User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: 海归女对掐主持人

Hi tvan

I did get the video to work with sound (unlike Grambers) but strangely it ran for just a few minutes - only 5.5 mb downloaded but I still got the first few exchanges between host and guest.

Posted on: Mahjong

麻将 májiàng (mahjong) may also be considered 'shady' because it is probably the most popular form of illegal gambling. (The only legal gambling on the mainland is the lottery.) 麻将 is usually the primary source of revenue in places identified as tea houses.

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

'the birth rate from what it would be if the policy were not in place is quite silly. No offense.'

No offence taken.

If you read my post again you'll see that it is written in the present tense. I have not asserted that the policy never had an impact. It is a significant factor in rising average incomes over the past couple of decades.

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

Hi getthroughwinter

'I definitely don't believe the part about the policy not having an effect.'

I'm not sure that this is a matter of 'belief'. If the policy is not having the effect of reducing the birth rate below what it would be without the policy it is not having an effect. If the policy is replacing the population and the birth rate is below replacement rate it is not having an effect.

'It directly affects people in a huge way.'

There are a number of ways in which this is true, and yet not true. Not everyone is limited to one child, and the policy has now run its course - if you are of the 'one-child' generation you can have two children. As discussed elsewhere it is ineffective in relation to the very poor and the very rich.

'Not everyone lives in Shanghai.'

什么? No one disagrees with this - but what is your point in relation to the one-child policy? Do you think that the impact of the policy is felt least in Shanghai? There are reasons in various parts of China why the impact of the policy is tempered.

It is a fairly complicated policy because it treats different people in different ways. For example, it is commonly thought that it does not apply to minorities - but in the case of a large minority population in Yunnan, you can only have one child if you live within a certain city's limits. Unless mother and father are both of the one-child policy generation. It is difficult to generalise about this policy.

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

Good questions - if you can't afford the fine you can't afford the fine. It is not uncommon to see people on low incomes with two or more children.

No - they do not abort in the case of twins, and there is no fine.

Posted on: Family Member Terms of Address

This does induce a headache, particularly as we didn't even get to simple relationships like 外孙女 waisunnv (grand-daughter where it is your daughter's daughter.) 

I like 侄女 and 侄子 because it seems you don't have to worry about whether they are the children of older or younger brothers, older or younger sisters.  

Very useful. Are there going to be follow up shows? 

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

The one 'pro' is tha population has fallen (relative to what it would have been.)

While this might have been so at one stage, a clue to the current situation is in David’s comment: ‘but we don’t want to…’

According to Chinese demographers the policy is not effective – it has no effect. Polling of Chinese people suggests that lifting the one-child policy would have no impact on population growth, and vice versa, applying it would have no impact, on average. Overall, people want fewer children than they did. The current policy is replacement, and this would be achieved without the one-child policy.

Cons

一年工资 yinian gonzi (one year's salary) fine – I understood the fine to be the average income for the province; is this not so? I've also been told that a more significant financial discincentive is that they don't have subsidized access to services like school for the extra child. True or false? 

Posted on: An Interview with Zhang Ayi

'try and say an s with a very relaxed jaw'

I have been sitting here shshshshing and ssssssssing - I can say s with a very reaxed jaw, but I can also say sh with a very relaxed jaw. Like Cletus the slack-jawed yokel.

I think I understand your point though, and it caused me to explore further . I will restate that point - si is more relaxed than shi. 'si' is definitely more relaxed than 'shi'. s and sh I am less sure of, but these are not words in Chinese.

Can you try it for me and report back?

Posted on: An Interview with Zhang Ayi

Yes, characteristic of Sichuan, nice soft sound. I wonder if it evolved from a more relaxed lifestyle, the jaw is tightened with 'sh' and relaxed with 's'.

Posted on: An Interview with Zhang Ayi

The Budhists have the best incentives for staying alive as long as possible - see following (from Wikipedia):

The concept of the eighteen hells started in the Tang Dynasty. The Buddhist text Wen Diyu Jing (問地獄經) mentioned 134 worlds of hell but was simplified to eighteen levels of hell for convenience. The following is a list of common punishments and tortures in the eighteen levels of hell:

Mountain of knives – sinners are made to shed blood by climbing a mountain with sharp blades sticking out. Some depictions show offenders climbing trees with knives instead of mountains.

Cauldron torture – sinners are fried in oil cauldrons. Some depictions show offenders being steamed instead of being fried.

Dismemberment – sinners' bodies are dismembered by various means, including: sawing, carving, slicing into half, mashing/pounding into pulp, crushed by heavy rocks/boulders, being run over by vehicles

Grinding torture – sinners are put into a grinding machine and ground into a bloody pulp

Tortures involving fire

Burning – sinners are set aflame/cast into fiery infernos

Paolao torture – sinners are stripped naked and made to climb a large metal cylinder, with a fire lit at its base.

Boiling liquid torture – sinners have a boiling liquid forced down their throats

Tortures involving removal of body parts/organs

Tongue-ripping

Eye-gouging

Heart-digging

Disembowelment – sinners have their internal organs dug out

Skinning

Slicing off fingers/toes

World of ice – sinners are frozen in ice. Some depictions show unclothed sinners suffering from frostbite in an icy world. The bodies might fall apart or break into pieces.

Scales and hooks torture – sinners have hooks pierced into their bodies and hung upside down. Some depictions show sinners having nails hammered into their bodies.

Pool of blood – sinners are cast into a pool of blood and suffer bloody deaths, such as blood spilling from all body orifices

Tortures involving animals – sinners are trampled by cattle, gored by animals with horns/tusks, mauled/dismembered/eaten by predators, stung/bitten by poisonous species etc.

Chamber of Avici – the period of suffering in this chamber is the longest and it is reserved for sinners who have committed heinous crimes, including the Five Grave Offences

Some literature refers to eighteen types of hells or to eighteen hells for each type of punishment. Some religious or literature books say that wrongdoers who were not punished when they were alive are punished in the hells after death.