Dear Amber - Chinatomy: Medical Treatments and Marriage Registration

Hey everyone,

If you're squeamish you might not want to look, but here is the pic of my friend who had the 'cupping' experience we talk about in the Chinatomy segment.  Don't say we didn't warn ya!  :D

And he's just a friend.. riiiight.. like clay's "friends".. I see.. *nods*.. We all believe you, Amber. :p

Yikes, that looks nasty

The new dear amber lesson graphic looks great

The State of Florida may have certified that John's singleness, but what about the  other 49 states? For all I know, John could have gone to Vegas years ago and got married over there. Just kidding! :D

Five years ago, a friend of mine went back to China. We were instant-messaging each other one day. He had just told me that he got his marriage certificate and confused the heck out of me. I was so used to the American way of couples announcing their engagement, followed later by a wedding ceremony. It took several exchanges of instant messages before I figured out the Mainland Chinese marriage custom. My friend didn't even have a wedding ceremony.

That was...ehh....太ehh了。 :P Amber, do you have pics of your acupuncture session? I haven't seen someone with needles all over his/her body.

Hi hitokiri,

No, I should have thought to take pics though. I was too mesmerized by the needles, maybe. Maybe someone else has some they can post!

Nice, Dear Amber, Amber! Love the new pic. John talks about his marriage on his blog. http://www.sinosplice.com/life/ lots of interesting info,

Just had my travel injections to go to China this morning...maybe if i'd used chinese medicine I could have had them massaged into me (i wish :P)

Finding a good, 专业 的 TCM practitioner that you can see regularly adds immeasurably to one's quality of life in China.

jiaojie, 祝你 快乐!

Hi Amber,

Would you be so kind as to share with us the Chinese used by zhaojie?

I believe there were three statements relating to; residence book, non-relation confirmation and voluntary marriage confirmation.

Thanks
J

I have a few questions:

How binding is the marriage certificate before the "social marriage"? If the couple decide to not get married do they need to get a "legal" divorce?

I assume by the dialogue that people will celebrate their wedding anniversary not on the legal date but on the social date?

When people say "from the North" or "from the South" where is the hypotheotical line that marks the boundary between North and South?

That guy must have had quite a few sore spots!

At the top is something labeled "Exercises". I was thrilled that DA comes with exercises, too, So, I immediately gave it a try ... NOTHING!

I would love to have some vocab exercises or listening aptitude stuff here! It could even be something in English on the cultural side of things.

I love the new photo Amber!

Hi guys, check this rare amateur Ba2 Huo3 Guan4.

The marriage segment was very interesting.

Jiaojie庆祝新婚。百年好合！

How would you say "please don't crack me!", 情你别喀嚓我 (qíng nǐ bié kā chā wǒ), or is crack 嘎巴 (gā bā)?

amber says 7 hours ago Hi hitokiri, No, I should have thought to take pics though. I was too mesmerized by the needles, maybe. Maybe someone else has some they can post!

Here are the pictures that I talked about on "Dear Amber" a month or so ago

HELP: I can not seem to get the pictures transferred!

 pictures are at

www.eng.utoledo.edu\~wolson\ACU 1.jpg

and

 www.eng.utoledo.edu\~wolson\acu 2 copy.jpg

Try yet again! .... SUCCESS is SOOOO SWEET!

Hi Walt.  Do you need a password to access your photos at www.eng.utoledo.edu\~wolson?  I tried a couple ways to access the photos, in a separate browser, but had no luck.  It says the server can't be found.

Interesting  photos, Walt. Thanks. Did it alleviate the problem? I expected more dirt and grunge on the ground, but it looks fairly clean for a make-shift acupuncturist's office.

I can't see wolson's photos in Firefox, but can on Safari.

Yes, love the new DA photo. It more accurately reflects what a beauty Amber is.

You can see the photos?  I can't see them here.  All I see is a lot of blank white space where the photos should be.  Very strange.

I'm going to try a different browser....

Strange...I can see the photos in Safari, but not Firefox or Netscape.  Another glitch I suppose.

Not sure if there was any real health effect, but I really love Chinese foot masssage.  Great in the winter...happy feet.

Wolson,

Looks like Xi'an, dui ba. 

light487, my understanding of the dividing line between North and South is that everything south of the Yellow River excluding the big bend is South China; everything north of the Yellow River, including the big bend is Northern China.  Personally, the Yangtze would make a more logical dividing line to me; but then again, I ain't Chinese.  

I believe the distinction has historical roots going back a couple thousand years.

The new DA pics were all taken by Frank Fradella... a photography genius.  If you want more samples of his awesome pics from China and elsewhere, check out his Flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/newbabel/sets/72157603885095155/

Thanks Frankie baby!

I was more interested in the later half of this Dear Amber and have transcribed the Mandarin for anyone else that may have interest.

户口本 和 身份证
hù kǒu běn hé shēn fèn zhèng
(Residence book and ID card)

你们是近亲吗？
nǐ men shì jìn qīn ma ？
(Are you close relatives)

你们是自愿结婚的吗？
nǐ men shì zì yuàn jié hūn de ma ？
(Are you voluntarily getting married?)

你愿意娶卢小姐为妻吗
nǐ yuàn yì qǔ lú xiǎo jie wèi qī ma
(Are you willing to marry miss lu?)

是/是的
shì /shì de
(yes)

We have had rough massages in China but nothing like Amber's friend. aarrrgghh.

calkins says 22 hours ago Hi Walt.  Do you need a password to access your photos at www.eng.utoledo.edu\~wolson?  I tried a couple ways to access the photos, in a separate browser, but had no luck.  It says the server can't be found.

You should not. I change the mode priveliges before posting them. The problem I think is that the full address was not made a link in the comment. The space in the name apparently interrupted the linking. If you type in the full name in the address bar, you should be able to see them. I copied the pictures and change the names to a1.jpg and a2.jpg where I had success and this worked for display here.

azerdocmom says 22 hours ago Interesting  photos, Walt. Thanks. Did it alleviate the problem? I expected more dirt and grunge on the ground, but it looks fairly clean for a make-shift acupuncturist's office. I can't see wolson's photos in Firefox, but can on Safari. Yes, love the new DA photo. It more accurately reflects what a beauty Amber is.

He said it helped.

billm says 16 hours ago Wolson,   Looks like Xi'an, dui ba.

Excellent observation. It was Xian. I had talked about this in the "Dear Amber" that she recorded when I was in Shanghai and posted at

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/superstitions-and-business-trip-tales/discussion

我曾經有針灸. 多麼多麼痛了!  Those needles almost killed me. I was only about 8歲. :(

Joachim,
Excercises for DA...what a great idea!

Maybe just a few fun & simple ones of the type "select the correct picture" or "mark the suitable audio".

E.g. "Who will put you in jail - 保安， 公安， 协管员， 城管" or "Which treatment hurts most?".

Add a little language learning & reinforcement twist...

Sorry to get all scientific on you, but the cupping explanation of getting rid of the oxygen by burning it is wrong as you would just replace the oxygen with an equal amount, or even more, of other gases (carbon dioxide, steam etc.).

It would be more likely due to hot gases taking up more space, so when a hot gas is cooled (like when the candle is removed and the cup placed on your back), the gas will shrink, thereby decreasing pressure inside.

Ohhh those cups look extremly stingable! Great new pic Amber

I had acupuncture when I was a kid as well! It helped with my colds, and I seemed to get used to needles sticking out of my back. And I agree with Amber with that one, after a while, it does feel a bit cool.

My girlfriend also had acupuncture done, but all the needles were placed on her left hand and she had to keep them there for 4 hours! That for me is terrible. :P

And the cup thing really works! We used to do this thing called "ventosa" here in the Philippines. If you had a stomach ache, you can do the cup thing over your stomach!

骄杰， 干杯！ (Jiāojié, gān bēi!)  It was nice to hear so much of her on this DA.

Thanks Jamesian for the translations, it definitely helped.

Very interesting episode. I was wondering in how far the families of Chinese women in the bigger cities still perceive the marriage of their daughter as a step out of their and into the family of the new husband. Especially when he is a foreigner.

Jiaojie or John: Can you maybe enlighten me a little bit about nowadays situation.

Thank you! ;)

Calkins, Amber,

There's a problem with the link. When you click on it, you get a bogus link.

The plaintext link is also wrong, Calkins' question says

"Hi Walt.  Do you need a password to access your photos at www.eng.utoledo.edu\~wolson?  I tried a couple ways to access the photos, in a separate browser, but had no luck.  It says the server can't be found."

That's not a valid URL. URLs never contain backslashes (\). They have to contain normal slashes (/). Try typing in what you see above, but with a normal slash instead of a backslash. (The error exists in Amber's first posting).

http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/~wolson

This gets Walt's home page.

But, this doesn't access the pictures. The link appears to be

www.eng.utoledo.edu/~wolson/acu,

but that link says "no such directory"

However, careful examination of Amber's posting reveals the correct URLs of the two pictures:

http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/~wolson/ACU%201.jpg

fetches one of  the photos, and

http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/~wolson/acu%202%20copy.jpg

fetches the other. Note that unlike some servers, this one is case-sensitive. If you use ACU instead of acu (or vice versa) you'll also get nonworking URLs.

amber says

3 days ago

Hey everyone,

If you're squeamish you might not want to look, but here is the pic of my friend who had the 'cupping' experience we talk about in the Chinatomy segment.  Don't say we didn't warn ya!  :D

 

Looks like he's turning into some kind of reptile hehe.

谢谢大家给我的祝福！

xuefeng:

Most of the families in the bigger cities also think of the marriage of their daughter as a step out of their own family and into the family of the new husband. The parents hope their daughter will marry a good young man and be happy in the new family. If their daughter encounters difficulties in the marriage in the future, however, her family will protect and help her.

What meaning is Chinatomy ? I could not find it in dictionary.

artkho, what did you mean in the following sentence ? What is the meaning of heck in it ?

He had just told me that he got his marriage certificate and confused the heck out of me

shensw,

Chinatomy is not a real word.  It is a clever combination of two words "China" + "anatomy".  So Chinatomy means "an analysis or dissection of China".

Amber,Connie,Clay,anybody,everbody

 I noticed that the women who act out the dialog for learning Chinese seem to always use a very high pitched voice. I have heard this style used on numerous chinese learning CD's . Is this a part of Chinese acting or Drama/plays? Clay I am sure you noticed it as well. We could use a lesson on Chinese theatre. Thanks for all the help.

Thank you, boran. I got it now.

The "medical" massage we often call "accupressure" -- combination of "accu" from accupuncture" and "pressure".  In Chinese, how does one distinguish between the "medical" massage and the relaxing one?

[BTW, Amber, you might want to be a bit careful to whom you tell that you just went "spooning": http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spooning]

Do you have in China what we name "enterrement de vie de jeune fille ou de garçon" in French?

I don't know the translation in English.

It's a ceremony to celebrate the last day of your single life. Normally boys are together and choose Strip Tease for the bridegroom and girls have fun on their side.

Amber (or john) I'm kinda curious about the specific certificate that John had to get to prove his "singledom." Feel like sharing a few specifics?

tbone,

It was just a document stating that I was a resident of the state of Florida, and there were no records of me getting married. (Fortunately I didn't need this document from all 50 states, because technically I could have gotten married in any of them...)

What's the difference between an mo and tui na?

A good tui na practioner can do chiropractor like things that are sometimes necessary, like setting a broken bone.

Cupping is a suction that can remove stagnation and can help with vericose veins and chronic pain as well as the common cold among many other things.

Since Chinese medicine is a form of medicine and acupuncture is a method used to treat ailments within chinese medicine.  I can safely say that Chinese medicine can treat any form of illness, much like allopathic medicine can treat any form illness.  The only issue is finding the right doctor to treat it.  You would see your family doctor for certain things, but then you might be refered to a colo-rectal surgeon for an completely different set of problems.

kelinsheng,

推拿 tuīná is what you are probably learning in your TCM course i.e. Chinese remedial massage

按摩 ānmó is more run-of-the-mill massage

^ sorry that should be ànmó