User Comments - changye

Posted on: 张爱玲经典名句

我一听这种话题，就联想到两位中国驰名作家”巴金”(1904-2005)和”老舍”(1899-1966)。在文化大革命的时候，他们俩就像很多其他知识分子一样遭受了严重的政治迫害。

其中最悲惨的莫过于老舍被迫投水自尽的事情。这个悲剧发生在1966年，就是文革风暴席卷中国的第一年。听说很多中国人还相信老舍被四人帮和红卫兵杀害了。老舍死后十二年才恢复了名誉，但是事情已经无可挽回。

和老舍相比，巴金的人生整体来说是还算可以。1976年文革结束后，巴金就担任中国作家协会主席，后来被国家授予”人民作家”的称号。2005年我在网上看到的巴金去世的消息让人吃惊。

”文学巨匠巴金逝世享年一百零一岁”这个标题，我至今还记得清清楚楚。这条新闻好像当时没有受到很大关注，或许因为中国发展极快，中国人的生活都很忙碌。

今天我第一次听说”张爱玲”这个名字，真没想到电影”色戒”就是一位女作家半世纪前写的小说改编成的作品。幸亏张爱玲于1952年离开中国大陆，所以才避开大跃进和文革的灾难。

客死美国洛杉矶的张爱玲和在祖国活到一百岁的巴金，大家觉得哪个人生更幸福？我想谁都无法揣测。

Posted on: 日本人的起源

Hi auntie68,

Haha, I didn’t expect that I would hear from you about such Korean “Nationalism Porn” films. It looks like that you are really an Asian movie fan. By the way, I usually call this kind of movies “Nationalism Masturbation”, but I must admit that your term is much more sophisticated than mine.

Let me tell you an interesting episode related to “Porn films”. There is the Sci-Fi disaster film called “日本沈没” (Japan Sinks, 일본침몰) made in 2006, and I hear that not a few Korean people saw it mainly because they just wanted to enjoy seeing the Japanese archipelago sinks and destroyed.

The most ironic thing about this is that “日本沈没” is a 100% Japanese movie, played and filmed by Japanese, based on a well-known classic Sci-Fi novel with the same title published in Japan 35 years ago. Thanks to Korean nationalism, the Japanese film industry can make some money in Korea.

Do you think that Japanese are “masochistic”?

As for Korean culture, Japan owes much to ancient Korea. I have a few books about “Korean culture in Japan” written by famous Japanese authors and just bought another one at Amazon yesterday. I only wish 百济 (Baekje, 백제) hadn’t been destroyed by 唐 and 新罗 (Silla, 신라) in the 7th century...

Posted on: 日本人的起源

Hi hitokiri,

Hehe, it’s a rather complicated problem, as is always the case with a territorial issue. Anyway, what I would like to say is very simple, i.e. “Let us agree to disagree”, otherwise you can’t get along with neighboring countries.

For what it’s worth, most Japanese people don’t have much interest in this issue, good or bad, as opposed to Korean people. For example, my parents and sister probably know almost nothing about the “Takeshima/dokdo” issue.

Furthermore, my friends in Japan have never made reference to this issue in their emails sent to me so far. In a sense, Japanese people might need to emulate Korean people’s nationalistic behavior, to some extent. Good night.

Posted on: The 80/20 Rule

据说在美国，百分之二十的人口占有百分之八十的财富，也可以说是一种”二八定律”。当然每个国家多多少少都存在着同样或类似的情况，但是中国贫富差距还是很悬殊。我认为这个当前最突出的社会问题很可能已经到了极危险的地步。

一份调查报告显示，在中国百分之零点四的家庭竟占有百分之七十的财富，更令人吃惊的是这份数据只考虑存款，股票，不动产等资产，没有把偷税，贿赂，挪用公款等所谓”灰色收入”计算在内。

一般中国有钱人很少有依法缴税的念头，遗产税当然就更不用说了。这就是社会财富分配很不公平，不合理的一个原因。

贫富两极化的问题在日本也渐渐显现出来了，可是还没有中国社会那么严重，中日之间的差别还是非常大。中国国家领导人爱说”反省历史”，我觉得这一句话包含的意义相当深刻。

我曾看过的一本历史书上说，中国历代王朝最繁荣的时候却产生灭亡的萌芽。这往往起因于严峻的贫富分化，就是一个宝贵的历史教训。

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

I would say "谢谢，但是还不行" if I'm complimented by Chinese people.

With regard to "Chinese compliments", I fully agree with xiaohu. Asian people generally don’t have much opportunity to talk with Westerners. Furthermore, most Asian people only speak their mother tongue, so they are easily surprised to hear foreign guys speak in their language.

As for the “Chinese is very difficult for you” problem, it’s just a matter of English skills. I now know that the phrase sounds a little insulting to you, but it’s probably very frequently used, even without knowing its negative implication, by us non-native English speakers here in Asia.

Posted on: 日本人的起源

Hi hitokiri,

You’ve raised a delicate political issue, but, in a sense, a territorial dispute is one of diplomatic “highlights” between two countries. I don’t want to discuss it in detail here in Chinesepod, but let me just say this, please.

A famous quote from Voltaire (?) says, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, which I think is an important and indispensable principle for people who advocate democracy.

This is the very reason why Japanese government doesn’t blame Korea for eagerly teaching their children about the issue at school, singing a “dokdo” song, or putting advertisements in foreign and domestic newspapers. 

Regrettably enough, the same principle sometimes can’t be applied in South Korea, although I hear the ROK is a democratic country, if my memory serves me right. I just wish they would learn to agree to disagree.

Posted on: What size?

Chinese people, as well as Japanese, seem to be skilled in miniaturizing things. 缠足 (chan2 zu2, foot-binding) might be translated as “Bonsai-foot”…hehe. There is probably not 缠足 anymore in China, but you can still see a slightly similar custom here in northeast China. When a Chinese mother horses a baby on her back, the lower part of the baby are usually tightly blanketed to help the legs grow straight. My mother should have done this for me!

Posted on: Describing Travels

Hi putneyswope,

The character "迹" (ji4) was pronounced as "ji1" in the past, perhaps before the early 20th century or the establishment of the PRC, and it was later changed into "ji4", which is the reason some people still pronounce it in the first tone now. The same goes for "绩" (ji4). You can hear two kinds of pronunciation here in China, such as 成绩 (cheng2 ji4) and 成绩 (cheng2 ji1). Dictionary-wise, 迹 (ji4) and 绩 (ji4) are authentic now.

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

I’ve already given up the idea to improve my Chinese conversation skills, since the first “official language” (第一官方语言) among my Chinese friends and co-workers is Japanese. Their fluent Japanese really discourage me from speaking in Chinese, but thankfully I don’t have to feel small just because of the fact that I’m the only guy who can read English documents among us. Fortunately or unfortunately, English skills are more appreciated here in China than Japanese ones are.

Posted on: Caught in the Act

Hi sophie20461,

Long time no see. Where have you been? As to "awkward" and "embarassed", they are often interchangeably used in the sense of 尴尬, but the former one has broader meaning, such as "difficult to deal with, 难对付，难处理", "not convenient, 不方便", "clumsy, not comfortable, 笨拙，别扭，不善于" etc., according to my 牛津英汉双解词典. My hunch tells me that "embarassed" might be a little more 严重 (serious, grave) than "awkward", although I'm not so sure.