User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 25, 2011 at 8:22 AMHa ha - that is a good one. Beautiful day in Sydney today - I guess that most of the country would spend Christmas Day wearing swimming togs.
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 25, 2011 at 8:19 AMHi RJ
'I think most xmas traditions started before Hallmark or Coca-Cola.'
Baba pulled me up on that - I didn't adequately explain myself in Chinese. I think that I have read from reputable sources that although many of these icons were around pre-Hallmark, the card company is primarily responsible for making them popular, sending them around the world. (I realise that the Wikipaedia account does not lend support but neither does it contradict - this is one of those times that I think Wikipaedia has not got the full story.) A similar argument for Coke and the Santa we know today.
It's funny about Christmas bliss - most happiest memories are from your childhood and mine are about holidays at the beach - blue skies, hot sand, rented holiday houses and perhaps a spot of fishing with my dad.
RJ - I hope you will have a very happy Christmas day. We are wallowing around now early evening after having eaten too much and talking to all the relatives on Skype.
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 24, 2011 at 12:45 PMoh, okay - 原来我觉得圣诞老人/公公，麋鹿，雪橇, 圣诞老人在烟囱里，都是Coca-Cola起源 - 是都市传奇的， 对吧？ 猜猜圣诞树，槲寄生，姜饼，姜饼人，姜饼屋， 圣诞歌 都 是 在 圣诞卡上面都是Hallmark起源. 火腿 火鸡， 蛋酒，圣诞布丁，等是最老的传统，可是对 Hallmark发生流行的。
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 24, 2011 at 11:23 AM多数的有商业的起源 ，耶稣基督没有.
Oh, just realised you might mean you disagree that the trappings are foreign to Australians. I guess we have adopted them, but they are as foreign as the fox. Or the Easter bunny.
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 24, 2011 at 6:01 AMThe regionalapple tradition in Yunnan (an important apple growing area) was probably started by the apple growers of 云南昭通 Zhaotong - good on them. This commercial approach is in the tradtion (if not the spirit) of Christmas.
We have 'regional' Christmas traditions in Australia too - all my sixty Christmases (apart from one in the US and a couple in China) have been spent on or near the beach. Six Christmases in Darwin in the sweltering build-up before the monsoon, playing backyard cricket. The most traditional Christmas food for most Australians is surely seafood. Moreton Bay bugs, beer and the Boxing Day test. Bliss.
Most of the trappings mentioned here in this excellent lesson are foreign to Australians - I remember poinsettia (in pots) around Christmas in Canada, perhaps the tradition started there? But most of the Christmas icons mentioned here were invented by Hallmark and Coca Cola.
The fact that Santa and the Christmas card are so iconic has something to do with the dominance of American culture in the past one hundred years. So if this is China's century, the Zhaotong apple growers may have started something that will spread around the world.
Posted on: 斗妈大全
December 23, 2011 at 11:30 AMXu先生，谢谢你。 ’妈妈脾气发着‘有用的话。:)
Posted on: 斗妈大全
December 23, 2011 at 11:27 AM'踢” 不是一个持续性的动词，踢一下脚就会离开' .. 这是很有意思。 我觉得在澳大利亚这场战斗的时候可以看到坏人互相踢不停！ 可是在这里我同意，妈妈踢着孩子事情比较奇怪。谢谢你的帮助。 ：）
Posted on: Traditional Food During the Spring Festival
December 23, 2011 at 4:42 AMWe spent Spring Festival with a family in 2007 .. took a gift for the only child there, and I think wine for the adults. We also took some fireworks but discovered that families cater for fireworks in such large quantities that our contributions really didn't make an impact.
You can take fruit in twos, on any visits to a person's place. I don't think the expectations are high on foreigners. Cartons of cigarettes if you have no objections to that (I have never done that because I don't want to encourage anyone to smoke.) You can take a good bottle of baijiu. Depends how long you are going to spend with your hosts. We went for early dinner, early fireworks (for children), watched the TV extravaganzas, midnight fireworks, then temple visit. The family usually sets off more fireworks at dawn, but we went home in the early hours, didn't stay overnight. The fireworks went on all week.
Posted on: Traditional Food During the Spring Festival
December 23, 2011 at 4:28 AMThis is also why you see carved fish on the gables of houses (at least in Yunnan - can't remember if I have seen it elsewhere.)
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 25, 2011 at 8:27 AMThanks for the story about the poinsettia RJ. The Albert Ecke story supports my point that our Christmas icons (most anyway) gained their iconic status by virtue of commercial forces. I did not realise that it came from Mexico, thought that it would be south american.