User Comments - Tal

Posted on: B.O. in the Library

一个美女发狐臭啊？怎么会呢？难道她是狐狸精吧？;-)

Posted on: Heat Stroke

哈哈, sorry to shock you podster! ;-)

But Ezra Pound wasn't French was he? Actually I'd never heard of the poem you mention, it's sweet, thanks. Is it really about a toilet? (Er... sorry, I mean a W.C. of course!)

And at the risk of getting even more French (lol) I can't get rich's 'take your clothes off' story out of my head. And the idea that there may (just possibly) be times when it's actually quite desirable to know the correct form of words to instigate the loosening or removal of those 内衣!

Posted on: Heat Stroke

Say what? What comment? You seem to be living in some little world of your own bob. Can I just explain to you that I have something usually referred to as 'a life' - I certainly do not keep a diary of exchanges with you.

Seriously I think you need some kind of professional help, in fact I'm not without sympathy for your predicament. I know you're both incapable of looking at yourself objectively and/or taking any kind of advice, but I'm now gonna give you some. If you possess an ounce of real sense you will harken.

1.Get off your anal high horse.

2. Try and have (a little) humility.

3. Restrain for an instant your childish need to have the last word in any exchange.

4. Apologise occasionally for your misanthropy and boorishness.

5. Er... That's it!

Posted on: Heat Stroke

*sigh*

Posted on: Heat Stroke

哈哈哈, only my mother calls me that Bob.

适可而止。

Posted on: Heat Stroke

呵呵, in fact context does play a very significant part in any language I think, but it is certainly very often everything in Chinese. Thanks for the clear explanation rich, which I think also offers an insight into the squeamishness around many words and concepts which is part of the Chinese mindset. I have myself it seems occasionally embarrassed Chinese people by 'calling a spade a spade'!

Posted on: Heat Stroke

"Perhaps he also gets into debates often, but the Cpod boards seem to be approaching a ghosttown compared to the activity of years before..."

You're not wrong there tingyun, but you know back in those days there was sometimes 'discussion' about how the boards were dominated by a 'clique' of self-indulgent users who filled up the forum with irrelevant 'piffle'. In one of his former incarnations Bob... er, I mean Mr. Wingnut, stated his ideal would be a 'pristine' message board devoid of such nonsense, and its a dream that seems to have become a reality, *chuckle*. Or has it? (j/k)

Posted on: Left My Cell Phone in a Taxi

I've been in a lot of taxis in China, but I've never heard 计价器 before! You'll hear 打表 pretty often. And yes it's rare to recover lost items, especially phones.

Posted on: Wedding Photo Shoot

哈哈哈! Great idea for a topic. This phenomenon of the 'wedding photo album' says a lot about the Chinese mind set. Appearance is everything, it totally doesn't matter that you won't look anything like yourself in these pictures, the whole idea is to manufacture a glitzy sugar-coated 'version' of reality for the wife to show off to her friends and family and daydream over at leisure.

You forgot to mention how it's always required to have meaningless slushy English phrases positioned over the pictures when the luxurious-looking (and hugely overpriced) album is finally produced. These can be a source of secret mirth for any foreign husband and his buddies. I had 'you make me feel so lovey-dovey' on one page, and 'I really only like you' [sic] (lol) on another. An American boy I used to know got 'I wanna always kiss-wiss you' on the album cover.

It's also I think worth mentioning that the whole thing is something like a combination of rite of passage and endurance ordeal. The photoshoot day for me started around 6.30, being shoe-horned into a bunch of crazy outfits and enduring a long make-up session, wifey's took more than double the time. The grooms-to-be spend endless stretches of time hanging around bored to death and feeling awkward. Then you and a bunch of other couples will be transported to some picturesque location. More endless hanging around before a few minutes of snapping pictures in front of movie-set like mock-ups of castle stairways, sailboat decks, Greek ruins, etc etc. Then you're whisked away for more make-up and costume changes. More hanging around.

Down here on the south coast it's usually obligatory to do at least one photo-shoot on the beach. This will mean lots of hanging around in the hot sun wearing the uncomfortable costumes. Around 3 in the afternoon I started to get a banging headache and of course I had forgotten to bring any aspirin, and of course no remedy was available. By four I realised I had sunstroke, (to which I'm somewhat prone.) But going home was not an option, the photoshoot was not scheduled to finish until 7.30 at least!

I ended the day doubled up in the photostudio loo, trying not to get vomit on the 6th costume change of the day, (ancient mandarin robes as I recall), and struggling to compose expressions of marital bliss for the snapper and wifey. Ah, happy days!

Posted on: Foreign Father Loses His Cool

"I guess I feel these beliefs have such a critical mass in China that they self-reinforce. There's no necessity to look for a basis of the belief - the basis of the belief is that everyone else believes it too."

This viewpoint I can readily assent to. The fact is, Chinese people (generally speaking) have a different relationship with "the truth" than is the common assumption in the West. Westerners tend to regard "the truth" as something that has an objective existence, something real that exists independently of what people 'believe'. In China, "the truth" is malleable, it could be said to be a version of the truth that everyone agrees on or consents to, and thereafter is the truth for all concerned. Often this may involve some form of the Orwellian concept of 'double-think'. I guess this a deep-seated cultural thing, I'd be prepared to go so far as to say it's always been like that in China, and seemingly always will.