16
Apr 2007
Subtle Messages from Xintiandi
What is the message in this ad for Shanghai’s chic dining/shopping area, Xintiandi (新天地)?
I’m almost certainly reading too much into it, but this is what I see:
– To the Chinese women: “Hey, pretty, young, fashionable Shanghainese women! Come to Xintiandi, the place to be seen. Not only will men ogle you, but lots of handsome, single foreign men will ogle you! If you’re crazy enough not to want that, there are also Chinese men, most of whom are rich!”
– To the foreigners: “Hey, handsome male foreigners! We know you’re looking for Zhang Ziyi-esque women, and Xintiandi has them in droves. Don’t worry, the submissive local males will let you have them (as if you were worried!), and the women all want you, anyway.”
– To the Chinese men: “Hey, rich Chinese men! Come to Xintiandi, where you can flaunt your money with pretty young women and foreigners. Oh, but remember that it’s only polite to offer the ladies to the foreigners first.”
What has Xintiandi got against Chinese men? There may be tons of foreigners in Xintiandi, but I’m pretty sure the Chinese men are still the ones spending the big bucks. So for this reason the ad doesn’t make a lot of sense.
What have I got against Xintiandi? Nothing, really. I don’t particularly like it, but I don’t have any deep philosophical reasons for that. I’m mostly just cheap. In the past year I’ve started going there fairly often after work at ChinesePod for happy hour at Kabb. 20 RMB for Tiger draught is not bad.
14
Apr 2007ChinesePod V3 Launched
We’ve been working on the new version of ChinesePod for so damn long… and it has finally launched. We are all breathing a sigh of relief.
I have to say (as an “unbiased” commentator)… the new ChinesePod is a huge improvement in a lot of ways.
One of the coolest new features is that each user has his own account and custom profile, and they can interact much more easily.
We’re still squashing bugs and updating content, but after you get used to it, this new version is much, much better than its predecessor.
11
Apr 2007Character-based Sign Language
Shortly after I arrived in China and observed the deaf community in Hangzhou, a beautiful thought struck me. Deaf people communicate in an entirely different way. If all the deaf people in the world use sign language, they could all learn the same sign language and communicate with each other regardless of race or nationality. No barriers. A truly international language!
But alas, that was not to be. You see, sign language doesn’t just “substitute for” or “imitate” human language… it is a human language. As such, it is subject to the same restrictions and limitations by which all human languages are bound. In this case, one of the most important factors is that deaf communities are very often isolated. They’re isolated within a country, with a city, or within a district. Without a means to regularly communicate, communities drift apart linguistically over time.
Not only is Chinese sign language different from sign language of other countries, but it also varies from city to city. The sign language of Shanghai differs from that of Hangzhou or Beijing, for example. Even so, there is a national standard promoted. (I’m not sure how hard the Chinese deaf communities strive to adhere to it.)
One of the ways that Chinese sign language sets itself apart is its references to Chinese characters. Certainly not all signs make reference to Chinese characters, and those signs that do make reference to characters don’t necessarily do it in a character-for-character way, but the influence of characters in Chinese sign language is tangible.
Here are a few examples from my book:
“person”
“people”
“citizen”
“dry”
“foodstuff”
I don’t actually know Chinese sign language… does anyone know any other interesting Chinese signs?
09
Apr 2007Pizza Hut Easter
So what does Easter mean in Shanghai? An outdoor Pizza Hut promotion in Xujiahui!
(That big egg is a kind of “rock-climbing” challenge, apparently.)
I didn’t stick around for the activity they were cooking up, but it looks like it is possibly inspired by the saga of Little Bunny Foo Foo?
08
Apr 2007Attempting Redemption
A while back I posted a story I titled “Betrayal.” I visited Yunnan and promised some friends that I would send them a photo when I returned to Hangzhou. But I never did. What’s more, I discarded the address so that I never could.
Well, it turns out I got some of those facts wrong. I moved to Shanghai in early 2004. I have moved twice since then. I am now in the apartment where I will begin my married life. Since I’ll be living with a Chinese woman, it’s necessary that I get rid of a lot of my old crap. I have some packrat genes, and it’s a part of myself that I detest. I never feel bad for having a lot of books, but it’s the other miscellaneous odds and ends that I need to do something about. A lot of it is old papers of questionable value, but I actually have to look at them before I can be sure they’re safe to throw out.
Anyway, I was going through that process recently when I found a familiar-looking old scrap of paper. It was the address of the restaurant in Jinghong, Yunnan! I never threw it out after all… I just packed it with everything else and lost it for over three years.
I have finally printed the photos and mailed them, as I promised I would. It’s been over 4 years, so I’m not sure those people are even still there, or if they’ll remember me at all. But whoever receives the letter will have a photo and a short note explaining it. I hope they see it.
07
Apr 2007Slag-hit Bank
Brendan has a very interesting post on good Chinese transliterations and bad Chinese transliterations. Check it out.
I wish he did posts like this more often (although I would probably settle for any posts more often…).
04
Apr 2007Big Pair, Little Pair
China Unicom has teamed up with Samsung and hired the athletic Li brothers, 李大双 and 李小双, for this Shanghai subway ad.
双 means “double” or “pair.” If you were to translate the names of these two directly into English, you’d come up with “Big Pair” and “Little Pair.” Good to know they’ve both got a pair, but if I were named “Little Pair” I think I’d feel I got the short end of the stick.
02
Apr 2007Chinese Sign Language: Fingerspelling
手语基础 cover
I recently picked up a book on Chinese sign language called 手语基础. “Practicality” was not a major consideration in the organization of the book; it seems to be written by linguists for linguists. If I needed the book to actually communicate in Chinese sign language I’d probably be pretty disgusted with it, but since my interest is primarily academic, I’m enjoying it.
In its second chapter the book talks about fingerspelling (also called manual alphabets). It runs through a variety of systems, including the earliest systems used in Chinese. I’ve scanned the charts (click through to the Flickr page for larger size), which you see below. (more…)
01
Apr 2007Ethics and Instruments: a Photograph
This is a blind musician playing outside of Nanjing Road West (南京西路) Station in Shanghai. Two questions:
1. Is it OK to photograph a blind person without their knowing it? (I photographed this guy without asking, and then gave him 5 RMB.) The ethics of photography has always been an interesting subject to me, and it’s one I’ve actually really quite struggled with over the years, especially in the northern mountains of Thailand and in China’s Yunnan.
2. What is that funky instrument?? It’s really quite cool… way better than the boring old erhu. I do believe it was… polyphonic.
31
Mar 2007Democracy Invented in China
Long Legged Fly is at it again with his Onion-style articles. (This has been done before, most notably by the not-updated-since-2006 Gou-rou.com, but I especially like the ones that Long Legged Fly chooses to write.) This time it’s CHINA DISCOVERS DEMOCRACY ACTUALLY INVENTED IN CHINA.
An excerpt:
> As with their invention of the modern game of soccer, the probability that two different civilizations could separately invent such dauntingly complex things as voting or kicking a ball around is so small as to be almost impossible. “The only likely conclusion,” says Professor Wang, “is that these things, like pretty much everything in the world, were invented in China, and spread to the West through trade routes or magic.”
See also the BEST AT CHINA AWARD.
29
Mar 2007Satisfying Conclusions
Remember how my visa went 144 days overdue, then when I got it renewed, I only got a 2 month visa? Well, I got my new passport, then I finally got my new visa. Today. Looks like I’ll never need to apply for a student visa again. For me, that is a satisfying conclusion.
Speaking of satisfying conclusions, I’ll soon be able to put closure soon on another story I once told here on this blog. Can anyone guess which one it is? (No, it has nothing to do with me getting married.)
Of course, the real satisfying conclusion will be when ChinesePod finally launches V3. It has been extremely busy these past two weeks, and it’s not quite over yet…
I’ll be blogging more when it is.
26
Mar 2007Semantic Flavors of "My" in Chinese and English
My end of the term pragmatics/semantics paper looked at the use of the English word “my” in certain constructions and compared it with the corresponding “我的” constructions in Chinese.
When you say “my X” in English, it could actually mean a variety of things, but we generally expect it to mean something like “the X that belongs to me.” Such is the case for “my book,” “my blog,” my hand,” etc. When X is a societal unit or group, however, the semantic relationship is no longer the default. Let’s take a look at these examples:
– my parents
– my family
– my class
– my gym
– my university
– my bank
– my company
– my hometown
– my city
– my government
– my country
So when you say “my parents,” are you expressing that your parents belong to you, or that you belong to your parents? Or is it another relationship altogether?
25
Mar 2007My Own Crayon
I’m a bit late in calling attention to this, but it looks like I got my name on a Chinese crayon. Well, a Sinocidal crayon, anyway.
What they call “John Pasden Gator Green” is affectionately (?) referred to by my friends as “Sinosplice Green,” or, to the slightly nerdier, #336633.
I’ve been pondering a redesign lately. I won’t have time to do it until late summer, but I’m thinking… Less green. More white. More space. Wider than 800 pixels.
23
Mar 2007Little i, the Chinese Chatbot Bigot
Roddy of Chinese-Forums.com brought to my attention 小i, a Chinese chatbot. Roddy had some amusing exchanges, but 小i has a less cute side as well.
When the subject of Japan or the Japanese come up, 小i responds:
> 不怎么样，非常恶心的 (it’s not too great, really disgusting)
> 坚决打倒～～ (resolutely overthrow)
> 没去过，但是他们说日本人挺恶心的！ (I’ve never been, but they say the Japanese are quite disgusting!)
When the subject of the Taiwanese comes up, 小i responds:
> 我不喜欢台湾人，太小气了 (I don’t like the Taiwanese, they’re too stingy)
When the subject of black people comes up, 小i responds:
> 巧克力 (chocolate)
When I say I’m pregnant, 小i responds:
> 谁知道是谁的,快去打了 (Who knows whose it is — go abort it)
When I say I want to commit suicide, 小i responds:
> 好好好！~~你快点！我等着！~~我会给你打点好一切后事的！~~~ (Good good good! Hurry up! I’m waiting! I’ll take care of all the funeral arrangements for you!)
I guess this dialogue I had with 小i sums it all up:
> Me: 你不是人 (You’re not a person)
> 小i: 我是机器人。 (I’m a robot.)
> Me: 机器人很坏 (Robots are bad.)
> 小i: 对啊 (That’s right.)
Despite its bad upbringing, 小i is quite fun to play with. Roddy says individual netizens can help train its responses, which explains a lot. You can add it to your MSN buddy list.
22
Mar 2007Bad Subway Ad
There’s not much to do while waiting for the subway other than look at the ads (and also wonder if a crazy person might ever push someone else onto the track in front of an oncoming train). Here’s the worst one I’ve ever seen:
Just looking at it makes my intellect hurt. Never mind that I’m not the target audience… this is simply horrific.
20
Mar 2007Expat in the Corner
In lieu of a real post, I will link to a ChinaDaily article about some foreigner in China that probably thinks he’s hot stuff.
We bitter expats in China hate guys like this.
(Hmmm, could lack of posting correspond to my recent acquisition of God of War 2? Nah… I’m busy, I tell you!)
17
Mar 2007Buying God of War 2 in Shanghai
I recently went to my local video game store and asked when God of War 2 was coming out (yeah, I’m a little excited about this game). They told me March 15th. Well, this past week at ChinesePod was really busy, working hard to implement all kinds of new features.
Yesterday (March 16th) after work, I met my wife for dinner. She asked about God of War 2. I had forgotten about it. We rushed over to a nearby video game store, and the conversation went something like this (keep in mind that the normal price in Shanghai is 5 RMB per PS2 game):
> Me: Do you have God of War 2?
> Shop Owner: (not looking up from his game) Yes.
> Me: How much?
> Shop Owner: (not looking up from his game) 20.
> Me: 20?! Why??
> Shop Owner: (not looking up from his game) It’s DVD-9 and it’s brand new.
> Me: So how long is it going to be 20?
> Shop Owner: (not looking up from his game) Come back tomorrow and it’ll be 10. No, wait, 15.
> Me: Forget it.
Then my wife and I headed to our local video game store. We were afraid it would be closed, but it wasn’t. They had God of War 2, but the boss told me it wasn’t working on a lot of people’s PS2 machines. When I tried to pay, he insisted on giving it to me for free, because I had recently helped him out with something.
When I got home it took about 5 tries, but it worked.
Today John B informed me that that same shop is charging 15 RMB for the game.
Oh, and by the way… yes, it is awesome.
P.S. Piracy is bad!
16
Mar 2007A Conversation with a Wrong Number
I had the following conversation with a woman this morning after she called my cell phone for the second time:
> Woman: Hi, are you Pan Meihua?
> Me: No. You’ve got the wrong number again.
> Woman: Are you sure? What’s your name?
> Me: Yes. My name is Pan Ji, not Pan Meihua.
> Woman: But do you know Zhang Jie?
> Me: What?
> Woman: Zhang Jie! Do you know her?
> Me: Well, I know a “Zhang Jie,” but it’s a pretty common name…
> Woman: The Zhang Jie that sells insurance!
> Me: Oh, yes, I do know a Zhang Jie that sells insurance…
> Woman: Well, I’m her cousin! I’m in Shenyang!
> Me: OK…
> Woman: I’m moving to Shanghai soon!
> Me: Look, I know Zhang Jie, but that’s only because she’s my insurance agent!
> Woman: Oh. I guess I still have the wrong number then.
> Me: Yes.
> Woman: OK, bye then.
> Me: Goodbye.
I felt almost bad, because this Dongbei woman was so excited about moving to Shanghai, and she totally wanted to talk to me about it, but she obviously had the wrong number. I guess maybe my insurance agent gave her my number by mistake.
14
Mar 2007Busy ChinesePod
I’ve been doing work for “Version 3” of ChinesePod for quite a while now, but it was sort of not public so I couldn’t really say anything. Now the fabulous news is coming to light. Ken and Hank are blogging about it. The latest is: Brand new look. So if I’ve told you “I’m really busy at work” recently, this is why. (Also because new hire Adsotrans Dave is wreaking havoc in the office and stealing my pens.)
In other fascinating CPod news, blogger Frank Fradella interviewed me on his blog. Reading it is free!