The Apples of the dumped chinese girl

Such a sad subject. It is interesting...but how common is this tradition?

The apple she eats in that video is HUGE!! The only apples I have seen that size are for cooking with

Rich,

Thank you for the correction.

You also made some great translations.

Nice job !

Here's a quick translation I did of the opening monolog, and then a link to the song (if needing simplified characters): <记得>: 两个相爱的人, Two people who love each other 如果有了相反的梦, If they have contrary dreams 分开以后能记得什么呢? After they break up, what can they remember? 是相遇时的惊心动魄, The soul-stirring of meeting each other at the right time? 是相爱时的甜美时光, The sweet moment they loved each other? 是争执时的锥心刺骨, The time of heart-drilling bone-piercing arguments? 还是分手后的最后祝福? Or the last blessing after breaking up? 在分手后,搬家那天, After breaking up, the day she was moving away, 收拾房子,打包回忆, She was tidying her home, packing away the memories, 迟来的苹果. When the apples finally arrived 对女主角 是百感交集的一天, To the female lead, its the day all sorts of feelings well up in her heart 对每个爱过的人 是永远记得的一天. To every person who has loved, its the day we will always remember (Then then song 记得:) 谁还记得,是谁先说永远的爱我. Whoever still remembers, it's the one who first said he will forever love me 以前的一句话... The words said before... (click here for song the complete song lyrics) (another video of this song)

Here is a clip of 张惠妹 called 记得 (remember). As explained in chinese at the beginning, the girl is moving after a break-up and receives some apples. In this case, are the apples a symbol of 平安 as suggested by Connie last july ? You move away and forget bad things. As a result, you get 平安 (appeased mind). [...] 在分手后 (after a break-up) 搬家那天 (here comes the day to move home) 收拾房子 (clean up the apartment) 打包回悒 (pack all this pain) 适来的苹果 (that's the right time for the arrival of apple) [...]

TaiPain, as I read your post I laughed but then I realized it would have little meaning to anyone who was not familiar with the very common expression "how do you like them apples". I dont know where this came from. Is this strictly an American thing? Any insights? Is there a comparable expression in Chinese?

unless i pulled a Freud and by "Hard cylinder object" meant hitting the man with the part of his own "brain" that probably caused the split up in the first place...

..what was this topic about again?

oh no, 好尴尬

yes you are right ，im wrong. Apples are round!

should be hard Spherical objects.

right??!??

chittywangwang: "...hard cylinder objects ..."? Where do you get these from? Do you now have oblong apples in China? Or do you have a drain pipe handy at any times??

** worried ** :-)

YOu wanna be carefull giving out apples to recently broken up with Chinese girls... Those hard cylinder objects comes in handy as missles aimed at your cheating/lying head.

Kerou85,

That's 不能说的秘密 (aka Secret) with Jay Chou (周杰伦).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_%282007_film%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Chou

What is the name of that movie..... I would like to see it. ^_^

We learned about this in Chinese class, although our lesson was about visiting people in hospital.

Apparently it is best to give round-shaped fruits since they represent 幸福 (xìngfú - deep happiness). The best fruit to give is apples since the 苹 (píng in píngguǒ - apple) sounds the same as the 平 (píng in píngān - peace).

Also never give somebody pears in hospital since the word for pear (梨 - lí) sounds the same as the lí in 离开 (líkāi - to leave/depart). They equate this with sentiments of death.

kmkfr, that's just brilliant!

Goulniky, Here is a more elaborate translation of 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away' that I've just found in a famous movie : 每日一颗苹果就可远离病危 (I'm sure 厄 is a typo)

Connie, I learned a lot from your Chinese written paragraph, not only about this custom, but also about sentence structure and Chinese culture. Great post. Thank you.

Now I'm starting to read a lot deeper into the mystery of the apple. Let's take a closer look at the apple's history:

Adam and Eve

Some say it was an apple. Obviously, if it hadn't been for the apple in this context, life would be a lot easier right now. Instant language skills, all the food we can eat, no pain and suffering, the works. You get the picture.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

The evil witch poisoned an apple, which Snow White ate causing her to then entered a deep sleep, from which she would never had awoken had it not been for the charming prince's kiss.

The Chinese Apple

A clever way of telling someone to get lost. It fits the culture to a 'T' by getting a very direct meaning across while being confusing yet still saving face. "Here's an apple. Eat it and be healthy. Now screw off (safely)."

I'll never look at apples the same way again.

每天苹果

没天病弱

my first, appaling attempt at Chinese parallel sentences, mimicking 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'.

I know it sucks, and nothing to do with 分手 either :-(

It's worth explicitly pointing out something that John's English translation of Connie's comments implies: your use of the word "send" in the original message of this thread is a bit of a mistranslation.

While 送 does primarily mean "send" (or in some contexts in English it would be more usual to refer to "delivery" as per 送到), it also has a secondary meaning of "give as a gift" (赠送), and this meaning probably fits the context better. Actually, the Wikipedia quote you give in fact does use 赠送 (zèngsòng) rather than just 送, so I guess this removes any ambiguity.

For instance, the ChinesePod dictionary gives this quote from the Newbie

Valentine's Day Gift lesson ( http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/valentines-day-gift ):

送给你。

This is for you

There is also a third meaning, in the sense of seeing someone out, accompanying a guest to the door or front (送客).

Nope. No need.

I never broke up with my wife who was also my 初恋.

Obviouly it's deeper than I first thought.

The apples were on a green curved dish with the shape of a leaf. A friend just told me that it could be called 出叶 because it looks like a leaf. But Chūyè sounds exactly like the wedding night (初夜).

I need to know the full meaning of this gesture. Any ideas ?

Taipan,

It was ALSO trashed by the crew after that News&Features jingle. I thought at the time she'd just relocated to Shanghai.

Ai zhong de ai,

Trevelyan,

You might want to look into that a little further...

I think your apartment was trashed by the Chinesepod listeners after you released that 'News & Features' intro song.

Nide Ai

Chinese people give each other gifts when they break up? I had my apartment trashed last time. Maybe she was just looking for fruit.

Let me just highlight Connie's answers to the original questions:

但是，在男女分手时，通常不会送苹果。终止合同时，也不会送对方苹果。

"But when a boy and girl break up, we don't usually give apples as gifts. When terminating a contract, we don't give apples either."

I always send girls apples after I break up with them. I say, "You like trying to tell me how to live my life?! Is that what you like? You like trying to control me?!? You like trying to change me?!? You Like that?!? Well as of now, you're not my girlfriend anymore... You're fired! ...How do you like them apples!?!"

...and then I send her some apples for good measure. That's how I roll. Hell yeah.

苹果在中国象征着平安。所以在传统的中国婚礼上，新娘会手里捧着苹果坐上花轿，意味着平安、吉祥。如果一个人要出远门，他的父母常常会在他的包里装上苹果，希望他能一路平安。在探望病人或亲人的时候，也可以送苹果。现在，一些年轻人流行在平安夜那天送苹果。

但是，在男女分手时，通常不会送苹果。终止合同时，也不会送对方苹果。

另外，中国人常常把初恋比做青苹果，因为初恋的感觉跟青苹果的味道一样，有点酸，有点甜，又有点涩。

Oh, and oranges 橙子 are a good present for someone who has done/pass something successfully, since the 橙子的橙 and 成功的成 are homophones.

Yeah, never heard that either, well, I have heard that apples are a good gift to give because of the 苹.being like 平. And of course a lot of things like this are in local areas, not the whole nation...heck, not much is universal like this around the whole nation, except maybe how you shouldn't stick your 筷子 upright in your rice or give someone a clock for a present.

Interest, I wonder also if the 果 of 苹果 has meaning too, as it also used in the word for result/outcome 结果. So 苹果 could sound like "peaceful resolution".

I've never heard of this before, but I've still got plenty to learn about this crazy place...

Oops sorry, 苹 and 平 are of course homophones not homonyms.