was
Chinese, I am a white American, and the skinny end product was a white Belgian.
So by drinking V26 not only are you transformed from fat to skinny, but also
from one race to another. Amazing stuff.</div>
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I was led off to
the makeup chamber. Perhaps this was a family planning counselor’s office?
Several layers of goop were applied to my face, as well as lipstick. This was
the second time I had had makeup applied. The first time had been ten or twelve
years previous when I was in Bye-Bye Birdie in Middle School. Who could have
guessed that my acting career would take me from phone-waving teen in Bye-Bye
Birdie to playing the “before” guy in a Chinese ad for a diet shake? </div>
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I went back out to
the main floor, and the costumes person gave me a skimpy, white stretchy piece
of fabric and told me to change and get ready. I looked at it as if it were a
noodle that was dropped on the floor and put back on my plate. It didn’t look big
enough to cover one of my legs.</div>
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“I can’t wear
this,” I said. </div>
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“<i>Mei guanxi</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,” the director grinned, using the highly versatile
Chinese phrase meaning basically: “It doesn’t matter.” The phrase can be used
in a variety of situations, where the implied meaning ranges from “you’re
welcome” to “don’t worry about the fact that I just ran over your bicycle with
my car, you can get it fixed.” In this case it meant: “Don’t worry if you look
like an idiot.”</span></div>
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I slinked off to
the dressing room to put on the outfit. Closing the door behind me, I tried to
will some sort of disaster upon the studio so I wouldn’t have to go back out in
the skin-tight outfit. I wrestled with the garment for a few minutes and
eventually slid it up over my legs and torso. It was sort of like a
weightlifter’s outfit, with short legs and no sleeves. I spent several minutes
trying to suck in my gut and look natural. </div>
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Coming out of the
dressing room, I was relieved that no one paid much attention to me. I looked
around at the various parts of the commercial that were being filmed. In one
section, about a dozen young Chinese in a disco setting were dancing around to implied
music, obviously enjoying their slimness. Behind a desk was a middle-aged
businesswoman: slim, successful, and nursing a cup of V26. A pair of lovers; a family;
and two friends walking along talking about how great it was to drink V26 were
also part of the show. Except for the disco dancers, all of the actors were
non-Chinese. </div>
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Meanwhile the
stage was being set for our big jumps. A giant piece of blue cloth was draped
against the wall and part of the floor. This was the blue screen which made it
possible to digitally insert the giant cup later on. The really fat Chinese guy
had done his jump earlier and so was just standing around in street clothes chatting
with people. He seemed to be totally comfortable with the idea that he was
totally fat. I chatted idly with the Belgian and he mentioned that he worked
for a real estate firm. He had also been lured there by a friend, but he had
been waiting all day for just one jump. Finally the director told me it was my
turn. He said to jump as far and high as I could. When he said go, I sprang
with all of my might into the middle of the blue cloth. I did two takes, and it
was over. I wanted to go put my regular clothes back on immediately, but he said
to wait. However, I did get a black tank top to put on over the white thing. </div>
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As I watched the
Belgian do his jump, the director said he had an idea for another scene with me
in it. This would be as a healthy, strong boy, not a fat boy, he assured me.
The scene was me, shot from mid-torso up, and I had to take a big sip of the
strawberry version of V26, look into the camera, flex a bicep and said “Yeah!” </div>
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This was the part
that finally made it into the ad that appeared on TV all across China. The shot
was just me and my arm and lasted less than one second, but some people
recognized me from the ad. I had people coming up to me saying: “Hey, was that
you in the V26 ad?” All I had to
say in response was “Yeah!” and flex a little and they knew it was me.</div>
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I was happy not to
be shown as a fat person in transition to thin, but rather as a healthy American
boy enjoying his shake. The fat Chinese guy and the skinny Belgian eventually showed
up in one version of the ad, but the flying middleman in the white leotard was
never seen.</div>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-52406975768719424362011-12-21T15:19:00.001-07:002012-01-05T12:40:42.998-07:00Good Mourning! The Professional Mourner, or Ku Sang Ren<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6Bq17vnkxi5QFn3FveZHvudLSgAxml-9CGbn-LgX9sNIhYP06FxB_24g6jPOAKNhNn9-SaCKhm_lrI9JYdsmyswmAvKckA5R8EmF2yngszh_G9Aqj302q85c-oujf0ayemtu1-Wb6Qw/s1600/KJI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6Bq17vnkxi5QFn3FveZHvudLSgAxml-9CGbn-LgX9sNIhYP06FxB_24g6jPOAKNhNn9-SaCKhm_lrI9JYdsmyswmAvKckA5R8EmF2yngszh_G9Aqj302q85c-oujf0ayemtu1-Wb6Qw/s200/KJI.jpg" width="186" /></a></div>
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Recent video footage of North Korean citizens weeping uncontrollably in the frigid streets of Pyongyang got me thinking: Are these people really brainwashed enough to care that the star of Team America: World Police is dead? Or did someone put them up to it? </div>
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Answer: Who knows? But, there is an ancient practice that originated in China, (therefore it probably spread to North Korea) of hiring people to mourn at funerals, since it looks better if tons of people are going to miss you after you kick it. </div>
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The word for this in Chinese is <span style="color: #cc0000;">哭丧人</span> (<span style="color: #cc0000;">kū sāng rén</span>), literally "a person (<span style="color: #cc0000;">人)</span> that cries (<span style="color: #cc0000;">哭) </span>and mourns (<span style="color: #cc0000;">丧</span>.)"</div>
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In case you were wondering, the late dictator Kim Jong-Il's Chinese name is <span style="color: #cc0000;">金正日</span> (<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="mpt1">Jīn</span> <span class="mpt4">Zhèng</span></span><span class="mpt4"><span style="color: #cc0000;">rì, literally "Proper Sun"),</span> and his son, the young, pudgy prodigy Kim Jong-Eun, who has been named Supreme Leader (or as his friends call him, the "Royale with Cheese") is <span style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="mpt1">金</span><wbr><span class="mpt1">正</span><wbr><span class="mpt1">恩 (</span><span class="mpt1">Jīn</span> <span class="mpt1">Zhèng</span>'</span><span class="mpt1"><span style="color: #cc0000;">ēn, literally "Proper Kindness"</span>.) </span></span></div>
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<span class="mpt4"><span class="mpt1">"Kim" is one of the most common Korean names (like my stuffed toy raccoon, Mr. Kim, who was made in Korea), and along with Park and Lee they account for almost half of Korean surnames (if you believe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>). </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0OsRGC2tYbUfM-_ORcmrfO04-3tHt0PZLnOm4rQWLna3YQPtx7gHcTsa6WiUjEcst4l7M2e3684pTtzxZ4q8Hv2O141bEU0yYQjZbeqZVE7FQSit3-zJVcrcA2EdZJVDl0FAzYMkx4c/s1600/KuSangRen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0OsRGC2tYbUfM-_ORcmrfO04-3tHt0PZLnOm4rQWLna3YQPtx7gHcTsa6WiUjEcst4l7M2e3684pTtzxZ4q8Hv2O141bEU0yYQjZbeqZVE7FQSit3-zJVcrcA2EdZJVDl0FAzYMkx4c/s1600/KuSangRen.jpg" /></a></div>
<span class="mpt4">I digress, as usual. <a href="http://news.sina.com.cn/s/p/2010-07-20/023620713149.shtml" target="_blank">According to my research</a>, in parts of China, namely Sichuan Province, some enterprising unemployed people are <strong><em>digging up</em></strong> this <strong><em>moldy</em></strong> tradition of professional mourning and <strong><em>making a killing </em></strong>as tears-for-hire. </span><br />
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One of these geniuses is 52-year-old Hu Xinglian,(<span style="color: #cc0000;">胡 兴莲 Hú Xīnglián</span>), known by her stage name, Jingle Cat Dragonfly. If that sounds weird, it is. <br />
<br />
She goes by "Dingding Mao" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">叮叮猫 dīng dīng māo</span>), which means Jingle Cat, but in the Chongqing dialect, that means "dragonfly" (<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="mpt1">蜻</span><wbr><span class="mpt2">蜓 </span><span class="mpt1">qīng</span> </span><span class="mpt2"><span style="color: #cc0000;">tíng</span>). </span><br />
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Apparently the practice of paying for mourners began in the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (<span style="color: #cc0000;">汉武帝 Hàn Wǔdì</span>) (141-87 BC). During the Cultural Revolution it was seen as part of the "poisonous influence of Feudalism," <span style="color: #cc0000;">(封建流毒 fēngjiàn liúdú</span>) and was suppressed. After China's reform and opening up, (<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="mpt3">改</span><wbr><span class="mpt2">革</span><wbr><span class="mpt1">开</span><wbr><span class="mpt4">放, </span><span class="mpt3">gǎi </span><span class="mpt2">gé </span><span class="mpt1">kāi </span></span><span class="mpt4"><span style="color: #cc0000;">fàng</span>) in the late 1970s, </span>the practice <em><strong>came back to life,</strong></em> and people like Hu have started to cash in on it.<br />
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The article I read describes a typical funereal gig for Hu. After finding out a little about the deceased, Hu reads the eulogy with a sad voice, and calls out the person's name between sobs. She may also call out "Mother!" or "Father!" in order to move the crowd. Which is odd since she is not related to the dead person. Sometimes she will kneel before the casket, or even crawl on the floor, wailing after the person's soul, begging it not to leave so soon (see picture). <br />
<br />
She makes between 200-800 yuan per session ($25-$100), and in the seven years she has been doing this for a living, she's served about 4,000 people. Although, she said does not actually cry at the funerals, she just fakes it. (If you replace "cry" and " funeral" with other words, this paragraph could be talking about another "ancient profession!") <br />
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It is unclear if she was hired as a consultant for Kim Jong-Il's Million Man Funeral, but the tradition apparently lives on in North Korea. However those mourners probably did not get paid, unless you consider not being executed a form of currency. <br />
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But it's not all doom and gloom for a professional mourner! Hu is also in a band and they play at weddings, too.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-78410755757753072902011-09-23T15:06:00.002-06:002012-09-26T08:59:23.014-06:00Chinese demons, monsters and other beings<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikPsseD95n6n6ULxu5Bro3AB_PXplvOAmKCiBumaq9_dKCWOn3JuXEsTijvc__rBlIeqitkvhbuQWoVixYS35q937whhSOxhXLq2Dk1N0TFKqJVsqfk0f0GicBSVjQFzWqOQTjOK121SU/s1600/kirin.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="181" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikPsseD95n6n6ULxu5Bro3AB_PXplvOAmKCiBumaq9_dKCWOn3JuXEsTijvc__rBlIeqitkvhbuQWoVixYS35q937whhSOxhXLq2Dk1N0TFKqJVsqfk0f0GicBSVjQFzWqOQTjOK121SU/s200/kirin.bmp" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"><em>The Qilin. Its appearance is said </em></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><em>to herald the arrival of a great sage.</em></span> </td></tr>
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Welcome to Hell, human. <br />
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Here you will find a comprehensive list of demons, devils and assorted supernatural nasties - as they are known to the Chinese. This way, when you are blasted into the abyss by an evil sorcerer, you will have the names of your tormentors at your disposal! (As long as you have wi-fi access and remember to follow this blog.)<br />
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Read on, but first, as the saying goes:<span style="color: #cc0000;"> "报上名来, 免做无名之鬼!"</span> (<span style="color: #cc0000;">bào shàng míng lái, miǎn zuò wú míng zhī guǐ,</span> "Tell me your name, so you will not be a nameless ghost! [after you are slain]") <br />
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Some of the creatures below are mentioned in the various "Novels of the Weird," (<span style="color: #cc0000;">志怪小说 zhì guài xiǎo shuō</span>), that gained popularity in the period of theWei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties (<span style="color: #cc0000;">魏晋南北朝 wèi jìn nán běi cháo</span>), roughly between 220-589 C.E. <br />
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During this time, Buddhism was becoming popular (having been introduced in the first century C.E.), Daoism was burgeoning, and Daoist and Confucian ideas were combined into a kind of metaphysical study known as <span style="color: #cc0000;">玄学 (xuán xué</span>, literally "study of the mysterious"). Persian and Greek influences were also seeping into China, so the whole place was awash in myths, legends, superstition, religion and all things mystical and magical. <br />
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Other monsters are from the ancient text, the Shan Hai Jing (<span style="color: #cc0000;">山海经 shān hǎi jīng</span>), or "Classic of the Mountains and Seas." The author and date of this book are not known, but it is thought to be at least two thousand years old. It is more of a geography book than a list of creatures; it describes known and unknown areas of "China" (such as it was back then) and the inhabitants of those areas, some of whom are monsters. <br />
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Additional beings are described in the 4th-century tome, "In Search of Spirits" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">搜神记 sōu shén jì)</span> by Eastern Jin Dynasty Court Historian Gan Bao (<span style="color: #cc0000;">干宝 gān bǎo</span>). "In Search of Spirits"(or "Records of the Search for the Supernatural") is a compilation of stories and accounts of otherworldly creatures and encounters. <br />
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Behold! <strong><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Encyclopaedia Obscura de Daemona et Anima Orientalis! </span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Apologies to anyone who actually knows Latin and/or Greek.)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">精</span> - jīng - <strong>general term for spirit,</strong> or sprite. Also <span style="color: #cc0000;">精灵 jīng líng.</span> <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">鬼</span> - guǐ - <strong>ghost</strong>. This is an important character in supernatural lore. It is part of a lot of other characters that have to do with ghasts, ghouls and ghosts, usually found on the left side of the character, e.g. 魑, 魃.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">地狱</span> - dìyù - <strong>Hell</strong>. Lit. earth/underground prison. There are Buddhist, Daoist, and other interpretations of Hell, but most agree it is not a fun place to spend an afternoon. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">妖</span> - yāo - <strong>female demon.</strong> Also means "full-figured woman," which was apparently so rare back in ancient times that if you saw one she must be a demon. Common usage is <span style="color: #cc0000;">妖怪</span> <span style="color: #cc0000;">(yāo guài</span>), demon or ghost. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">魊</span> (also written <span style="color: #cc0000;">蜮</span>) - yù - Yu, a turtle-like creature that lurks in dark waters and attacks people by spitting sand at them. Sounds pretty annoying.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">幽灵</span> - yōu líng - <strong>ghost, apparition.</strong> Literally "dark soul." <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">狐狸精</span> - húli jīng - <strong>fox spirit</strong>. These are typically attractive, female spirits who can assume human form and are generally associated with mischief. They can do magic and live for hundreds or thousands of years. Also used today as an insulting term for a man-stealing homewrecker.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">蓝精灵</span> - lán jīng líng - <strong>Smurf</strong>. Okay, it's not a Chinese demon, but in Chinese it is literally, "blue spirit."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5NTwL-qZQKkW0Ae8BCXo30XQqWGwVpXGF8AdV72AzrbHES6nAenBWzNF3nw0XnIk7sqVd5bO-pTilY6cYmM_YsjhdRmTNaQQkMNwgs9Ke8IWZvlHtIp6PeAdDmadB4oDWuyNHeF5998/s1600/NineTailsFox.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5NTwL-qZQKkW0Ae8BCXo30XQqWGwVpXGF8AdV72AzrbHES6nAenBWzNF3nw0XnIk7sqVd5bO-pTilY6cYmM_YsjhdRmTNaQQkMNwgs9Ke8IWZvlHtIp6PeAdDmadB4oDWuyNHeF5998/s200/NineTailsFox.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: blue;">The legendary Nine-tailed Fox.</span></em></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">九尾狐</span> - jiǔ wěi hú - <strong>Nine-tailed fox.</strong> A magical creature that lives in the Qing Qiu Mountains. It "sounds like an infant and can eat people." (according to the Shan Hai Jing). Not to be confused with the "Cat-o-nine-tails."<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">魑魅</span> - chī mèi - <strong>Chimei</strong>, a malevolent demon that lives in the mountains. Don't make it angry.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">恶魔</span> - è mó- <strong>demon</strong>. Fairly generic word for your basic run-of-the-mill evil demon or devil. Another similar word for demon is <span style="color: #cc0000;">恶煞 (è shà</span>). The first part of both words is <span style="color: #cc0000;">恶</span> (è), which basically means "evil." Evil is made up of two parts: <span style="color: #cc0000;">亚</span> yà - (ugly) and <span style="color: #cc0000;">心</span> xīn (heart).<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">魈</span> - xiāo - <strong>Xiao</strong>, a one-footed mountain-dwelling fiend. It has one foot, a big head and a small body and attacks people at night. What a jerk.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjjbOeGcGioaj2uBcWY8mKJWfBA2FDarvDMhSKa8g5jMrk0_YymwFwxhKWf6RGAQoMUay-VwcDl4GPFpuWVz7oDObZAU3lFCYC62itIcvkbunrMo5kSbeF850qvXPU-IOhsfflN4UD8s/s1600/Kui.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjjbOeGcGioaj2uBcWY8mKJWfBA2FDarvDMhSKa8g5jMrk0_YymwFwxhKWf6RGAQoMUay-VwcDl4GPFpuWVz7oDObZAU3lFCYC62itIcvkbunrMo5kSbeF850qvXPU-IOhsfflN4UD8s/s200/Kui.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: blue;">The Kui</span></em></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">夔</span> - Kuí - <strong>Kui</strong>. A one-legged demon of Chinese mythology. Not to be confused with the Xiao, but who knows how to tell the difference? <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">魃</span> - bá - <strong>Ba</strong>, a powerful demigod that can cause droughts. Also known as "Han Ba," <span style="color: #cc0000;">旱魃 (hàn bá)</span>. (旱 hàn means drought). Not clear if it is a demon or an actual god.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">无支祁</span> - wú zhī qí - <strong>Wu Zhiqi,</strong> an ape-like water demon. He is as strong as nine elephants, with a white head and green body. However, he is not much of a threat today since he was defeated and chained up by the legendary Yu the Great (<span style="color: #cc0000;">大禹 Dà Yǔ</span>), who lived in the 21st century BCE. Yu the Great is best known for Taming the Great Flood (but he was possibly just an irrigation specialist.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"><em>Sun Wukong, the mischevious Monkey King</em></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">孙悟空</span> - Sūn Wùkōng - <strong>Sun Wukong</strong>, the Monkey King, the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven. Another famous monkey, Sun Wukong is the magical character from the Classic Novel "Journey to the West" (<span style="color: #cc0000;">西遊記 - Xīyóujì</span>). This book also features tons of demons and creatures, and really deserves its own post at some point. Sun Wukong was recruited to help the Tang Dynasty monk Xuan Zang (<span style="color: #cc0000;">玄奘 Xuán Zàng</span>) on his pilgrimage to India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">鹣</span> - jiān - <strong>Jian</strong>, a mythical bird with only one eye and one wing, so that only a pair of them can fly (often used in phrases to describe people who are in love and inseparable, eg: <span style="color: #cc0000;">鲽鹣 diéjiān</span> - "a flounder and a Jian-bird," meaning a harmonious and affectionate couple. Um, okay.)<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">僵尸</span> - jiāng shī - <strong>zombie</strong>. Along with the noodle, gunpowder and the dumpling, China also claims it invented the zombie. According to Daoist lore, zombies are dead people whose "limbs are stiff, heads do not lower, eyes do not slant, legs do not separate, and the corpse does not rot." One account says the Yellow Emperor's daughter was cursed by the emperor's legendary rival Chi You, (<span style="color: #cc0000;">蚩尤 Chī Yóu</span>) and became a zombie.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: blue;">Bai Ze</span></em></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">白泽</span> - baí zé - <strong>Bai Ze</strong>, a legendary beast-god. The Bai Ze resides in the Kunlun Mountains. Its entire body is white and it can speak human languages. It knows the name and appearance of every type of demon, monster and ghost in existence - and more importantly it knows how to defeat each one. He told this information to the Yellow Emperor (<span style="color: #cc0000;">黃帝 Huángdì</span>) in the 26th century BCE, who wrote them down in a book called the "Book of Bai Ze" (<span style="color: #990000;">白泽图 bái zé tú</span>). This book was lost long ago, but when it existed, it allegedly served as a kind of Field Guide to Monsters, (eat your heart out Gary Gygax) and people would carry it around so they could identify and fend off any supernatural foes they happened to run into. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">貔貅</span> - pí xiū - <strong>Pixiu</strong>, a mythical hybrid creature that brings luck and wards off evil, having a dragon's head and a lion's body, often with hoofs, wings and tail, and covered in grey fur. It is an angry beast, due in large part to the fact that it has no anus. Doh! It can consume only money, but can't crap it out, so it is lucky to have one in your house. Or, at least a statue of one. If you come by a Pixiu statue, you should put a coin in its mouth and leave it there, for good luck. It will attract money from all over the place to eat. It is said to be one of the nine offspring of the dragon. It looks a lot like a Qilin, but only has one horn in the middle of its head. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">麒麟</span> - qí lín - <strong>Qilin</strong>. (Same as Kirin, in Japanese, like the beer.) This sagatious chimera is mostly good, but will punish the wicked. It's depiction has varied over the centuries, but it generally has a dragon head with two horns, hooves, lion eyes, tiger back, bear waist, and snake scales. It is the steed of the gods and can fly. One theory is that it was an early name for a giraffe, probably before anyone had actually seen one, although admittedly giraffes are insane looking. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">獬豸</span> - xiè zhì - <strong>Xiezhi</strong>. A guardian beast-god similar to the Qilin, but with black fur, and only one horn. It can speak human languages and is able to sense good and evil. It will seek out corrupt government officials, after which it impales them with its horn and eats them. Must be extinct.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">女娲</span> - Nǚwā - <strong>Nu Wa</strong>, not really a beast, but the creator of humanity. A strange serpent-bodied woman, associated with Fuxi (<span style="color: #cc0000;">伏羲 fúxī</span>) the male half of the creator of humanity who may or may not be Nu Wa's brother. No wonder the world is so screwed up.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">鷫鸘</span> - sù shuāng - <strong>Su Shuang.</strong> One of the god-birds of the Five Directions, the Su Shuang resides in the West. It has a long neck, is green and resembles a wild goose, but it can turn its feathers to fur. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">魍魉</span> - wǎngliǎng - A <strong>fairy monster</strong> that lives in mountains and streams. <br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">鹏</span> - péng – <strong>Peng bird.</strong> A huge mythical bird, similar to the Roc. Sometimes used in people's names so you think they are a badass.<br />
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Wow. As I research these things, more and more seem to crop up. That is it for now. Please comment if you can think of any more I should include. Thanks for reading!<br />
<br />Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-65465470710474338242011-06-07T06:00:00.009-06:002011-06-08T09:12:08.177-06:00Chomping Thru China: Where to eat in BeijingWelcome to <strong><span style="color:#000000;">Chomping Thru China,</span></strong> (<span style="color:#cc0000;">中国食记, Zhōngguó shí jì</span>) a three-part travelogue about where to eat in different cities in China! This is not a comprehensive guide, it is more just a bunch of places we ate at and liked on our recent visit to China. Get ready for some major taste-bud envy. First up: Beijing!<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zuCqnPmI67XLcjcF2_qkMnZJCLy5IlEyD8ITijdKO9o?feat=embedwebsite"><span style="color:#3333ff;"><img border="0" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPne_Bpz_j6sgsEr-MJRHrM7eu5JIKApgPZeOUXRd-utmvIT_c1R7OnkWvfMnKrppIBMii1sTq70aE4MaCCceXg_dcVi3vUX1nTHZ_lQ7QEhvF4tTkqxY4Q09mtlI43diEe6GZfx-EW_I/s400/heavenlyfood.jpg" width="400" height="138" /></span></a><span style="color:#000099;">Black Sesame Kitchen<br /></span></span><span style="color:#000099;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">3 Black Sesame Hutong, </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Dongcheng District, Beijing, China 100009</span><br /></em><br /></span>After a full day of going through three boxes of my crap at my friend Rao Shan's parents' house that had been there gathering dust for the last decade, we set out for my Journalism School classmate, Jen Lin-Liu's restaurant/cooking school in the heart of Beijing's old city.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blacksesamekitchen.com/">Black Sesame Kitchen</a> (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">黑芝麻厨房 hēizhīma chúfáng</span>) is not easy to find, but it is worth the search. The restaurant is in the back of a renovated courtyard in one of Beijing's dwindling historic alleyways. I found this fascinating, because when I left in 1999, a foreigner operating a business in an old hutong would have been difficult to pull off at best, if not impossible (as far as I know). Jen's place turned out to be the first of three surprisingly delightful culinary and brewtastic finds that we came across in the alleyways.<br /><br />Beijing is famous for its ancient alleys, known as "hutongs," (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">胡同, hútòng</span>). The hutongs date from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and some have cool, whimsical names like Silver Bowl hutong, Chicken Claw hutong, and Big Tea Leaf hutong (where I lived for a little while). Jen's place was in - where else? Black Sesame hutong (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">黑芝麻胡同 hēizhīma hútòng</span>), No. 3 to be exact.<br /><br />You have to contact BSK ahead of time to make a reservation either for dinner or actual cooking classes. In true last-minute style (and encouraged by my mom), I emailed Jen from the airport in San Francisco a few hours before we left for Beijing to see if she was around. She was nice enough to set us up with a special reservation on short notice and she signed us up for the awesome 10-course dinner complete with wine and the ever-popular Yanjing beer (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">燕京啤酒 Yānjīng píjiǔ</span>). The food was prepared in sight by Jen's former cooking teachers, and it was a sampling of some traditional favorites as well as some more creative options. Here is a quick look at what we had:<br /><br />- Pork and pumpkin potstickers (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">猪肉南瓜锅贴 zhūròu nánguā guōtiē)</span><br />- Fried shiitake mushrooms with coriander and carrots (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">素炒膳丝 sù chǎo shàn sī</span>)<br />- Flash fried lamb with leeks (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">葱爆羊肉 cōng bào yángròu</span>)<br />- Red-braised eggplant (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">红烧茄子 hóng shāo qiézi)</span><br />- Wok fried string beans (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">干炒豆角 gān chǎo dòujiǎo</span>)<br />- Red-braised pork belly (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">红烧肉 hóng shāo ròu</span>)<br />- Garlic broccoli with goji berries (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">蒜蓉西兰花 suàn róng xīlánhuā</span>)<br />- Cashew kung-pao chicken (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">宫保鸡丁 gōngbǎo jīdīng</span>)<br />- Pine nut beef stir fry (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">松仁牛肉 sōngrén niúròu)</span><br />- And for dessert: Candied sweet potato with sweet cream (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">拔丝红薯 básī hóngshǔ</span>)<br /><br />If you just said "holy crap" (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">我靠 wǒkào</span>) in your head you are well-justified. It was a ton of food for the four of us but we devoured most of it. My favorite were the potstickers. I love those anyway, but the pumpkin gave the filling a delectable creaminess that was a nice twist on the normal version. The crispy fried shiitakes with coriander were also outstanding, I thought.<br /><br />The sweet potatoes were coated in hot liquid caramel, so you grab a piece with your chopsticks and dunk it in the ice cream to cool it off. This creates long strands of caramel as you pull it off the plate (which is why the dish is called 拔丝, bá sī: "pulling threads") and then it makes a shell of solidified sugar as the cream cools it off. Really yummy. I'd be remiss if I didn't also plug Jen's book, <a href="http://jenlinliu.com/blog/work/">"<em>Serve the People: A stir-fried journey through China</em>," </a>which is a great memoir of her time learning to cook all over the country (complete with recipes). The fact that she was in town when we were was pure serendipity, since she was back only briefly before returning to the Silk Road gathering material for another book.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;color:#000099;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlrYyiu2gr8jSUX2X26MUi0lEqpGMNpBhL_KE-gguHQItkC5p2NoZTIsntPusqger5a5GzbhYgmEBdr9R6orK52tX5xeVL4bFB-ky5Nzs5aTmrQR-X5BdNbRwTZ1FYMhCVf6STvUuSKY/s1600/baiduizi.jpg"><span style="color:#000099;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 295px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612640282054504290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlrYyiu2gr8jSUX2X26MUi0lEqpGMNpBhL_KE-gguHQItkC5p2NoZTIsntPusqger5a5GzbhYgmEBdr9R6orK52tX5xeVL4bFB-ky5Nzs5aTmrQR-X5BdNbRwTZ1FYMhCVf6STvUuSKY/s320/baiduizi.jpg" /></span></a>Shunfeng 123</span><span style="color:#009900;"><span style="color:#000099;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>Worker's Stadium, West Gate</em></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>Chaoyang District, Beijing</em></span><br /></span><br /></span>My friend Rao, whose parents were keeping my stuff, organized a mini-reunion of some of our classmates from the no-longer-existent Foreign Language Normal College (<span style="color:#cc0000;">外语师范学院, wàiyǔ shīfàn xuéyuàn</span>) where I first went to China for a semester abroad in 1992. It was fun to see these guys, some of who were dorky romantics back in the day, now all grown up and organized with wives and jobs. But they still had a taste for fun and hanging out drinking the local Beijing swill, Er Guo Tou (<span style="color:#cc0000;">二锅头 èrguōtóu</span>), a 112-proof liquor loved by all for its extremely favorable cost-to-inebriation ratio.<br /><br />I remembered that when I first met these guys, we were instructed by the school leaders not to discuss politics of any kind, and we were not to be seen walking around on the street with them (presumably to keep <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">them </span>from getting in trouble). Now of course, we can talk about anything and they can feel confident hanging out with morally bankrupt foreigners such as myself.<br /><br />Rao set us up with a huge table at a restaurant that he is actually part owner of, called Shun Feng 123 (<span style="color:#cc0000;">顺风 123, shùnfēng yī èr sān</span>). This place is well-known for its Sichuan cuisine, and is an upscale joint just inside the western entrance to the Worker's Stadium (<span style="color:#cc0000;">工人体育场 gōngrén tǐyùchǎng</span>).<br /><br />I did not keep track of all the dishes we had here, but I remember everything I had was really good. We were too busy reminiscing and drinking Er Guo Tou and making fun of each other. I do remember a spicy frog dish (I let that slide by on the lazy susan), and of course Ma Po Tofu, (<span style="color:#cc0000;">麻婆豆腐 mápó dòufǔ</span>) a classic Sichuan favorite. One feature of Sichuan dishes is the presence of a spice called Sichuan peppercorn, or sometimes prickly ash (<span style="color:#cc0000;">花椒 huājiāo</span>). It is a strange spice that basically makes your tongue and mouth numb. An acquired taste, but very unique and not to be missed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmo7TX0nK5l7A1htFJv9Q2DMPFuEhqfzWRePsfIX-8iRwL_d9rLlGMAvkggJqfqAxzieTQp3vrwekfay9meDZGZMNUv6fYPc7QsXfE74XaIuzw_gsWYxSu-IOrt9uGcytK3t-B-sSy8rY/s1600/pbr.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 250px; FLOAT: right; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612649212554117330" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmo7TX0nK5l7A1htFJv9Q2DMPFuEhqfzWRePsfIX-8iRwL_d9rLlGMAvkggJqfqAxzieTQp3vrwekfay9meDZGZMNUv6fYPc7QsXfE74XaIuzw_gsWYxSu-IOrt9uGcytK3t-B-sSy8rY/s320/pbr.jpg" /></a>After ShunFeng 123, a few of us headed to a bar, Frank's Place, nearby. This place was interesting in that it showed the international side of Beijing, where you could - almost - be anywhere in the world. We ordered Guinness, french fries, and chatted over heavy wooden pub tables. There were a few touches that let you know you were not in College Town, USA. First, you could smoke inside. Second, while the Guinness was a respectable 8-9 bucks, a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon cost a mind-boggling $91 - that's US dollars mind you. We tried to figure out what the deal was, but no one had a good explanation. Someone should find out who PBR's marketing director for Asia is and hire them to do pretty much anything. Admittedly, it is not your average PBR tall-boy. It's called "Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844" and is a special brew only sold in China which comes in a fancy bottle. Still. It's PBR. Come on, China.<br /><br /><br /><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87encDI5c09sfOFndSSEBrsVAyR1YMb4UbGFtUGKd7kkxLO4U-5tfgXfQ45JDV-cv14qOUWmzNIM5g3a9ufdeoFXUFnpuJeplm6db4y3HUjlSIwhw3F2-Cn-eRBTv-h_GxAoJM9f8XlA/s1600/great+leap.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 278px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612650515815733394" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87encDI5c09sfOFndSSEBrsVAyR1YMb4UbGFtUGKd7kkxLO4U-5tfgXfQ45JDV-cv14qOUWmzNIM5g3a9ufdeoFXUFnpuJeplm6db4y3HUjlSIwhw3F2-Cn-eRBTv-h_GxAoJM9f8XlA/s320/great+leap.jpg" /></a><span style="color:#000099;">Great Leap Brewery and Hutong Pizza</span></strong><span style="color:#000099;"> <strong></strong><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Brewery:</strong> 6 Doujiao Hutong</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Dongcheng District, Beijing</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Pizza:</strong> 9 Yinding Qiao Hutong,</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Dongcheng District, Beijing</span></em><br /></span><br />While at the Black Sesame Kitchen, we were alerted to the presence of a real novelty, a Beijing microbrewery. After a morning at the Summer Palace, (<span style="color:#cc0000;">颐和园, yíhéyuán</span>), where my friend Mark and I procured awesome panda hats (see photo), we high-tailed it back to Dongcheng District to find the place: Great Leap Brewery. This was another hutong gem, located in Doujiao (Bean) Hutong (<span style="color:#cc0000;">豆角胡同, dòujiǎo hútòng</span>), in a courtyard behind a large steel door, engraved with the words "Great Leap Beer" (<span style="color:#cc0000;">大跃啤酒 dàyuè píjiǔ</span>). While the name seemed kind of distasteful, the beer was quite the opposite. The name undoubtedly refers to the "Great Leap Forward," (大跃进 dà yuè jìn), a political movement in China from 1958-1960 in which an estimated 30 million people starved to death. Mao had decided that drastic steps were needed to propel China into a full-blown Communist powerhouse, so he made everyone melt their metal items to produce "steel" in furnaces that burned everything people could get their hands on including their front doors. Meanwhile, idiotic agricultural techniques were enforced and tons of crops failed or were left to rot. ANYWAY, who knows what the owner was thinking, but like I said the beer was good.<br /><br /><br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipM2NA20QkioKYrOZXCrCW848JxYuzIRR4spmqEISXGDn0Sy0FgXjgfZ6ugdERoAxhHi1gs-oSGxtCblmhV3jbyBQolpPN6LRASvjuILeh2CsZld5DuYD2e-zMOsF7hbRlpvciPmpCZKI/s1600/hutong+pizza2.jpg"><strong></strong></a>The most distinctive was the Honey Ma Gold, which used the aforementioned Prickly Ash spice to create a little tingle in the aftertaste. They also had a decent porter and the IPA was tasty as well. We had to ask directions to the place, and the guy who led us to it was a local, but had never been in there. One of the staff (an American girl) said locals come by and check it out but don't really get the concept of a microbrewery. </p>"They either come by and bum a cigarette and leave, or else ask for the strongest, most expensive beer we have," she said.<br /><br />While we were there, the hostess recommended "Hutong Pizza" (<span style="color:#cc0000;">胡同比萨 hútòng bǐsà</span>) for a food choice. We got veggie and meat 'zas, both of which were pretty good. They sure went well with the beers. Crust was a little dry, but overall it was enjoyable, and it was delivered to the brewery, which was key for hungry pandas.<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;"><strong>Xian'r Lao Man<br /></strong></span><span style="color:#000099;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>252 Andingmen Nei Dajie<br />Dongcheng District, Beijing </em></span></span><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_4J2NjF56wMqv-hbDz-wl164qnoTXx5Ia6cchmZwXZqaHh3a2jsqndkfS_9qOq4M32NaozijB-zMn4We29rLsqpPMTHGajkp7uOMZFtj-pPk6riGl8hIrv9HvSwU7WD3Hcw1Ag7YFKbs/s1600/index_05.gif"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 77px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615578721187349714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_4J2NjF56wMqv-hbDz-wl164qnoTXx5Ia6cchmZwXZqaHh3a2jsqndkfS_9qOq4M32NaozijB-zMn4We29rLsqpPMTHGajkp7uOMZFtj-pPk6riGl8hIrv9HvSwU7WD3Hcw1Ag7YFKbs/s200/index_05.gif" /></a>"Not to be missed" is all I can say about this place. Just a few blocks away from the Buddhist Lama Temple (<span style="color:#cc0000;">雍和宫 Yōnghé Gōng</span>), <a href="http://www.xianlaoman.com/">Xian'r Lao Man</a> (<span style="color:#cc0000;">馅老满 xiàn'r lǎo mǎn</span>) is a well-known dumpling restaurant, with dozens of types of dumpling fillings to choose from. The first part of the place's name, Xiàn'r (馅) means filling. It is actually "xian" but since you are in Beijing you have to add the "er" at the end to be authentic in your accent. Being able to read (and speak) Chinese here is a must, otherwise you are stuck looking at the picture-menu, which does not help with the dumplings and only minimally with the other dishes.<br /><br />You can order a minimum of 10 of each type of dumpling (<span style="color:#cc0000;">饺子 jiǎozi</span>), and you can either have them steamed or fried. We ordered fillings of egg and chives (<span style="color:#cc0000;">鸡蛋韭菜 jīdàn jiǔcài</span>), beef and fennel (<span style="color:#cc0000;">牛肉茴香 niúròu huíxiāng</span>), the Xianr Lao Man special filling (probably pork, egg, cabbage, shrimp and something), and cilantro and pork (<span style="color:#cc0000;">香菜猪肉 xiāngcài zhūròu</span>) (if memory serves). Not only are the dumplings delicious here, the other food is terrific too.<a href="http://beijinghaochi.com/xian-lao-man/" target="_blank"> But don't just take my word for it</a> <span style="color:#006600;">(<--links to fun foodie blog <em>Beijing Haochi</em>).</span> We also ordered a plate of kung pao chicken and a bunch of other stuff including the yummy cold-dressed dried tofu strips (<span style="color:#cc0000;">凉拌腐竹 liángbàn fǔzhú</span>). Oh and the Beijing favorite, Noodles in Fermented Soy Bean Paste (<span style="color:#cc0000;">炸酱面 zhàjiàngmiàn</span>). So good. We also had a fiesty, cute waitress who served us up with a healthy portion of studied indifference. I was barked at when I asked her for an extra bowl.<br /><br />That about wraps it up for Beijing. Stay tuned for the next installment, Chomping Thru China: Shanghai!<br /><br />If you have any other thoughts about favorite restaurants, post them below, and thanks for reading!</p>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-31123693497039640252011-04-30T10:50:00.012-06:002011-05-04T12:07:37.351-06:00Scroll deciphered (mostly)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2-KZ1_wc6yf3-6JFjkJxrTMK2Pndqql0MLnEBlmH52Ia6PkUeqNrmlLA71Sba5aDMIs4y6_PR7cfJL-hmo7CpwHDeHfjzs9_qjN7-XhPOfJ5uKWZ-NFCOLUgjhVONyRS0zKxstiRPtc/s1600/IMG_20110429_072315-1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 180px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601451834115217042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2-KZ1_wc6yf3-6JFjkJxrTMK2Pndqql0MLnEBlmH52Ia6PkUeqNrmlLA71Sba5aDMIs4y6_PR7cfJL-hmo7CpwHDeHfjzs9_qjN7-XhPOfJ5uKWZ-NFCOLUgjhVONyRS0zKxstiRPtc/s320/IMG_20110429_072315-1.jpg" /></a><br />For our wedding, we received a beautiful antique-looking scroll (right) from a good family friend. The scroll is on yellowed paper, and shows a condor (eagle? vulture?) sitting on a tree branch and looking to the side with some calligraphy on the right side. There was not too much information about it, and we finally hung it up in the stairwell so I decided to do some research.<br /><br />I could make out most of the first line of the poem, so I went and googled it. Turns out the poem was written by a Yuan Dynasty poet, Chen Ruzhi (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">陈汝秩 Chén Rúzhì</span>), who died in 1385. There is little information on this guy besides that he was a poet and calligrapher and painter. His brother, Chen Ruyan (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">陈汝言</span>, <span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">Chén Rúyán</span>) may have been more successful since there is one of his landscape paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. All of the cool Chinese kids get their paintings in there after all. After some Googlage, I found out the poem says:<br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">晚风吹雨过林庐</span><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">柿叶飘红手自书</span><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">无限潇潇江海意</span> <span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)"><br />一樽相对忆鲈鱼</span><br /><br />(wǎn fēng chuī yǔ guò lín lú<br />shì yè piāo hóng shǒu zì shū<br />wú xiàn xiāo xiāo jiāng hǎi yì<br />yī zūn xiāng duì yì lú yú)<br /><br />I am probably missing a lot of nuances here, but for what its worth, my translation is:<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"The evening wind blows rain through the forest hut</span><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Persimmon leaves blow red as my hand writes calligraphy</span><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The limitless sounds convey the meanings of the rivers and seas</span><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">A jug of wine to face recollections of perch."</span><br /><br />Ruzhi lived at the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming dynasties, in the 14th century. I can only wonder if "recollections of perch" is some kind of pun or political allegory, because otherwise it is slightly strange. Of course in the grand tradition of writing poetry, he was most likely hammered (hence the "jug of wine"). Personally I like the line, because I do have fond memories of fishing with my brothers and dad at Lake Champlain and catching perch - and pickerel and pike.<br /><br />It is not clear when he wrote the poem, but his brother Ruyan was killed by imperial forces at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty after having served with the famous rebel leader Zhang Shicheng (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">张士诚 Zhāng Shìchéng</span>). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQw8aqCrZh5mBeeyhFUaGwbV8evW4yUYVP7Jl-wGqKECP2hXXhWllPFkwowlKcUqzalnb5lLUPqVD_V4-QRR1t7woCmTPMlWdWGSsxUNZS8lfCdZioGJtJgUhKf3gTQXVYenrgiu231U4/s1600/IMG_20110429_075559.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601461992892034850" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQw8aqCrZh5mBeeyhFUaGwbV8evW4yUYVP7Jl-wGqKECP2hXXhWllPFkwowlKcUqzalnb5lLUPqVD_V4-QRR1t7woCmTPMlWdWGSsxUNZS8lfCdZioGJtJgUhKf3gTQXVYenrgiu231U4/s320/IMG_20110429_075559.jpg" /></a>Zhang rose up against the Mongols of the Yuan, but was not successful enough to start his own dynasty and was defeated by the dude (Zhu Yuanzhang <span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">朱元璋 Zhū Yuánzhāng</span>) who ultimately started the Ming Dynasty in 1368. So perhaps the perch reference has something to do with that. Unknown.<br /><br />ANYWAY, that is not to suggest that this scroll was painted or written in the 1300s, but the poem is from then. There is a name at the end of the poem, but I can't read it so I don't have a good way to find out much more.... for now. Stay tuned! Or if you have an idea let me know. Here is a closeup, the 2 characters above the red seals. Maybe it is a year designation?<br /><br />UPDATE: I believe the first character is<span style="color:#cc0000;"> 葵</span> (<span style="color:#cc0000;">kuí</span>) meaning sunflower, also a rare surname. According to <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/4244722.html">Baidu</a>, people with the Chinese surname Kui account for 0.005% of the population, or about 60,000 people, mostly in Henan Province. That narrows it down a little!<br /><br />葵 is also "Aoi," a Japanese name. Hmm.<br /><br />ANOTHER UPDATE: OK, I think I got it, although it does not answer the real question of who painted this and when. I think the characters say Kuitang (葵塘 kuítáng), which is a small town in either Guangdong Province, or there is also one in Guangxi Autonomous Region, could be either one.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-35261803278084667202011-04-06T18:41:00.026-06:002011-04-08T14:20:46.166-06:00China: At last!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA8re3GMgWRbpbsTqAJ938Xp_K6zHuUvq_AYqX0rWGW148pTAy6vsheiyM8pHDLSKddYRKybsTwM6Jd5KBK3w-TDgySMkBpt0jt2d9CuAubosT56pNaWzfyQUWHFqGiSuDAWgU7LeMjqM/s1600/shanghai.JPG"></a><br /><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdciFWCFGaqMyB4G75z2A-naGSC5cMI3snaKZiHE-PI4zaZofcSrO8GvS3Ub3lunbNP2bo2ozYKgDt8a8IhDtqiLWKS0o11iCyvfOJyGwNbYeHN8JsDMT4CwVod8Bcl5kVA1s0VzGKCQ/s1600/WallDEtail.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592832274660389362" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdciFWCFGaqMyB4G75z2A-naGSC5cMI3snaKZiHE-PI4zaZofcSrO8GvS3Ub3lunbNP2bo2ozYKgDt8a8IhDtqiLWKS0o11iCyvfOJyGwNbYeHN8JsDMT4CwVod8Bcl5kVA1s0VzGKCQ/s320/WallDEtail.jpg" border="0" /></a>After 12 years, I finally returned to China for a two-week visit! Michala and I met up with our friends Mark and Lisa for an awesome time hitting Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen with them before M and I moved on to the small city of Yangshuo (阳朔, Yángshuò) in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region (廣西壯族自治區Guǎngxī Zhuàngzú zìzhìqū). </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>It is hard to sum up in a few sentences the feeling of returning to China after so long, but suffice it to say that it felt like going home, like going for the first time, like digging around in my past, and like opening a window on the future. As always it is place of great contrasts. Take these two photos for example. Above: A detail from the Great Wall (cháng chéng, 长城) at Mutianyu (Mùtiányù, 慕田峪). Majestic, beautiful, full of history and intrigue, a place of solitude and somewhere I could probably go everyday. Then, on the other end of the spectrum - this apocalypse-ready signage, seen on the side of a public bathroom in an alleyway (My caption). Slightly ridiculous, kind of gross, and frankly a bit frightening. </div><br /><p></p><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcFgyuRdWQfFqMNHyG4BFfRqmU2E4lfUlx11Bli-Haz4t1h9JKXkRjKbdoTQ4VYadM9qvKcTsGXch12TBaHj9O1xddvhOoqSqEmTrZsopfugmTCPKGel2H0A-VFQvc2yVnjA8IWsZJcY/s1600/Signs3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592645277707826850" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 361px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcFgyuRdWQfFqMNHyG4BFfRqmU2E4lfUlx11Bli-Haz4t1h9JKXkRjKbdoTQ4VYadM9qvKcTsGXch12TBaHj9O1xddvhOoqSqEmTrZsopfugmTCPKGel2H0A-VFQvc2yVnjA8IWsZJcY/s400/Signs3.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div><br /><p></p><br /><div></div><br /><p>My only guess is that the signs were placed there ahead of the Olympics, in order to discourage foreigners from going in there - without their gas masks and safety harness, which in theory will prevent you from the "Daop down" into the cesspits in case of catastrophic failure of the "Ovntilating" system. </p><br /><div></div><br /><p>In spite of the bathroom situation, and the eternal search of my comrades for what we called a "Western deucer," we all had a good time. More evidence I had been gone a long time appeared in the form of Beijing traffic. When I left in 1999, there were three ring roads around the city, with a fourth being constructed. Today there are six, with the Sixth Ring Road (六环路, liù huán lù) having a circumference of about 200 km. Apparently a seventh is on the way. The traffic was also terrible. It took forever to get anywhere by taxi and some cabbies even flat out refused to take us certain places during rush hour. </p><br /><div></div><br /><p>One important thing I did in Beijing was to retrieve my trumpet. I had left a bunch of stuff (3 boxes worth) at my friend's house. Among these boxes of mostly junk was my trumpet, a nice nickel silver horn that I have had since grade school. It is a beauty and it was fun to reunite with it, although I need to get it cleaned. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5593276575407737218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 141px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC9a8wMQ3XlNYGN5E3INCbfiyaPfIkdvEatidRYlCv5WWVgUX52ZJ7ObNrbSrHS_G0KbhdOxXg6rAFxOyY9QSrf9M7s53jq31HxqkHgj3Q1nJdljftm2FHS3W4hCP2JA587hbnspXD9D0/s400/shanghai.JPG" border="0" /> <br /><p>Shanghai was like an alien spaceport. I had never spent much time there, but it had obviously changed a lot. For one thing the buildings all had ads on them. I don't mean billboards, I mean entire buildings that were 60-100 stories tall lit up and ads and graphics danced across the surface as millions of tiny lights on the sides of the buildings, acting like huge monitors. </p><br /><p>I'd never been to Xiamen (厦门, Xiàmén) before, and we only stayed there for one full day. The main thing we saw there was Gulangyu (鼓浪屿, Gǔlàngyǔ), which was a small island, near the city of Xiamen, which is also an island. </p><br /><p>There was a funny scene where I purchased tickets for the "ferry" across to Gulangyu. I paid for the tickets, but received no tickets. The girl came out of the ticket office and led us to a dock where there sat a large Mark-Twain-ish style river boat, which we approached and got ready to board. "No that's the boat that goes around the island," she said. </p><br /><p>She led us to the other side of he dock, where there was some kind of tug boat or fishing rig, maybe 30 feet long. We shrugged as the woman indicated we should get on. Not as good as the other boat, but OK, we were all up for the experience. Then she says we should keep going! So we walked across the deck where there was a small 12-foot motor boat with a teenager behind the wheel. "That's your boat," she said. Fortunately the ride was only about 30 seconds long and waters were fairly calm. </p><br /><p>After Xiamen, Mark and Lisa rejoined their cruise, and M and I went on to Yangshuo in Guangxi. This is a spectacular place to visit, for the weird, tree covered limestone karst mountains that are everywhere. More on that place later! </p><br /><p>In all, it was a great trip. I had sort of assumed that the China chapter of my life was complete, but now I am not so sure. It is still a fascinating country, and the fact that my spoken Mandarin was still in good shape was encouraging. The fact that Michala liked it there and had a good time was also a good sign for future dealings with the place. We also met up with several friends that I had not seen in years, so that was also great to re-activate those relationships. </p><br /><p>Mark summed it up nicely, when I was talking about having not been back for so long. He said: "It was time." I owe a special thanks to Mark and Lisa for making the trip actually happen. I guess we'll see what the future brings. Looking forward to more trips to the dynamic, wacky, frustrating and inspiring, ancient and modern country of China, land of contrasts. As I write, things are springing to mind, so hopefully more detailed posts will follow in the not too distant future.</p></div>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-90418960499853256042011-02-09T10:16:00.008-07:002011-02-22T21:08:44.022-07:00Been a long time since I blogged and rolled<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu4gW1CiiZJ1RNYEiir9ZY6NmCrCmt85t5X6nS4PmQxWz2Oj1u-4T1hMW8yIpSnIzq0rc-zBn0V-Mtup6O2J1z3vgUdmbexvoaKuF1OoUia1GxmVWIhuCCyZCswlJXb4v7m_IkYVodF3g/s1600/bashanyeu.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu4gW1CiiZJ1RNYEiir9ZY6NmCrCmt85t5X6nS4PmQxWz2Oj1u-4T1hMW8yIpSnIzq0rc-zBn0V-Mtup6O2J1z3vgUdmbexvoaKuF1OoUia1GxmVWIhuCCyZCswlJXb4v7m_IkYVodF3g/s320/bashanyeu.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576731799768986178" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Me: Forgive me Blogger, for I have sinned. It has been like four months since my last blog session.<br /><br />Blog: Infidel! How dare you ignore me? <sigh>Have two Bloody Marys and say one Our Blogger and you are forgiven. In nomini blogii y googlii y webus sanctii, amen.<br /><br />OK, now that I got that out of the way, here is my new blog post.<br /><br />Recently I found out that my friend Dewey Webster is working on the Seattle Chinese Garden. This project is really cool. It is an effort to construct an authentic Chinese garden and courtyards in Seattle.<br /></sigh></div><br /><div>Of course no Chinese courtyard is without that staple of Occidental entryways: the couplet. Oftentimes on either side of an entryway to a courtyard or other doorway, you will see plaques with vertical lines of writing on them. The couplets are poems that are supposed to say something about the place they are hung at.<br /></div><br />Dewey sent me pictures of the various couplets, as well as the overhead plaques that say what area you are entering, and asked if I wanted to take a crack at translating some of them. How could I resist? Not only is it a great reason to update the blog, it is a way to be a part of a cool project. So, here are the couplets.<br /><br /><br /><div>Note: The plaques are written traditionally, right to left, and top to bottom. For my own intense porpoises, I have converted to regular left to right.<br /></div><br /><br /><div>西华园<br />Xi Hua Yuan<br />Looks simple enough, right? Wrong! Literally this says Western Glory Garden. However, the “western” refers not only to the West as in the USA, but Seattle, whose Chinese name is “西 Xi Ya Tu.” This is a phonetic translation, which literally means Picture of Western Grace. I have also heard a take-off transliteration of Seattle : “si ya tou,” which honestly sounds closer phonetically, but it means “dead slave girl” so for some reason it fell out of favor with the locals.<br />The word 华, glory, also means “China,” so the place is called West Glory Garden, but also Seattle-China Garden.<br /><br />On either side of this entrance is the following couplet:<br />Right side:<br />西窗烛剪巴山雨 (xī chuāng zhú jiǎn bā shān yǔ)<br />This took me a while to figure out. Basically it says<br /></div>"Cutting candles by the Western window, the rain over Ba Mountain."<br />Ba Mountain seems to refer to Sichuan. The reason I say that is because of this old poem by Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin (李商隐), upon which the couplet seems to be based:<br /><br />君问归期未有期 (jūn wèn guī qī wèi yǒu qī)<br /><div>巴山夜雨涨秋池 (bā shān yè yǔ zhǎng qiū chí)<br /></div>何当共剪西窗烛 (hé dāng gòng jiǎn xī chuāng zhú)<br /><div>却话巴山夜雨时 (què huà bā shān yè yǔ shí)<br /><br />You ask when will I return, but I don't know,</div>The night rain of Ba Shan fills autumnal pools.<br /><div>When will we be together again, clipping candles in the Western window,</div>So we can talk about the night rain of Ba Shan?<br /><br />Not to be confused with 巴山夜雨 "Evening Rain" a movie from the 1980s about the Cultural Revolution.<br /><br />Left side:<br />华萼香漂海国春 (huá è xiāng piāo hǎi guó chūn)<br />"The fragrance of Chinese flowers drifts into spring overseas"<br />This was interesting because like I said before 华 (hua2) means both "flower," glorious" and is also short for "China." The whole theme of this garden is the confluence of China and the USA. After all, Chongqing is the sister city of Seattle. So it could be "Glorious flowers" but I say "Chinese flowers." The other pun here is 海国 (hai3 guo2). 海 means "ocean" and 国 means "country," so together they could mean "overseas." But consider the word "Sea-attle." The Sea-Country.<br /><br />End of Part One (in the interest of posting once before I return to China in March!)Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-53603939371929813962010-10-14T20:49:00.008-06:002010-10-14T21:50:06.473-06:00From the archives<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8EaVEgcbdsOB4XqDrQkIAd1LPxHloRvy5YZR9s48nONKryRzuMJ-NYhKx2xYJd0Y4qQc8LA0fNFQQV3c8vkjVpN99245Uzv2Kt4-GJ4lKRT7Txkh0YAzKJ91VBWzPb2wDSwqGFfAyHLw/s1600/didi.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 290px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8EaVEgcbdsOB4XqDrQkIAd1LPxHloRvy5YZR9s48nONKryRzuMJ-NYhKx2xYJd0Y4qQc8LA0fNFQQV3c8vkjVpN99245Uzv2Kt4-GJ4lKRT7Txkh0YAzKJ91VBWzPb2wDSwqGFfAyHLw/s320/didi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528105810764856834" border="0" /></a>I just came back from visiting my mom and while there I came across an amazing archaeological find from the year 1996!<br /><br />That year, I was living in China, working as a "foreign expert" (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">外国专家 wài guó zhuān jiā</span>) at the magazine "<a href="http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/index.htm">China Today</a>" (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">今日中国, jīn rì zhōng guó</span>). I was also studying kungfu (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">功夫, gōng fu</span>) with an informal class that met under a bridge in Beijing. One of my classmates there was a student at Beijing Film Institute, and mentioned that a film crew from Beijing Television was looking for a few foreigners to be in a TV show about the Long March <span lang="zh-Hans">(<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">长征</span></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">, cháng zhēng</span>). It was the 60th anniversary of the end of the Long March, which was a massive military retreat across 10,000 km of Chinese countryside by the Red Army (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">红军, hóng jūn</span>), as they were evading the Nationalists, aka KMT or Kuomintang (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">国民党, guó mín dǎng</span>).<br /><br />Never one to turn down weird opportunities, I agreed and went to check it out.<br /><br />The result was a 40 day journey into the heart of rural China, complete with film crew drama, wacky drunken dinners, loads of propaganda and a cute panda named Didi.<br /><br />This time visiting my mom, not only did we discover the tape of the show that finally aired on BTV, Mom found my journal from the trip, which I had assumed was lost with the rest of my stuff which I left at my friend's house when I left China in 1999. Needless to say I will try to write this up as an anecdote. Here is a teaser:<br /><br />On the way to the chain bridge crossing (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">泸定桥 lú dìng qiáo</span>), we decided to stop by the <a href="http://www.chinawolong.com/">Wolong Nature Preserve </a>(<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">卧龙自然保护区, wò lóng zì rán bǎo hù qū</span>). It wasn’t actually part of the Long March, but everyone was tired and we all needed to do something fun. The other option, actually more tempting, was to visit Jiuzhaigou (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">九寨沟, jiǔ zhài gōu</span>) a truly wild place, with basically no people. Several tourists are lost there each year, it was said. <br /><br />But Wolong turned out to be one of the most memorable places we visited. The cages and offices were not very upscale, and it was really a question of not having enough money. But you could tell that the guys who worked in the place really cared for the bears. They had their protein cookies and milk porridge, and they all had names.<br /><br />The main caretaker warned us not to reach into the cages, because although the pandas look very cute, they can be violent. He said that a tourist came to Wolong a few years ago and tried to play with a panda—and got half his face ripped off by the big teddy bear.<br /><br />But there was one panda on the premises who had been brought up in captivity so was fairly docile and familiar with people. Her name was Didi.<br /><br />The most exciting part was when we were allowed into the cage with Didi. There she was, sitting on her concrete pedestal, holding a stalk of bamboo and munching to her heart’s content. She looked harmless enough. Actually she was the cutest thing I had ever seen. The keeper was very specific in his instructions about what we could and could not do.<br /><br />“ONLY pet her on the back, and from top to bottom,” he said.<br /><br />But the reality of the situation was much more difficult than that. When you are standing in a cage with a panda bear, you realize how unbelievably cute and cuddly they really are. Didi was about four feet high while sitting, and she sat just like a teddy bear, with pads facing out, sitting up, and front paws grasping the bamboo shoots.<br />I maneuvered around back of her, and the guy gave me the OK to begin petting. Her fur was a little oily. I noticed her ears, round furry medallions that needed a scratch, and would just fit in the round part of my hand. My hand drifted up toward her head…<br />“Don’t touch the ears!” the guy yelled into the cage.<br /><br />All right, all right. I moved my hand down her back. But then her paws were so inviting, the scaly pads and furry toes called to my fingers. Surely, if I just …<br />“Don’t touch her paws!” he snapped.<br /><br />Grinning like an idiot, I went back to her back, but then it was time for me to get out of the cage. I posed for one last picture with Didi, and then I had to say goodbye. She seemed completely unfazed and continued chewing her bamboo. I left the cage but I will never forget her and her beautiful, forbidden ears.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-61927444138872766222010-08-05T11:39:00.018-06:002010-08-25T09:29:12.050-06:00Animal House 2: Circling the dragon, whale sharks and wild dogs<div><div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtMuJMlUlPeL45pDJ57V2xk_-CrXhzMt10-NmEpd2p3EXelu7CnggRPN8xeBxF8iR1Qn3cyrOtUBGC0eprlqdODL6AQCbEkCzlgMrcGDRacNtetm3kZ4p04xp4pGZxRWaAWlPFzYRLzM/s1600/Whale_shark_Georgia_aquarium.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503077810840886130" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 170px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtMuJMlUlPeL45pDJ57V2xk_-CrXhzMt10-NmEpd2p3EXelu7CnggRPN8xeBxF8iR1Qn3cyrOtUBGC0eprlqdODL6AQCbEkCzlgMrcGDRacNtetm3kZ4p04xp4pGZxRWaAWlPFzYRLzM/s320/Whale_shark_Georgia_aquarium.jpg" border="0" /></a>In addition to my duties learning about the various nasty things that can happen to your dog or cat (or bird) at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) convention recently in Atlanta, Ga., I took the small luxury of attending a few extra-curricular classes on aquatic life, an endangered species, and animal acupuncture.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">FOUS: Fishes Of </span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Unusual Size</span><br />Trixie is 25 feet long, weighs 2,000 kilograms, and doesn't like to go in the stretcher for her medical check-ups. She came from Taiwan in a giant 25,000-pound ziploc bag filled with water. (Not really, it was a high-tech UPS container). I learned about her and the Georgia Aquarium's three other whale sharks: Yu Shan, Taroko and Alice at a session called "Whale Shark Care."<br /><br />These creatures, the largest of the sharks, can grow to over 60 feet long and require 2,000 gallons of the anesthetic agent MS 222 delivered by a machine called Mega S.N.U.Z. in order to do anything to them. This includes gill slit checks; blood collection; and the all-important "vent flush." They can fully retract their eye to the point where it looks like they don't have one, and the four animals at the Georgia Aquarium are the only ones on display outside of Asia. </div><br /><div></div><div></div><div>It was cool to learn about them, but even better was a fundraiser later that night at the aquarium where I got to see these things up close. They are very large, and walking through an acrylic tube at the bottom of the 6.3-million gallon tank, sipping a glass of wine while Trixie and company floated by overhead was pretty awesome.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Acupuncture: Not just fluffy needles</span><br />Having recently embarked upon my own acupuncture <span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">(针灸, zhēn jiǔ)</span> adventure for a knee problem, I was curious to see what the veterinary world had to say about the ancient technique. I admit I was expecting some vague, new-agey stuff about animal meridians, but I soon found myself scratching my head over a detailed scientific lecture.<br /><br />I learned that this 4,000-year-old technique of stimulating points along the body reduces production of Substance P, which is a neuropeptide that plays a key role in the up-regulation of the inflammatory cascade and helps transmit pain signals to the brain. (I think P stands for Pain). Acupuncture also deactivates parts of the limbic system, which is linked to the emotional aspect of pain. Acupuncture reduces the presence of certain excitatory neurotransmitters (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">神经递质, shén jīng dì zhì</span> ) in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord (part of the grey matter inside the spinal cord that helps transmit pain signals). And last but not least, when they stick the little needles in you (or your pup) it releases awesome things called endogenous opioids. Those make you feel good.<br /><br />Like lots of things in science and medicine, nobody seems to know exactly how it works, but it does. This includes the process of "circling the dragon," which is placing the acupuncture needles around the wound or painful area and (optionally) electrifying the needles. I had this done to my knee as well, and while weird, it did help reduce swelling and pain for a while.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Let's get wild, dogs</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOLbhg-nXIIlfPfLk66KI2u9itVY7eh5aZZjM9WCnapynIdqFQ4Ssz588btS9UspCOGJMYjox6U2wGkL897qflRU2sfNkLbqBeuSfOz2taNgb1EMWAE66Uv__1FEdpuIS-OthzwXyhnBk/s1600/wilddog.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503508330647694018" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 259px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOLbhg-nXIIlfPfLk66KI2u9itVY7eh5aZZjM9WCnapynIdqFQ4Ssz588btS9UspCOGJMYjox6U2wGkL897qflRU2sfNkLbqBeuSfOz2taNgb1EMWAE66Uv__1FEdpuIS-OthzwXyhnBk/s320/wilddog.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Another session I went to was on the endangered species known as the African Wild Dog (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">非洲野狗, fēi zhōu yě gǒu</span>). Like I mentioned in my post about the <a href="http://benmojo.blogspot.com/2009/01/animal-house-holes-in-birds-stalking.html">Asiatic Wild Ass</a>, the "Wild" is said as if it were the first part of an adjective, "wild-dog." These are one of the only canids (dog-like) animals in Africa, and they have giant ears and they are super fast runners. (Hyenas are in their own category, they are not canids).<br /><br />Wild Dogs mainly eat impala ("the hamburger of the Okavanga Delta"), and only about 3,000-5,000 Wild Dogs are still left in the wild. The Wild Dogs are one of the most efficient and successful hunters in Africa. </div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EsXsJCi1kNPQetk0rHB1bB5DIxEqR5B5Nf_b70vt_RWQQOOmpPjA_OZOSStQfygj7J2npvuMQt4-efEkbk1Ft5n7i2cRrwOrcpjop0KcuKBEzU-uuVvUcGJPWRzh_PRmFh46IhJb5hI/s1600/success+rate+chart.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509369706397662274" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 306px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EsXsJCi1kNPQetk0rHB1bB5DIxEqR5B5Nf_b70vt_RWQQOOmpPjA_OZOSStQfygj7J2npvuMQt4-efEkbk1Ft5n7i2cRrwOrcpjop0KcuKBEzU-uuVvUcGJPWRzh_PRmFh46IhJb5hI/s320/success+rate+chart.JPG" border="0" /></a></div><div> </div><div>They have a 44% success rate on their hunts (really good considering the others: lion: 27%; hyena: 35%; and the cheetah: a dismal 4%!), and they can kill a wild wart hog in 30 seconds. They are very social and take care of their very young and old pack members (by puking up impala back at the homestead for them), but despite that they are hated by people, even though there has never been a reported attack on a human. Even lions hate them and will leave a kill (which they rarely do) to go and kill a Wild Dog. Jerks. Hopefully the Wild Dog will survive and make a comeback. Everyone loves an Underdog Wild Dog.<br /><br />Finally, not to be too morbid, I went to a few sessions on animal hospice care. Yes, they have that. I just have to mention it because of one session: "creative euthanasia techniques." I imagined all kinds of crazy Rube Goldberg death apparatuses and lethal cocktails and stuff, but the presenter mostly talked about how to handle clients' grief and being accommodating about where they want to do it (like in their minivan in one case, since the dog loved the minivan.) The presenter was very cool and good and was all about doing the right thing in terms of euthanasia. She said: "The last thing I want is for the patient to have a bad experience with me before going to Heaven. Who knows who they're gonna talk to?"<br /><br />Oh yeah, and there is a euthanasia drug marketed as "Fatal Plus." What would the advertising jingle be for that? The next conference is in January. We'll have to see what zany topics come up there. Stay tuned!<br /></div></div></div>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-65878813642456509282010-06-10T07:31:00.003-06:002011-06-10T10:23:38.436-06:00Hua Quan : How to get drunk in Chinese<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nqnGmrRjoufpN0pG3BQj35IhhB3L0ltpVK2sRlh9ZgX6PchLCV8NyJDLzp78mhfTmEnHIP2PngLG_FsmLDpad9EYL-m0rD7WKN9DRQk1tdziaT1YBeqKsNock8pPtuBXPP7z0ZRbQ9o/s1600/huaquan3.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 306px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480822025285628146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nqnGmrRjoufpN0pG3BQj35IhhB3L0ltpVK2sRlh9ZgX6PchLCV8NyJDLzp78mhfTmEnHIP2PngLG_FsmLDpad9EYL-m0rD7WKN9DRQk1tdziaT1YBeqKsNock8pPtuBXPP7z0ZRbQ9o/s320/huaquan3.jpg" /></a>Michala recently had surgery on her ankle to repair damage to the cartilage in there. Having just had her cast removed last week, I noticed the twin scars on her ankle form a nice version of the Chinese character for 8: <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">八</span></strong> (bā).<br /><br />This is considered a lucky character. I was going to say the reason why is because it is a pseudo-homonym with the word <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">发</span></strong> (fā) as in 发财 (fācái), "to get rich." But I am going to do a little research to see if that is true or not. <strong>...</strong> Okay, essentially that <strong><u>is</u></strong> the answer, but my research has jogged my memory and led me in another direction.<br /><br />Many numbers in Chinese culture have significance, but nowhere is this more evident - and important - than in the Chinese drinking game of "Guessing Fingers" (<span style="color:#cc0000;">划拳 huáquán or 猜拳 cāiquán</span>).<br /><br />Guessing Fingers is akin to Rock-Paper-Scissors, in that the players present some configuration of their hand to their opponent, and both players have to guess what the other player's hand configuration is going to be. In "Guessing Fingers," the hand configurations are basically 0-5 fingers extended. The goal is to guess what the total number of fingers extended will be: yours plus your opponent's. Both players have to call out their guess as they throw out their fingers.<br /><br />For example, if you are going to throw <strong>2</strong> fingers, you might guess <strong>6</strong>. So you both throw out your fingers, and as you do, you yell "<strong>6 obediences</strong>!" (it makes sense later*) and the other guy yells "<strong>5 greats</strong>!" If he extended <strong>4</strong> fingers, you win the round (4+2=6) and the other guy takes a drink. If he extended <strong>3</strong> fingers, he wins and you drink. If nobody won, you keep going.<br /><br />Being a math whiz, I would often throw out 5 fingers and yell "4!" which is of course idiotic. This is known as "yellow hand" <span style="color:#cc0000;">黄拳</span> (huang2 quan2), and costs you a drink. Another penalty is if you change your throw after you see the opponent's hand.<br /><br />*Now, calling out your guess is not just a simple matter of saying a number and sticking out your hand. You <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">can</span> play that way but it is slightly lame. In truth, each number has a saying or phrase that goes along with it. Below are a few of the sayings and what they mean (there are many variations), as well as the proper ways to display each number with your hand. Grab a drink and read on!<br /><br />Each round starts with "the hat" (帽子 mào zi). The hat is a phrase that both players chant together so they have the same rhythm and cadence as they continue the game.<br /><br />Some hats:<br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">兄弟好, 好兄弟</span> (xiōng dì hǎo, hǎo xiōng dì)<br />The brothers are good, good are the brothers<br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">全福寿啊, 福寿全</span> (quán fú shòu ah, fú shòu quán)<br />Everybody's lucky and lives long, Lucky long life everybody (<span style="color:#3366ff;">doesn't flow as well in English does it?)</span><br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">哥俩好啊</span> (gē'r liá hǎo ah)<br />Two brothers friendly <span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)">(this is the one we always used in Beijing)</span><br /><br />----OK, on to the numbers! ----<br /><br /><strong>Zero</strong> (closed fist) -<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">不伸</span> (bu4 shen1) "Nothing extended." Pretty straightforward.<br />We usually just said <span style="color:#cc0000;">没有</span> (mei3 you3), "none."<br /><br /><strong>One</strong> (thumb only)<strong> -</strong><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">一条龙</span> (yī tiǎo lóng) "One dragon." Sounds cool.<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">一心敬</span> (yī xīn jìng) "We toast as one." Supposedly from a Du Fu poem.<br /><br /><strong>Two</strong> (thumb and forefinger)<strong> -</strong><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">两相好</span> (liǎng xiāng hǎo) "Both sides friendly." A sign of camaraderie while getting hammered together. I love you, man!<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">哥俩好</span> (gē'r liá hǎo) "Two brothers friendly." Also used in the "hat."<br /><br /><strong>Three</strong> (the "OK" sign)<strong> -</strong><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">三星照</span> (sān xīng zhào) "Three stars shining down." This refers to the three Taoist deities of Fortune (福 fú), Wealth (禄 lù) and Longevity (寿 shòu), which also correspond to ancient constellations in Chinese astronomy.<br /><br /><strong>Four</strong> (hand flat out, but forefinger bent in half)<strong> -</strong><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">四鸿喜</span> (si4 hong2 xi3) "Four great happinesses." For the ancients, the four great happinesses were: <span style="color:#009900;">久旱逢甘雨</span> (jiǔ hàn féng gān yǔ) <span style="color:#3333ff;">Sweet rain after a long drought</span>; <span style="color:#009900;">他乡遇故知</span> (tā xiāng yù gù zhī) <span style="color:#3333ff;">Meeting an old friend in a faraway place</span>; <span style="color:#009900;">洞房花烛夜</span> (dòng fáng huā zhú yè) <span style="color:#3333ff;">One's wedding night</span> (literally "night of lighting a candle in the secret bridal chamber"); and <span style="color:#009900;">金榜题名时</span> (jīn bǎng tí míng shí) <span style="color:#3333ff;">Having your name appear on the list of successful imperial examinees for becoming an official.</span> Not to be confused with the Five Great Happinesses of Being a Guy: 拉急尿; 屙急屎; 日屄; 搔痒; 掏耳屎. ("Taking an urgent #1, taking an urgent #2; having sex; scratching an itch; and picking your ear." I learned those at school in Nanjing. I should say I learned <em>that saying</em> at school in Nanjing.)<br /><br /><strong>Five</strong> (all fingers extended) -<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">五魁首</span> (wǔ kuí shǒu) "Five greats." This probably refers to the Five Classics (五經 wǔ jīng) of Chinese literature: <span style="color:#009900;">诗经</span> (shī jīng, Book of Songs); <span style="color:#009900;">书经</span> (shū jīng, Book of History); <span style="color:#009900;">易经</span> (yì jīng, Book of Changes, aka I Ching); <span style="color:#009900;">礼记</span> (lǐ jì, Classic of Rites); and <span style="color:#009900;">春秋</span> (chūn qiū, Spring and Autumn Annals)<br /><br /><strong>Six -</strong> <span style="color:#cc0000;">六大顺</span> (liù dà shùn) "Six obediences." According to the "左传" (zuǒ zhuàn, Zuo's Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals), the six obediences are: <span style="color:#009900;">君义, 臣行, 父慈, 子孝, 兄爱, 弟敬 </span>(jūn yì, chén xíng, fù cí, zǐ xiào, xiōng ài, dì jìng): "The ruler is righteous; the minister acts appropriately; the father is gentle; the son is dutiful; the older brother is loving; the younger brother is respectful." Usually when I played, we would just say 六六六六 (liù liù liù liù "6,6,6,6!"). Slightly less literary.<br /><br /><strong>Seven -</strong> <span style="color:#cc0000;">七个巧</span> (qī gè qiǎo) "Seven skills." This is a pun, and refers to 七夕节 (qī xī jié) Seventh Night Festival, or Qixi Festival. It falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, and on this day, the literally star-crossed lovers 牛郎 (niú láng, Cow Boy, aka the star Altair) and 织女 (zhīnǚ, Weaver Girl, aka Vega) are allowed to see each other by crossing the magpie bridge over the Milky Way. Another name for the festival is 乞巧节 (qǐ qiǎo jié) "Beg for Skills Festival," since young girls are supposed to beg Weaver Girl for better sewing and other domestic skills. The words for "beg" and "seven" sound similar, hence the pun.<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Or, 七仙女</span> (qī xiān nǚ) "Seven immortal maidens." This refers to the seven magical daughters of the Jade Emperor. They make an appearance in the classical novel "Journey to the West" (西游记 xī yóu jì). In the story, the Monkey King (孙悟空 sūn wù kōng) ruins the Great Immortal Peach Festival by eating all of the immortal peaches in the Jade Emperor's garden. The seven immortal maidens were supposed to gather said peaches but Monkey ate most of them so the festival is ruined! Bad Monkey!<br /><br /><strong>Eight -</strong> <span style="color:#cc0000;">八匹马</span> (bā pī mǎ) "Eight horses." According to legend, during the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1100- 771 BC) King Mu (周穆王 Zhōu Mù Wáng) traveled in a chariot pulled by 8 horses far to the western reaches of his land, eventually reaching the Jade Lake (瑶池 yáo chí) on Mount Kunlun (昆仑山 kūn lún shān). This was the domain of a goddess, the Queen Mother of the West (西王母 xī wáng mǔ). She was also the keeper of the Peaches of Immortality mentioned above. They hung out and had a few feasts together then he returned to the kingdom with a promise to go back to her. However, he apparently never did, even though he lived to be 105. Typical.<br /><br /><strong>Nine -</strong> <span style="color:#cc0000;">快喝酒</span> (kuài hē jiǔ) "Hurry up and drink!" The word for alcohol (酒 jiǔ) sounds exactly the same as the word for 9 (九 jiǔ).<br /><br /><strong>Ten -</strong> <span style="color:#cc0000;">满堂红</span> (mǎn táng hóng) Expression meaning "complete success in everything."<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">全来</span> - (quán lái) - "All of 'em!"<br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">十全十美</span> (shí quán shí měi) - Expression meaning "perfect in every way." Literally "10 complete and 10 beautiful." 10 means "totally" in this context.<br /><br />Well, there you go. As my Grandma Liz would say, "that's more about penguins than you ever wanted to know about penguins." Now start playing!<br /><br /><br />------------<br />References:<br /><a href="http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/18101061.html">http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/18101061.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E5%88%92%E6%8B%B3">http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E5%88%92%E6%8B%B3</a>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-84135035228151805362010-06-04T09:40:00.008-06:002010-06-04T14:15:45.726-06:00Pitches, pitchesThe translation gig has been quiet for the last few weeks, so I have been busy with other writing projects, but not my blogging obviously. I have now finished three works of fiction: 2 short stories and 1 novel.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Short stories:</strong><br /><span style="color:#009900;"><strong>"Xenovet"</strong></span><br />Dr. Van is a semi-depressed, space-station based veterinarian who treats the companion alien animals that residents keep as pets. But a series of visions he has while treating his alien patients leads him on a search for the dark truth behind where the creatures came from.<br /><br /><span style="color:#009900;"><strong>"The Polar Ace"<br /></strong></span>A mysterious paleontological dig in Greenland, a ship plagued by a sinister shipment of cargo, and a desperate dude looking to pay off his debts with a Central Asian criminal consortium all come together in a futuristic action-packed romp through two oceans and multiple time zones.<br /><br /><strong>Novel:</strong><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;"><strong>"The Sky Stone of Tombouctou"</strong></span><br />Waverly Yancy is almost a typical 13-year-old. He loves computer games, his parents can be annoying, and he doesn’t quite fit in. He lives in a ritzy suburban Connecticut suburb, but he’s one of the only non-white kids in his school. It doesn’t help that when he encounters a bully on the way home from school, a strange awareness awakens in him.<br /><br />Then, his discovery of a peculiar amulet in the freezer, clues from his grandmomma about the family’s arcane past, and his parents’ decision to trace the family’s ancestry back to its African roots in the mystery-shrouded land of Timbuktu, all add up to a thrilling adventure of a lifetime for Waverly. But the journey into the heart of Africa is only the beginning...<br /><br /><em>The Sky Stone of Tombouctou</em> is a completed 75,000-word young adult fantasy novel set in the present day, and is ready for representation.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-39310926961754982462010-04-07T09:17:00.016-06:002010-04-09T12:02:53.213-06:00World of Deadcraft<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdoLY9rV5yozCXnvbACv-MpALrBlBxbjUgDDdeKrbxZsepnj0kYJsODZJl6zrdh9L4fz3GxU5Wcx_bKRqwP0hoStddSh42p46HlNigNG4wr2DTcIu50ER7ln6KcZtC8BYdXhnemb1zfU/s1600/qianhuai.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457436149032881954" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 306px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdoLY9rV5yozCXnvbACv-MpALrBlBxbjUgDDdeKrbxZsepnj0kYJsODZJl6zrdh9L4fz3GxU5Wcx_bKRqwP0hoStddSh42p46HlNigNG4wr2DTcIu50ER7ln6KcZtC8BYdXhnemb1zfU/s320/qianhuai.JPG" border="1" /></a> Many cultures have something going on in the Spring. Last weekend was Easter, when Jesus rose from his tomb and trans-substantiated into a chocolate-egg-laying rabbit. It was also Passover, the Anti-Yeast Festival of the Jewish tradition. Of course let's not forget Nowruz, aka Zoroastrian Spring Break; and of course Egyptian Fun Day Sham el-Nessim.<br /><div></div><br /><div>Meanwhile, in China, they had the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, (<span style="color:#cc0000;">清明节 qing1 ming2 jie2</span>). This is the holiday on which you are supposed to go to the tomb or grave of your ancestors and clean it off, pull out the weeds around it, place flowers, burn incense and spirit money (legal tender in the underworld), and generally pay your respects to the departed. It takes place 15 days after the vernal equinox (<span style="color:#cc0000;">chun1 fen1 春分</span>). It is an ancient traditional holiday, but it only <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/03/content_7913320.htm">became a recognized national holiday in 2008</a>. </div><br /><div></div><div>Of course real graves and tombs are expensive, and who has time to go to the cemetery anyway? Enter the e-Tomb. </div><div></div><br /><div>A website has sprung up, <a href="http://www.1000soul.com/">1000soul.com</a>, where users can create accounts and set up virtual tombs in virtual graveyards all over virtual China. Then they can go and virtually do stuff at the grave, like pray, offer incense or place gifts. At the bottom of the home page is a counter. It says (as of this week): </div><div></div><br /><div><strong>Birth count</strong> (<span style="color:#cc0000;">chu1 sheng1 tong3 ji4 </span><span style="color:#cc0000;">出生统计</span>): 107395824161 </div><br /><div><strong>Death count</strong> (<span style="color:#cc0000;">si3 wang2 tong3 ji4 死亡统计</span>): 100552766469 </div><br /><div><strong>Dearly departed in residence</strong>: (<span style="color:#cc0000;">gu4 ren2 jin4 zhu4 故人进驻):</span> 19285 </div><br /><div></div><div></div><div>So there is lots of room for expansion! </div><p>On the site, you can click on a map of China (there is also an overseas section) to select the region where you want the tomb to be. Then a virtual graveyard complex pops up (shown in the picture above) and you can scroll around and select which part of the 'Net necropolis you want to set up the tomb in. Once you click in, you can see a bunch of graves that already have monuments in them, and other vacant spots. You can choose one of the vacant spots for your online ossuary, or you can visit a grave that has already been set up. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hn6HjLVeKreyOvmOyBXqJP0YRvNrpp5s5C8f1N-XS-o6gucTkL7jsog-RkELzFcz5u5zc2U9Cm5RjZ5YhF0-jbnwBSElDsajrSFoOI4_zWKmCS0B3Sf-vu0EWBkW9rOp3j6FPr51Ggo/s1600/qianhuai2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458198930585398114" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 217px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hn6HjLVeKreyOvmOyBXqJP0YRvNrpp5s5C8f1N-XS-o6gucTkL7jsog-RkELzFcz5u5zc2U9Cm5RjZ5YhF0-jbnwBSElDsajrSFoOI4_zWKmCS0B3Sf-vu0EWBkW9rOp3j6FPr51Ggo/s320/qianhuai2.JPG" border="0" /></a>The layout looks like a game map, which adds to the overall strangeness. Then, once you are zoomed into a specific grave it looks even more like a game (second picture (names removed to protect the cyberdead)). There are multiple icons all over the screen, but instead of spells and weapons like in World of Warcraft, you can select different flower arrangements, incense, food offerings or other objects to place at the grave site. Some of these are free, and other gifts and offerings can be unlocked by paying real money for them. <p>At graveside, there is also a Facebook-like news feed with recent activity for that particular pixellated polyandrium. (Sorry.) Just for fun, I tried clicking on the button labeled "Quick Grave Set-up," (<span style="color:#cc0000;">kuai4 su4 jian4 mu4 快速建墓</span>) but it asked me to register or log in first. </p><br /><div></div><div>Is it modern apathy at its worst? Or is this in-silico interment a clever invention to suit the globalized world? You be the judge. </div>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-31874340035430887872010-02-24T10:39:00.002-07:002010-02-25T15:59:54.243-07:00Year of Le Tigre<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-CKMU7p4F8t4Ed30BVRyBWWli3i1qouzfDMPhPWGy4oRBa8SMHzrFPE5IrQUQ5Ry6Hr6mJuOJaYq7-lcFGVXE27llMr1FjaN5TwgXFUHulI22ma9BwDoHTc4TciidL-IT8iwIgxBCy5c/s1600-h/800px-Tiger_Woods_drives_by_Allison.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441587008182353858" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 245px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-CKMU7p4F8t4Ed30BVRyBWWli3i1qouzfDMPhPWGy4oRBa8SMHzrFPE5IrQUQ5Ry6Hr6mJuOJaYq7-lcFGVXE27llMr1FjaN5TwgXFUHulI22ma9BwDoHTc4TciidL-IT8iwIgxBCy5c/s320/800px-Tiger_Woods_drives_by_Allison.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />It's that time of year again, when another zany animal from the Chinese zodiac lopes into the scene. This time, it's the Year of the Tiger (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">hu3 nian2 虎年</span>)! Rawwr!<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(102,0,204)">Minor Digression:</span> Tiger Woods' parents should have seen this coming. Tiger recently issued an emotional apology to all of his fans and sponsors and lady friends. If he had only paid attention to a few simple and obvious details, he probably could have avoided all of this trouble. You see, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, but not just any tiger - the Metal Tiger. The Wood Tiger's year will not roll around until 2035, which is when Tiger Woods will really shine, probably on the Seniors Tour. See, Tiger was born in 1975, <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">part of which</span> was a Wood Tiger year. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">But</span> our Tiges was born in December, a full 10 months after the year switched from tiger to rabbit. Although the phase of that rabbit year was still wood.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">Major Digression: </span>Wooden rabbit. 1975. Can anybody see the connection here? Okay, I admit. I had to Google what year "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" came out, but yes it was 1975, and the film features a wooden rabbit <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,153,0)">(No, not the killer rabbit of Caerbannog. What is wrong with you nerds?)</span> that is created as a Trojan horse to sneak into the French Person's castle. Were the Monty Python crew taking a pot shot at traditional Chinese astrology? We don't know for sure. But the connection is intriguing.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(0,102,0)">Post Regression:</span> Is anyone confused yet? Okay, so most people know about the Chinese animal years, Pig, Chicken, Rat, Ox, Sloth, Fruit Bat, etc. But the animals are merely the tip of the astrological iceberg. In addition to the 12-year animal merry-go-round, there is also a 60-year cycle in Chinese astrology, which is made up of 60 different combinations of the 10 Heavenly Stems (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">天干 tian1 gan1</span>) and the 12 Earthly Branches (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">地支, di4 zhi1</span>). These were created several thousand years ago as ways of simply keeping track of time, and as a way of fortune telling.<br /><br />Each Earthly Branch corresponds to one of the animals (which have characteristics used in fortune telling), and the Heavenly Stems are associated with the negative and positive (yin and yang) aspects of each of the 5 Elements or Phases (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">wu3 xing2 五行</span>): Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. So once you have gone through each permutation, a 60-year, or sexagenary, cycle is complete.<br /><br />The more I read about this the more confusing it gets, so I will try to keep it simple for my own sake. This year in the cycle is the <span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">庚寅年</span> (<span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">geng1 yin2 nian2</span>), which is the 7th Heavenly Stem, 3rd Earthly Branch. It is the 27th year of the current 60-year cycle, and the <span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">庚 <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">represents Yang (positive) and metal, while the </span></span><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">寅</span> represents the Tiger and all of its characteristics.</span><br /><br />According to the <a href="http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/tiger.htm">Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco</a>, Tigers are suspicious, short-tempered, sensitive, have trouble with authority, indecisive, and unlike wooden rabbits, are generally bad at golf.<br /><br /><span style="color:#663366;"><strong>Tiger-related Note:</strong></span> I just read on the <a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2118#more-2118">Language Log</a> website that a popular saying this year for Valentine's Day (mostly in advertisements) was "I 老虎 you," where <span style="color:#ff0000;"><span style="color:#cc0000;">老虎 (lao3 hu3),</span> </span>which means "tiger," sounds like a terribly pronounced version of the English word "love." And since Valentine's Day was the first day of the new year it was especially clever.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-9834329085203706772010-02-10T13:46:00.006-07:002010-02-14T13:15:47.990-07:00Temple of Womb<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvNebzU9zH7L-Qoh0d7DZ-aa3cyEI8EV604WmdFyun9Z0SfPauezVR5rm_E1Fzi9OoOXbjT0yjLnYEYGcLLEXYam3k3nB_k0tx6EEJZR4uq1MNf1pM5O72Xx5PsRMEpPSSEav_WN8uyI/s1600-h/nurhachi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 198px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvNebzU9zH7L-Qoh0d7DZ-aa3cyEI8EV604WmdFyun9Z0SfPauezVR5rm_E1Fzi9OoOXbjT0yjLnYEYGcLLEXYam3k3nB_k0tx6EEJZR4uq1MNf1pM5O72Xx5PsRMEpPSSEav_WN8uyI/s320/nurhachi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438194721119163394" border="0" /></a>Recently a translation job took me from the banal world of college diplomas, deep into the uncharted and lawless hills of northeastern China. <div> </div><br />The document was hand-scrawled on official government stationary from an area of Yi County <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">(义县 yi4 xian4)</span> in Liaoning Province <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">(辽宁省 liao2 ning2 sheng3</span>). Since it was written by hand, this thing was a little hard to decipher. There was a clue on the paper, though, where it said the name of the town, printed at the top of the page: Dizang Temple Manchu Village (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">地藏寺满族乡di4 zang4 si4 man3 zu2 xiang1</span>). First I looked up Dizang Temple.<br /><br />Turns out it is a Buddhist temple, and Dizang can also be translated as Ksitigarbha, a Sanskrit name. He is a bodhisattva (an enlightened person who tries to help others), and 地藏 (Dizang) is actually a translation of Ksitigarbha, which means Earth Store or Earth Treasure or Earth Womb (hence the witty titular pun of this post. Actually there is an even <em>subtler</em> connection there, to be described below!).<br /><br />According to the Internet, the Dizang Temple in this village was founded by Manchurian chieftain Nurhachi (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">努尔哈赤 nu4 er3 ha1 chi4</span>) in the 16th-17th century. He was famous for creating the written form of the Manchu script, and as the father of the Qing Dynasty.<br /><br />Also, he is the same Nurhachi whose ashes appear in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when Indy trades them for a large diamond in Shanghai!<br /><br />As Hannibal used to say on the A-Team, I love it when a blog comes together.Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-74742200490281458722010-01-14T10:32:00.010-07:002010-01-15T09:37:42.876-07:00Whither google.cn?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhurTe9klNL640iD5QncGuicy4Je8zdfQvn-RjnGhrpCS8HYj5SLJOU8a1Y40m-PhUvT-GVuiJxvsA-sSg0rzYPWG9YAHECm7QyCSbMCRcfSBiUOoTLW2kmHfzHJ8M-g9dj3DQqjnp4xs/s1600-h/sidafaming.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426692491083847282" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 133px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhurTe9klNL640iD5QncGuicy4Je8zdfQvn-RjnGhrpCS8HYj5SLJOU8a1Y40m-PhUvT-GVuiJxvsA-sSg0rzYPWG9YAHECm7QyCSbMCRcfSBiUOoTLW2kmHfzHJ8M-g9dj3DQqjnp4xs/s320/sidafaming.JPG" border="0" /></a> As you may have heard, in the last few days, Google has been having some domestic issues with Big Mama China. <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html">Google suggests</a> that it was infiltrated by Chinese government hackers in an attempt to discover email addresses of Chinese human rights advocates. They said the attack also resulted in some unspecified "intellectual property" being stolen.<br /><br />The result is that the company may be closing down their Chinese version of Google, which is google.cn, unless China allows them to put up uncensored search results. I can't see how that would happen.<br /><br />Anyway, it would really suck for me because I use Chinese Google all the time for translation work. So in premature memoriam of google.cn, I now offer a little bit of Chinese googling trivia.<br /><br /><br /><ul><li><strong><span style="color:#009900;">Mystery!</span></strong> Today's (Jan. 14, 2010) Google doodle (where they change the logo into a picture) on google.cn is the Four Great Inventions (<span style="color:#cc0000;">四大发明</span>, <span style="color:#cc0000;">si4 da4 fa1 ming2</span>). Usually there is some holiday or birthday or something to warrant a doodle. But why is this here? The Four Great Inventions (in the Chinese context) are Paper (<span style="color:#cc0000;">造纸术 zao4 zhi3 shu4</span>), the Compass (<span style="color:#cc0000;">指南针 zhi3 nan2 zhen4), </span><span style="color:#000000;">Gunpowder (</span><span style="color:#cc0000;">火药 huo3 yao4</span>), and Movable Type Printing (<span style="color:#cc0000;">活字印刷术, huo3 zi4 yin1 shua1 shu4</span>). Yes, Gutenberg, the Chinese did that first, too. So the question is: Why? <strong><span style="color:#3333ff;">Theories as to what they are trying to say:</span></strong> </li></ul><p>1) The Internet (or Google) is a great invention, too, so don't make us leave you, China.<br />2) The letters of the logo that are altered are "Go" and "le." This could be a very strange Chinglishy way of saying "we are going," ie, "<span style="color:#cc0000;">go 了</span>" (了 (le) is just a modifier of the verb). Or, it could be a phonetic way of saying "Enough!" (够了, gou4 le).<br />3) It is a way of saying "We love China! It is soo smart!" in a last ditch effort to bribe the Central Government with Google doodles. </p><ul><li><strong><span style="color:#009900;">Google in Chinese</span></strong> is <span style="color:#cc0000;">谷歌</span> (gu3 ge1), which means "Valley Song." But mostly it is just phoeneticization of "Google."<br /></li></li><li><strong><span style="color:#009900;">Censorship?</span></strong> I wanted to test how censored the Chinese Google is. So I plugged in the phrase <span style="color:#cc0000;">六四事件</span> (liu4 si4 shi4 jian4) into both the mainland and the Taiwanese version of Google. 六四事件 is literally the "6-4 Incident," or June 4 Incident, meaning the Tian'anmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989. The mainland version actually came back with about 3 million results. But the top hit is an interview with Premier Zhu Rongji, who says that "I think that China now has enough democracy, so something like (the June 4 Incident) could not happen again."<br /><br />A Taiwan Google (google.com.tw) search of the same term, on the other hand, produces more than 11 million results. The top one? The Chinese Wikipedia entry for the Tian'anmen Incident. Talk about freedom of speech. Plus it shows YouTube videos and all kinds of stuff about the massacre. So yes, the mainland version is definitely censored. To be fair, the google.cn version of the results page does say at the bottom: "<em>Due to local government laws and regulations, some search results are not displayed</em>."</li></ul>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-74244116555559481822009-11-13T11:34:00.008-07:002009-11-13T14:57:21.068-07:00Chinese diploma, see?I was just working on a translation of a college transcript, and learned two interesting things that I thought I would share with the universe.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Not all diplomas are created equal</span><br />I have found that there are three different types of certificate issued by Chinese universities.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">1) Diploma -</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">毕业证书</span> (bi4 ye4 zheng4 shu1) - <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">GOOD. </span>This is for students who have completed and <span style="font-size:100%;">passed all of their classes. The best type of certificate to have, it is accompanied by an academic degree certificate, BS, BA, MA, etc.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;"><br />2) Certificate of Completion of Studies </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;">- 结业证书</span> (jie2 ye4 zheng4 shu1) <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MEH.</span> This means that the student has completed all of their classes, but has not passed all of the classes, or at least they didn't pass their graduation test. I am not completely sure, but it means the student did not pass something and therefore does not qualify for graduation, but they did complete everything. Not a good thing to have, altho probably better than nothing. </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">3) Certificate of Study - 肄业证书</span> (yi4 ye4 zheng4 shu1) - <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">BAD.</span> This is apparently the worst type of certificate to have. I've only ever seen one out of the hundreds of academic documents I have translated. According to the Internet, it is worse than not having anything at all. Basically this says that yes, this person did study at this school, but they did not finish school. Here is what happens when you present this piece of crap at a job interview:<br />"But, Mr. Interviewer for a Good Job, I didn't finish because I ---"<br />"Zup! Zip! I don't want to hear it. Thanks for coming in today. Bye."<br />"But I -"<br />"Zup." [pinches lips shut as a subtle message]<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Progress in the classroom!</span><br />OK, that is a very subjective statement, but I am basing it on a transcript from 2008, which had some classes I have not really seen before. Oh, there was the usual</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">马克思主义基本原理 </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">(<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">ma3 ke4 si1 zhu3 yi4 ji1 ben3 yuan2 li3</span>), <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Basic Principles of Marxism</span>, but then right under that was<br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">儒道佛文化及其精神</span> (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">ru2 dao4 fo2 wen2 hua4 ji2 qi2 jing1 shen2</span>), which is <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist Culture and Spirit</span>. In the transcripts I usually translate, which are usually from the 1990s or before, I have never seen that class listed. The fact that it is taught now is kind of cool. I mean you still have all of the Communist BS, but at least they are branching out. And then I was <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">really</span> surprised to see this class: <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">动物福利</span> (<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">dong4 wu4 fu2 li4</span>), <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Animal Welfare</span>! I have absolutely never heard of that being taught in China. So that, too was encouraging. Well done, Chinese educational system.<br /><br /><br /></span>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-39883827663699254272009-11-09T09:18:00.005-07:002009-11-09T14:14:35.902-07:00Home improvement 101 and NaNoWriMo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1lvxnB1ZFtXYWNkIbFm0vad1PySZvBPD5lIJbKXhbTj_2aj7-3I-6cwxETkM9QzROkNxnUcOAMsPSdVrEJs0PsUHpUnUt7YtRrEsLskgy6Dkj35qs2_9Sekzo5cQ8UDlMeN5weTMnkg/s1600-h/nano_09_blk_participant_120x240.png.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1lvxnB1ZFtXYWNkIbFm0vad1PySZvBPD5lIJbKXhbTj_2aj7-3I-6cwxETkM9QzROkNxnUcOAMsPSdVrEJs0PsUHpUnUt7YtRrEsLskgy6Dkj35qs2_9Sekzo5cQ8UDlMeN5weTMnkg/s320/nano_09_blk_participant_120x240.png.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402139500943481938" border="0" /></a><br />I have decided to undertake the National Novel Writing Month challenge. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel within the month of November. And since it usually takes me several months to write a 16K- word short story, it is a real challenge.<br /><br />But I have been keeping on track so far, and hopefully I will be a winner! Which in this case means that you complete the challenge. Here is a brief synopsis of the novel so far:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Thirteen-year-old Waverly Yancy finds an ancient amulet in his freezer. Somehow it seems connected to unexplained incidents in his own life. And when his parents find out the source of their African heritage, Waverly goes along for the ride of his life.</span><br /><br />The working title is "The Sky Stones of Tombouktou." Essentially it is the black Harry Potter. Hear that, agents who are googling around, looking for the next great novel? "The Black Harry Potter." Heeeere, Google spiders. You might think: Dude, how can you write convincingly about a 13-year old African American kid? Well, you will just have to wait and see! It's gonna be awesome.<br /><br />In other news, I fixed not one but 2 household items over the weekend. The first was the sink disposal. It was jammed and I was basically waiting for whatever crap was in there jamming it to<br />rot away and the problem would take care of itself. However, this was not happening. So I looked on the International Network of Computers (they have that now) and figured out that you don't have to take the thing apart in order to fix it.<br /><br />All you have to do is cut off the power to it, get underneath with a 1/4" allen wrench and insert it into the access hole in the bottom of the unit. You then turn the blades manually with the wrench, and it works the blockage loose. Then you can grab whatever it was (spoon, bag, etc) with tongs and it is fixed! In my case it was just gunked up so after spinning it a few times it started moving freely again. Then Michala poured some dish soap in the drain and it was good as new. Amazing.<br /><br />I also fixed the water dispenser that comes out of the fridge. I learned via the International Network that the tank for the water that comes out of the fridge door is in the back of the crisper drawer. Who knew? I had noticed a day or so earlier that a pepper in the crisper drawer had some ice on it. Hmmm. Maybe the tank was frozen? So I took out the drawer and found the tank. There was a tube coming out of it and when I fiddled with the tube some ice seemed to crunch and loosen up. I tried the dispenser again and -- holy home improvement Batman -- it worked!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Amazing Lesson:</span> </span>If something does not work in your house, go to the Internet and then fiddle with said broken item. With enough fiddling, you can fix anything!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Random Chinese factoid to keep blog relevant: </span>冰箱 (bing1 xiang1) means "refrigerator" in Chinese. Literally it means "ice box." Very to-the-point, if a bit old school. But some Chinese words are just old school, and the word for a thing does not necessarily change along with the technology of the age. For example, the word for "rocket" is 火箭 (huo3jian4), which is literally "fire arrow." And the word for spear and gun are the same exact word, 枪 (qiang1). Oh, and "black Harry Potter" in Chinese is 黑 哈利・波特 (hei1 Ha1 li4 Bo1 te4).Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-50408108216040936362009-09-23T14:46:00.005-06:002009-09-23T16:18:50.720-06:00Nonsense and the curse of the lazy blogger!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fa3n6SbjjdSxTQg7tM_n5HFMyil4gcn0xL64es_fY8NyZezuaS0C_5e1ASD2tPu0U2Merd8GUN9iJ0iLmkckGnOWVN6_BJ4KnKM5F0pBMuZPAi0o53bVEzSnCWrDSTdFP0o7p6b8cwQ/s1600-h/curseINKS3a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 237px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fa3n6SbjjdSxTQg7tM_n5HFMyil4gcn0xL64es_fY8NyZezuaS0C_5e1ASD2tPu0U2Merd8GUN9iJ0iLmkckGnOWVN6_BJ4KnKM5F0pBMuZPAi0o53bVEzSnCWrDSTdFP0o7p6b8cwQ/s320/curseINKS3a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384770233311479650" border="1" /></a>In the interest of posting a post in September, I present with no introduction the cover of a nonexistent graphic novel: "Curse of the Dagger!" This was an idea I had and messed around with for a while. Finally I inked it and scanned it into Photoshop for the colors. Fun!<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;"><br />A young pharaoh finds a mysterious dagger stuck in a strange looking skull in the desert. As he pulls the dagger from the bizarre, deformed skull, a brilliant red light flashes across the landscape. </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;"><br />Little does the young king know, he has released an ancient curse that will ravage the kingdom and threaten to destroy the very fabric of reality! </span><br /><br />Anyway...<br />OK, I thought of a translational subject:<br /><br />The Chinese phrase: <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">胡说八道</span> (hú shuō bā dào) means "nonsense." It is what Rep. Joe Wilson would have yelled at Pres. Obama during his health care speech if he spoke Chinese. Literally it means: "Outrageous speech in eight ways." What is the origin of this strange saying? Let me regale you with the tale...<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;">A young pharaoh finds a mysterious dagger stuck in a strange looking skull</span> - No, no that's not it. Here is the story that makes most sense to me (from <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/1741.htm">Baidu</a>).<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"></span>In ancient times, Chinese people referred to the minority populations to the north and west as the "Hu." The who? Yes. The Hu. So the unintelligible language of these groups was lumped under the phrase, "hu shuo" <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">胡说 </span>(Hu speak).<br /><br />The <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">八道</span> (bā dào) part of this expression comes from the "Noble Eightfold Path" 八正道 (ba1 zheng4 dao4) of Buddhism. So in other words, the phrase means "an ignorant barbarian trying to talk about the Noble Eightfold Path to enlightenment."<br /><br />See, now isn't that much more interesting than a moronic outburst of "you lie!" ?Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-40174865249589035272009-08-17T15:53:00.006-06:002009-08-24T18:24:50.228-06:00District Awesome<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kxOO9f4pq7jRuKIvSL2Qc4ehFpLApDCM_7RGVDpqyl38-nhwn4L1FdbW2phhyphenhyphennkNt_ZGr0pQTkfTatTHstUrtnooHRlOI4KOYPxt4adPEp3BGTuKOPN-zvPC9SHjHHDwGYosIzLVdEs/s1600-h/dinobabe_sovietsCs.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kxOO9f4pq7jRuKIvSL2Qc4ehFpLApDCM_7RGVDpqyl38-nhwn4L1FdbW2phhyphenhyphennkNt_ZGr0pQTkfTatTHstUrtnooHRlOI4KOYPxt4adPEp3BGTuKOPN-zvPC9SHjHHDwGYosIzLVdEs/s320/dinobabe_sovietsCs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373689798232289778" border="0" /></a>One of my all-time favorite science fiction movies (aside from Star Wars) is Aliens 3. I know, probably not a popular choice with you die hard sf fans. But the dark tone, bizarre prison characters, and the overall general feeling of the film really appeal to me. It came out in like 93? Anyway, -I went to see District 9 this weekend. (<span style="color:#cc0000;">第九区</span> (di4 jiu3 qu1) in Chinese.)<br /><div>Hands down the best original science fiction movie I've seen in years. Usually "science fiction" films are some kind of sf-horror hybrid which suck. This year's Star Trek was awesome, but based on an old series so not counted as "original."<br /><br />The movie takes you to a near-future South Africa in which aliens are a part of society, although an unwelcome part. They are relegated into ghettos and treated like crap, and without giving anything away - THEY ALL DIE!!! Just kidding. It deals with prejudice and racism and other bias issues and it does it in a way that is really clever and not in your face, but it is pretty obvious: the good guys are compassionate and the bad guys are the bigoted monsters. It is obvious, that is, unless of course you are a complete idiot.<br /><br />Which brings me to the point of this missive! As I was walking out of the theater, a guy in front of me was wearing a t-shirt that said: "No Mas," (no more in Spanish) and had a graphic of a circle-slash through the Mexican flag. It was funny because in the movie there are signs like that all over but they say "humans only." I had a strong urge to tell the guy to go see the movie again and think about it fer-gods-sake. I didn't, but I was sort of dumbfounded that a person would bother to go see a really good movie but have the message completely lost on them. Not that I see movies for their "message" necessarily, but in this case the irony was exquisite. Oh well.<br /><br />So, here is my latest sketch! It is for a drawing contest with the theme: Time-switched battles. I drew the pencils, then scanned it and printed it out in really light blue. THen I inked over it, and finally colored it in with colored pencils. So much fun! Her face is a little weird, but overall I like it.<br /><br />There, I posted in August. Phew!<br /><br /></div>Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2204129228487137648.post-65460116939145985672009-07-23T09:56:00.004-06:002009-07-23T10:14:43.854-06:00Conan connundrum<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrKEsRe8eQqI_vEOGvCAFFneZ7PjK1Fp6VWtPoSFheKdYFtJzhX-Y2FifZEEGuBv0jXix5xRXO8i1VYmD21cpUPcpChGGEyubDIhQA0EE2XIjtp5Tlbfj0xUQjBD0adH-5EEAaEzucQGM/s1600-h/conan_stuck4a.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361687941369791730" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrKEsRe8eQqI_vEOGvCAFFneZ7PjK1Fp6VWtPoSFheKdYFtJzhX-Y2FifZEEGuBv0jXix5xRXO8i1VYmD21cpUPcpChGGEyubDIhQA0EE2XIjtp5Tlbfj0xUQjBD0adH-5EEAaEzucQGM/s320/conan_stuck4a.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />For some reason I have veered away from blogging about Chinese stuff and have begun drawing a lot. I know I will get back to writing, but drawing stuff is so much fun I have to take a crack at it!<br /><br />Anyway, this is a pencil drawing of one of my favorite comic book characters Conan the Barbarian. He has just slain a giant serpent ind his sword is stuck, meanwhile marauders from the temple are coming to attack him, since he disrupted the sacrifice of the girl on the left. Probably doesn't need that much explanation but I thought I should have some text on here!<br /><br /><a href="http://doodlesofvermont.com/BMW/pictures/conan_stuck4a.jpg">Here is a link to the full size version</a><br /><br />More later ...!Benjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747883457872796674noreply@blogger.com3