Nirvana in Fire and Chinese history (and some random notes)

After watching Nirvana in Fire I read up a bit more about Chinese history.  Popular narratives in China about Chinese history are especially important to understanding the Chinese perspective on the responsibilities of governments.  I wrote about how this relates to Nirvana in Fire in a Fold story.

In other news, I started trying to read it in Chinese.  The story actually started out as an internet novel.  Then I bought a paperback copy from Amazon.  To my shock, they were not the same!  Thankfully, someone on the internet explains that there are multiple editions because the author typically polishes it when they go to publish the story as a book.  The internet version is the modern equivalent of weekly installments in the newspaper so it's often more long-winded, Dicken's style.

Learning Weird Chinese

My Chinese is getting stranger and stranger because I tend to watch historical fiction shows like Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜) and Empresses in the Palace (后宫 甄嬛传).

The dialogue in these shows are more formal, maybe kind of like if you learned English from watching only Shakespeare plays.

虽然我学到的中文古怪，我还是喜欢看这个内容的因为故事比现代的故事有意思。一般的现代的戏太莫名其妙了，而且我不太懂中国现在社会的情况。还有，还是古代的服装顺眼。

examples:

原来如此

毕竟

皇上息怒！

皇上精明

儿臣领旨

叩见陛下

何尝不是

冤枉

我要把它们记下来。

Nirvana in Fire

I wrote an essay about a Chinese TV show I have been watching because I wanted to share my thoughts about the themes about patriotism and governance.  I have several shows, and some of these themes have shown up before so that now I feel that I more fully understand the context behind them.

 

The acting is really good.  There are so many great bromances, and it's also really cute that the actors are friends in real life as well.  It's really helped me to improve Chinese, too, since I'm motivated to read Chinese articles about the actors (尤其是胡歌!) and the show.  太好看了但是我的中文也太差了。也没办法了，学到什么就算什么。

 I am also trying out Fold as a platform for interactive blogging. I think I like it! It seems like the feature in Medium where people can comment in your text would be useful, though.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms probably wouldn't count as a pillar of Chinese culture, but it should be at least a gargoyle.  It's a novel from the 14th century attributed to Luo Guanzhong.  It is a dramatic retelling of the struggles between the three kingdoms in the 2nd and 3rd century in China.  There are many many Chinese movies and TV shows and other adaptations about this period of time based on this novel.  Sometimes they decide to be more accurate than the novel, sometimes less accurate.



I've heard the names of various characters for years but never really knew what they did or the whole story.  I've recently watched several movies based on this period of time, the most notable of which is Red Cliff, and read about the Three Kingdoms on Wikipedia.  I found that the prevalence of the story in Chinese culture is kind of like the Trojan Wars and the rise and fall of Julius Caesar.  Now I feel that learning about history and classic stories such as this is actually an essential part of learning the Chinese language if the primary goal is to communicate with Chinese people.  These stories illustrate the Chinese thought process as well as values, which in many ways is more important to communicating than words.  I wish this was a greater focus during Chinese school when I was growing up.

Learning Chinese Textbook

Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin, Elementary Level by Julian K. Wheatley

Julian Wheatley was the housemaster at EC when I was living there. He was always classy and a nice stabilizing force in the dorm.

没有人想当工程师

今天我看见有一篇文章解释为什么有很多美国大学生不要做工程师。搂住说是应为工程学校太严格，不给学生补课，学生更不上就拉倒。可是在美国，唯一的原因大概就是做医生，律师，经纪人，和生意挣的钱多，人家也比较尊敬你。

最近

我去年申请了研究生院。 我被UC Berkeley 录取了。我很激动，打算去Berkeley.

translation : I'm going to UC Berkeley! More on this later.

Single Pipa

So I finally found out that the Buddha dance that I did in high school was a rearranged version of this Pipa song 阳春白雪, which means "sunlight on white snow." This whole time, I thought it was multiple instruments, but it was all just one. High labor productivity, only have to pay one musician.

Chinese People on the Internet

I saw this comment on ChinaSmack, translated from Chinese. It was in response to an article about the British man that was recently executed for drug smuggling in China. I laughed so hard I was crying at my lab-bench.

Prime Minister Brown, do you think that China is stuck in the times of the Opium war? You are an example of an undeveloped life form, an alien that has undergone genetic mutation, a high school student with the development of a kindergartener, a mongoloid inborn frog head, an abandoned infant at the top of Everest, the turd blocking the toilet, a dark descendant of Africa, hermaphrodite gorilla, a hippo squashed by Noah’s ark, the erupting mouth of a new volcano, the shameless sound of a barking horn, an Eskimo’s disgrace, a superman living with cockroaches, a rotting vegetable, a person made of rubbish who smells, the etymological source of the word “spurned”.

the Chinese original

英国首相布朗，你以为中国还是鸦片战争时候吗？你是进化不完全的生命体，基因突变的外星人，幼稚园程度的高中生，先天蒙古症的青蛙头，圣母峰雪人的弃婴，化粪池堵塞的凶手，非洲人搞上黑*的后裔，阴阳失调的黑猩猩，被诺亚方舟压过的河马，新火山喷发口，超大无耻传声扩音喇叭，爱斯基摩人的耻辱，和蟑螂共存活的超个体，生命力腐烂的半植物，会发出臭味的垃圾人，“唾弃“名词的源头.

The article was comparing this incident with the Opium Wars.
Another funny comment. Actually, I think the Chinese original is not as funny.

WHAT IS LZ TALKING ABOUT? COMPARING OUR GLORIOUS MODERN HARMONIOUS SOCIETY WITH THE CORRUPT QING DYNASTY!? YOU SCHEMING BASTARD!

Demi-gods and Semi Devils

天龙八部1996 was this Chinese TV series I watched while in China when I was in middle school. Found a site that has it online. Whoo

Mid Autumn Festival

tomorrow, Chinese people will be celebrating the Mid Autumn Festival 中秋节 by eating moon cakes 月饼. whooo. I will be eating lotus mooncakes whooooo.

Nose Picking Jokes

i think it's a chinese people joke.

Student asks: Teacher, why do women feel so great while having sex?
Teacher: This…is like picking your nose…the one that feels great is your nose.
Student: If it feels great, then why do women resist when they are being QJ?
Teacher: If someone else’s finger came to help pick your nose, would you feel great?
Student: Then why can a woman not have sex when her period comes?
Teacher: When you have a bloody nose, would you pick your nose?

Dreams

昨天晚上我做了很多梦. 一个梦里我带一个小姐去一个银行看热带的动物.

块菌 - kuai4jun1 - truffle

Chinese Jokes

狗熊掰棒子 - "bear picking corn" - if you say someone is like a bear picking corn, it implies that they pick one with one arm and put it under the armpit, and then they reach out with that arm, dropping that ear of corn, to pick another corn so that they can only have one corn at a time.

狗吐不出象牙 - "a dog can't spit out an elephant's tooth" - someone who is a jerk is unable to say anything except garbage

笨鸟先飞 - "stupid bird flying first" - it's kind of like the tortoise and hare story. if you don't work hard to keep ahead, stupid people will catch up to you because they work harder.

Tax

上个星期田了税表。 这个星期政府给我还了钱。 我很高兴。 还有，这个星期是我和我的男朋友两月纪念。 他给我买了花和晚饭，虽说我们去的参观不是很高级, 只是很方便.

感性认识

我每天在学中文。我用nciku.com。他们有很多办法和例子。最子要就是练习读和说。 我在公司里跟一个阿姨经常讲中文对我有很大的帮助。我昨天在我妈妈家看杂志也学了几个词。

昨天我做了馄饨吃。我还终于把一个贷款完全还光了。我觉得很骄傲，可是我还有两万贷款。

我现在在我的男朋友家里等他从飞机场回来。他因该让我接他。

我最近注意到很多中国儿童故事很可怜很悲剧。

Super88

Sheeshee is back now so I have a Chinese buddy again! Hooray

We went to Super88 yesterday and I got Chyrsanthemum tea in a juicebox. Very exciting!!!

cool online chinese-english dictionary

http://www.nciku.com/ has some cool features, like handwriting recognition and stroke order animation. Plus you can save looked-up words as vocab lists.

故事

洋的妈妈昨天教了我们中国的历史。

--汪精卫是很有文化的人，可是因为他跟蒋介石为了国明党的领导能力斗，汪精卫变成汉奸。他也反对共厂党。

--张爱玲是中国的有明作家。她写了好多小说 讲男女的关系。李安 把 《色, 戒》 的故事 拍 成电影。

--她的爸爸是李鸿章的女婿。李鸿章是清朝的外交官。在清朝时侯中国没有什么拳力，所以外国欺负中国。他隔了法国，英国几个汉城市。

--邓丽君，台湾的唱歌明星，四十二岁死了。她有气喘病，这么像我们的朋友西西。

China Vacation

今年秋天十月份我和Toby要去中国旅游。 我门要去北京，西安，桂林, 和上海。 我们先到北京。 那时中国的首都，在中国的东北。 西安在陕西, 桂林在广西。