我有一个问题。那个黑户的人怎么办？

而且，怎么样维生素D和退黑激素？

黑五类 hēiwǔlèi <pol> general designation of landlord, rich peasant, counterrevolutionary, bad element and rightist.

有时候我看过“黑”大概二十次多，但我会还打赌红

My late grandfather often told me not to gamble, and I take his advice.

。。不过，我仍然愿意打赌它 不会被黑。。呵呵

Also, maybe it would be useful to explain 黑 also stands for Heilongjiang. Thus, a car with a license plate of "黑", isn't a 黑车.

I don't know if it has a positive meaning, but "黑马" (dark horse) is a good thing, at least, for some guys who took a contrarian approach in gambling, hehe. Here is another example, "黑漆漆的头发" (hei1qi1qi1 de tou2fa, glossy black hair).

Thanks. There must be a positive connotation for the color black, otherwise you wouldn't see so many black cars on the road. Maybe every guy wants a sedan that is 黑漆漆 to look rich and mysterious. And of course, use dark tinted windows. I can't think that all these drivers want to look like gangsters.

(We anticipated Changye's prediction, so decided to throw a curveball... hehe)

Jew's-ear, kelp, black soybean, black sesame, purple rice, black-bone-chicken. Now we can see some of the result.

This is a Chinese version of "Machiavellian", I suppose.

In 1961, at the Guangzhou conference, Deng uttered what is perhaps his most famous quotation: "I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice."  This was interpreted to mean that being productive in life is more important than whether one follows a communist or capitalist ideology. (Wikipedia)

I guess that 黑名单 is the literal translation of the English word "blacklist".

Hi John,

It is hard for me to put my figure on the mystery of joking in the western way.

Hi changye,

This guiding principle has rooted in Chinese minds ever since and then materialism becomes a national charateristic, that is to say, physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life.

The color of the Qing emperor?

(;

when to use particle 'ne' at end of sentence?

what is it's real meaning conflicting with 'ma' 

simple examples in pinyin would be appreciated

That's a good idea. According to the 阴阳五行 theory, 黄 is regarded as "the central color" of five colors (五色), namely, white, black, red, yellow, and blue. So, logically speaking, we still have three 请问 lessons that haven't been publicized yet, i.e. lessons on 红色 (red)，黄色 (yellow)，and 蓝色 (blue).

Probably we can use 黑漆漆的头发 to describe someone's hair, but for me, it doesn't sound like a compliment because when I think of something that is 黑漆漆, I just think that it's so dark that we can't see anything. For example, 那个房间黑漆漆的，真可怕。or 他的头发黑漆漆的，没什么光泽。I would say 乌溜溜的头发 to describe "glossy black hair."

Thanks a lot for the correction. 乌溜溜 is completely new to me, thanks again. Looks like I confused "黑漆漆" with "黑溜溜"......

P/S. Interestingly enough, there is the same expression in English, i.e. raven-black hair (乌溜溜的头发).

For example, you can translate "are you a student?" into Chinese by saying

nǐ shì xuéshēng ma?

nǐ shìbúshi 4xuéshēng ne? (Notice that "nǐ shìbúshi 4xuéshēng" is already a question in its own right.)

The former one is a simple question to ask whether you are a student; the latter one hints that the person thinks you are a student, but s/he is not sure, so he uses the "ne" question to ask for confirmation.

Other examples:

tā shì wáng xiānshēng (He is Mr. Wang) => tā shì wáng xiānshēng ma? (=tā shìbúshì wáng xiānsheng?) ( Is he Mr. Wang?)

tā shìbúshì wáng xiānsheng ne? (Is he Mr. Wang?) (Asking for confirmation)

tā shì shéi? (Who is he?) (Tell me who he is)

tā shì shéi ne? (Who is he?) (I wonder who this person is)

*tā shì shéi ma? (Wrong sentence, "ma" can't be attached to an interrogative sentence)

I hope I didn't offend anyone by mentioning this term. I found it while leafing through the 黑- section of my dictionary. As you say, though, using such a negative term to describe a successful business person in modern China would be pretty strange.

See the link on tal_'s comment here:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/6812#comment-150939

The lighter your skin, the better, even for native Han. Black is worst. I think Babar also linked to examples of colour-prejudice somewhere. Maybe in the same discussion.

I'm in Hong Kong right now and haven't discerned any negative response from the people I've met. The children seem curious--they might take a good long look and then ask their parents. I met with a group who are in their late-20's, early 30's, and one of the men expressed that it was an honour to shake hands with a black man. Ladies in their early 20's have said I look handsome.

I haven't had the opportunity to spend time with anyone who is older yet.

I read an article the other day, maybe following a link from someone else on here, by a black guy who spoke fluent chinese and was able to understand everything said around him. He wishes he hadn't been able to, because when he went to China everyone assumed that he couldn't understand what they were saying about him. He was shocked at what he heard. Maybe his experience isn't typical, but if it is a fair reflection of attitudes in China, then it would make me, a white guy likely to experience less ignorance, think twice about going there again.

It's possible that the chinese are more enlightened in HK because of the influence of western attitudes there (former British colony),and because it is more cosmopolitan and so has more experience of people of different colour.

zhidaole 

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/6155

Changye is right that the color series will cover 5 colors, but they're not exactly those 5.

Babar - could you rewrite that link because it hits the brick wall at the end of the universe (at least, on my screen) before it ends, and can't be followed.

Cheers

By the way, pedreira, hope to see more of you in the community section : I'm sick of looking at all the palefaces here :)

http://chinesepod.com/community/

conversations/post/6155

..hopefully if you put those two bits together it'll work. :)

Thanks babar, I can see it all now.

I just found the article I was refering to. It's at:

http://intermultiracialissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/racialism_in_china

Another depressing read is at:

http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/asiapacific/090318-China-racism-redirected

(can you see all that ? I can't)

Yes,I can see all that.It's spread over 3 lines [with only the word "redirected on the 3rd line].I wonder if you did "Control -" if that would make the text smaller but then you'd see it all.Of course not an ideal solution if it then makes it hard to read. Good luck :)

By the way, hellotherebrick, I found that triple-clicking on the link highlighted the whole thing (even what was not visible in the window). When I pasted that into a browser address bar, the whole address appeared.

There's not much prejudice hereabouts nowadays, at least not around where I live. I work with lots of people of all sorts of nationalities, and I meet plenty of other people in my job too, so I can say that confidently. There is little racialism amongst the young, but there is some in those over 60 or so. People are mainly judged by their character and work-habits; the main criticism I hear from work colleagues concerns some muslims who take time off work to pray 5 times a day and go to the mosque at inconvenient times. But that's not really racialism.

Hellotherebrick, glad the triple-clicking trick works. Yes,

of Goan ancestry. Most of my family still lives in London, so I am aware how much things have changed, especially over the last 20 years or so. I suppose that's good news for the future of race relations in China.

恭喜发财！万事如意!

thanks for sharing a very interesting comment mate. If it's not too painful/personal to go into, I wasn't too clear what you were referring to/meant by:

"As an African American I have my own experiences with people from Africa while in Asia, a history with its own pain."

It's the lack of acknowledgment at times, walking along in Hong Kong and having Africans turn away when you pass. It doesn't always happen (which we can say about any of this). The mistake many people make is to assume African Americans "are" African or that there is an instant rapport. It's not so. I have my African friends, including the lady who gave me my African name, but we black Americans are perceived very often as "other," or to be avoided entirely because we are all hip hop gangsters--another kind of prejudice which can be more hurtful than racism depending on your worldview. It's complicated, which has nothing to do with the recent movie by the same title...:-)