User Comments - fulankelin

Posted on: Who are You Looking For?

Here is Evan Osnos's take on the ubiquitous "Ken Ni Ji 肯尼基 (which, notably, is only one character off of Ken De Ji, the Chinese name for Kentucky Fried Chicken)" http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2009/06/cultural-devolution.html - its about cultural devolution.

I remember when the "who's on first" joke was resurrected when Hu Jintao was named President of China - not very nice.

Posted on: Why are You Studying Chinese?

In October of '07 I went on a trip to Rizhao, Shandong, China with a group of photographers at the invitation of the provincial government. I became and continued to be obsessed with the depth of Chinese history and the other-worldliness of the Chinese culture and language - not that I don't see and appreciate the faults.

Here is a youtube video I built on the trip,

And here is a Web page I built that includes the video and links to other pages I built on the trip, http://frankmcmahon.com/rizhao .

My Chinese must have improved since I built these pages.  I would love to have the opportunity to go back and do more of the same.

Chinesepod has been wonderful for feeding my interest.  I only wish I had discovered it earlier.

富兰克林喜欢告诉小故事和照片

The youtube video use to get a lot of views from China - before the government blocked it.

Posted on: Thinking of my Brothers by Moonlight -- 月夜忆舍兄

Interesting lesson Pete.  In the wikepedia enty on the An Lushan Rebellion it says,"the death toll is estimated to be up to 36 million, making it the highest death toll for any event until World War II", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Shi_Rebellion

In his  book Hot Flat and Crowded Tom Friedman has a chapter called "China for a Day" meaning if the US had the Chinese government it would be easier to go in one direction.  I wonder if he ever thought about the Great Leap Foward.

富兰克林

Posted on: Podcast Language 1

I was amazed at how quickly I could remember the phrases from this lesson.  That was because I had heard them 1000 times before and tried to figure out what they meant. 收听 / speak/listen / spoken Chinese - how Chinese.  But then the character for shou in shōutīng/listen is different than the character for shōu in shōu/speak (说) - darn.

领教

富兰克林

Posted on: How Far Away are You From Understanding 离？

I'm sorry this is off topic but it is a little 离 (lí) like in terms of time and space, and my first post here.  Tonight I went to a significant art exhibit opening in Chicago on Chinese Contemporary Art called "The Big World: Recent Art From China".

I asked about the name "The Big World" and the curator said it was chosen in part because of China's relationship to the world but also because of The Big World amusement park in Shanghai. He said because of the amusement park Shanghai is often called "The Big World" by other areas of China.  They said the The Big World was no longer active but I told them I thought it was - seems to me I heard a reference here.  They wanted to put it in a category with Riverview here in Chicago.

They had wonderful golden nest vegetable h'ordeurves at the opening - if they are Chinese they are worthy of a segment.