User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: What Are Your Hobbies?
June 6, 2011 at 9:52 AMHey RJ, I guess you're right; not that netball (there's no gap between net and ball) is 'bad basketball'. Netball is to basketball as ballet is to marching drills.
Posted on: What Are Your Hobbies?
June 6, 2011 at 9:49 AMI imagine netball along with cricket is played somewhere in China; it's a big country. I tried to interest some expat friends in netball, mostly American, and I got 有事'd. It was a long shot.
Posted on: Of Mysteries and Exploding Melons
June 6, 2011 at 9:41 AMWe went to a 看菜 restaurant last night and the eggplants were suspiciously large. But tasty as well.
Posted on: What Are Your Hobbies?
June 6, 2011 at 3:45 AMI was walking past the basketball courts one day and stopped in amazement because two teams of young women were playing (I swear it) netball. A player would catch the ball, stop dead still, and throw to a team mate. Stop, throw, all the way down the court. Too late I was approached by someone from the campus radio station wanting an interview with a foreigner.
Her: So, you like watching basketball?
Me: This isn't basketball. I think that they are playing netball; that's why I stopped to look.
Her: What is netball?
Me: What they are playing.
Her: (Laugh). Oh no, it's just that girls cannot play basketball properly. Girls in China do not really like sport.
Me: (flabergasted). What about Li Na?
Interview terminated. I don't think it made it to the airwaves.
Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures
June 6, 2011 at 3:27 AMBaba
The cat can poop. 貔貅 cannot poop. :)
Posted on: Consoling the Bereaved
June 6, 2011 at 3:21 AM看到 - 看 (v. see); 看到 (v. to notice; to catch sight of). The latter indicates a completed or successful act. I am guessing that by kàn you mean 看; 看 has many different meanings; I am also guessing this is what you mean.
找到 - 找 (v. to look for); 找到 (v. to find). Again, the latter indicates a completed or successful act.
Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures
June 6, 2011 at 2:50 AMThanks cinnamonfern for the excellent photos in this thread - very cool. Hey, I am particularly interested in this 白虎 (White Tiger) as I recently read the novel White Tiger. The writer Aravind Adiga likens a number of characters to animals but the protagonist is the White Tiger. And the book is written as a letter to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier.
Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures
June 6, 2011 at 2:43 AM
网络神兽,比如草泥马。。。
Actually I did not know this, just googled it.
Thanks guys for an excellent show, most of this is new to me. I have never explored this part of Chinese culture very far.
Some Chinese people keep tortoises as pets - we visited a friend here and they have a couple of 40 year old tortoises that have the run of the house. Like the family dogs in Australia, but older. Chinese people also eat tortoises - a little contradiction for me: you eat some, you keep others as pets.
Posted on: Of Mysteries and Exploding Melons
June 4, 2011 at 3:50 PMA sub-editor at The Age in Australia (our most prestigious newspaper?) had the headline 'Exploding watermelons rock China'. :) I guess the people in Sichuan wouldn't be amused. I still have no problem buying watermelon, because hey, the exploding ones aren't for sale, right?
And talking of sleuthing, can we assume that johnb is the editor of the ChinesePod weekly newsletter? I think there were enough clues in this program.
Posted on: What Are Your Hobbies?
June 6, 2011 at 10:27 AM‘standing still'
Actually, not at all unless you are in the Under 7s. It's a professional sport in those countries I'm embarrassed to say still have a queen. After catching the ball you can take no more than one step before passing. You can't bounce it and catch it again either. I can see we are getting you excited. :)
If you google the internationals eg. Australia versus New Zealand you might get a video on YouTube. Unless that American Rupert Murdoch owns the rights.