User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Character Amnesia

Hey Keth

toianw has been very helpful on this point, but I would hate you to get excited by the possibilities and then become depressed by the realities. The '90%' figure promises more than it can deliver. (I'm not sure how they get to that figure - it would be interesting to know.)

I think that you will be let down by the language more often than not - but that is not to say you shouldn't look for clues to pronunciation.

Also remember than pinyin was invented for a reason - it may not have been invented for English speakers but it serves a useful purpose.

Even if you are let down by the promise of pronunciation clues in the character, you will still learn something.

Posted on: Shopping for the Husband

'if a nice male gorilla asked me out on a date I'd go. However I would be depressed and disappointed, if he expressed any interest in going to bed with me. haha Chimpanzees definitely no.'

Ha nice one, Zhenlijiang. I think. I'm afraid to ask you for elaboration of your point, but it makes me laugh as it is. You know my feelings about monkeys - I say 'don't trust them'.

I don't think that the 'mundane facts' I refer to are ones that anyone has any control over, so the events of the earthquake don't really apply. (Leaving manipulation of genes to one side) anything that potentially involves learned behaviour is by my definition 'culture'.

Posted on: Shopping for the Husband

'the marvels of Chinese culture'

Are you referring to high culture here? Opera, visual arts, tea ceremonies etc. What Hofstede calls 'culture 1'?

Posted on: Shopping for the Husband

Grambers

' universal trends in (to name a random few) i) governance ii) education iii) jurisprudence iv) minority rights on the basis of 'deep culture'

These things aren't universal, nor are there universal trends in these things. And I don't find the view on these things held by many, lets say the majority of, Chinese irksome. But we, as you say, are seeing the world differently. You see these behaviours (I'll have to imagine what behaviours you are talking about) as 'political' with no basis in truth. etc. We'll have to beg to differ, mate, but I'm okay with that if you are.

Now you might conclude that I don't want to make the world a better place, but I do. I would prefer to focus on making my own culture a better place - that will keep me fully occupied for the rest of my days. And I constantly come across things about the Chinese way of life that informs my search for the 'good life'. I use the quotes because I want to alert you to a special meaning, not the hedonistic meaning often associated with those words.

Posted on: Essential Math Terms

I think Bob may be a maths (sorry, mathematics) teacher so you were probably picking on someone your own size there. Picking on me won't be any fun at all.

'bag rat' - hee hee. You are joshing me again RJ. It is a bag FOR a rat, or a rat with a bag for a rat. But you knew all that - I am impressed with your knowledge of natural history, even Aussie natural history (Tasmanian Devil etc.) Now your knowledge of maths (sorry ... mathematics) has blown us all out of the water.

Just be careful picking on our fauna though, particularly the kangaroo. Even dead they are formidable. When I lived in the Northern Territory there was a murder case where someone used a frozen kangaroo tail as a murder weapon. Just picked it out of the freezer and .. Wham!

Posted on: Shopping for the Husband

'I have rowed back from that and realised that though, superficially, things are very different in China, they are far more similar at a deeper level - the opposite experience to the one you've described.'

We are pushing towards that 5,000 word limit you referred to so I'll try to be brief. I wonder if there are three 'cycles', at least, at least three that I observe, and not everyone goes through them. The first cycle (say first twelve months in China) one is constantly reminded of the differences. Second cycle, if you decide to live long term, you come to terms with all the differences by clinging to the similarities, at the humanity level - hang it all, we're all the same really deep down. This I think is a coping mechanism used by many foreigners. But the third cycle is an understanding that we are fundamentally different cultures, on several dimensions (and the thing we call humanity is a mundane fact.) By 'culture' I am referring to deep culture, not the flirtations people have with various images and reflections of culture. The culture I am referring to takes generations to shift.

So yes, we are at opposite ends of the spectrum in a way - I think the 'superficial' differences don't really matter. At a deeper level is where we are so different that few people wish to explore those differences - it is hard work even to recognise the differences, much less try and understand them. It's easier to say, hell we're all the same deep down. This is my experience living in China, few people want to explore the matter of difference beyond the superficial. Few people have the tools to explore it.

Posted on: Essential Math Terms

Hi RJ

This whole thread brings a smile to my face, thanks for your insight on the equation. No, I don't follow. I have managed a whole career in economics using just primary school maths (美国英语说：elementary school math) - although I have a soft spot for algebra, I chose a career that needed no more mathematical dexterity than to add, subtract, multiply and divide. You should beware any economist sprouting references to the Black-Scholes formula.

Posted on: Chinese Couplets

Great show, thanks guys. Couplets are indeed everywhere - toilets, restaurants, schools, public notice boards etc.

I guess most foreigners who have visited Kunming will have gone to view the longest couplet. You can see the original couplet inscribed on the pillars inside a pavillion on the edge of 滇池 Dian Chi, Kunming's lake.

Which makes me wonder - is there a kind of competition to see who can come up with the longest couplet (like building the tallest Buddha) - why was it written? Or was it just a necessity ... to fully explain the cosmology of beautiful Kunming every character was necessary. :)

Posted on: Shopping for the Husband

Hey Grambers

Thanks for your six point thesis mate...once again I welcome you to the playground, even if you've been eating your lunch quietly under the trees on the perimeter for the past few years.

I think I appreciate your various points of view, generally well made, except I personally don't find the point that goes ... 'I think you will find the things that unite us are far more eternal and truthful than the little, ever-changing and always fascinating facets of culture that distinguish us' ... as worth making as you do. Just too many people saying it, particularly people writing about China. My own view is that with a deeper understanding of China you come to an opposite view. Or it is only true of the very superficial level of culture that again I don't find that interesting.

On a tangent, you say you've travelled in China - do you have a blog or can you point us to things you have written about what you think are the most interesting aspects of China? Something that other people are not writing about? I don't want you to think that I am jaded; on the contrary I enjoy writing anthropological pieces myself for a long-suffering and limited readership ... I try to avoid any generalisations that sell papers. :)

Eg. I would avoid saying 'politics in China is everything', but I like to explore microcosms of politics at work. Actually I am just picking up on your example; politics is way down my list.

Posted on: Shopping for the Husband

'上海女人嘛，美丽优雅性感，就是买菜做饭什么都不会'

This might be the first time on ChinesePod that I have stood up for Shanghai women - yes they 'can't cook' but in my experience the man does the cooking in China, not only in Shanghai. Unless you have an aunty at your disposal. Women are prone to promising to show you how to cook something, then they call their fathers to find out how to do it.