User Comments - matt_c

matt_c

Posted on: Chinese Hospitality and Finding Vegetarian Food

December 21, 2008 at 3:30 AM

Ah, the epicurean adventures to be had here in China...

There are so many 'golden rules' etc. on how to avoid unpleasant culinary experiences, however I suggest just trying as much local food (not those tourist dishes like scorpion kebabs and 啤酒鱼 pǐjiǔyú) as you can - try to leave the 心理作用 xīnlǐzuòyòng at the door (easier said than done when faced with a 'Temple of Doom' type spread) and be comforted with knowledge that you've tried something new, even though you may never wish to try it again...

On the other hand, cooking style and quality of ingredients really do play an important role. As a rule I cannot stand the pungent stench of pork viscera as it churns my stomach. Knowing this, my friends still insisted I tried the dish that lay before me - I was pleasantly surprised. It turns out that this family were very particular about cleaning the innards thoroughly before, and to make it even better, they used their own home-grown chillies to further mask the residual stank of the 猪大肠 zhūdàchǎng.

Posted on: Chinese Hospitality and Finding Vegetarian Food

December 20, 2008 at 3:15 AM

I went through this a couple of times when I first arrived in China, but am now fortunate enough to have a nice network a chilled local friends around the country who share my preference for 自助旅行 zìzhùlǚxíng - and also prefer eating and live music and/or karaoke interspersed with the casual afternoon excursion to places that they themselves enjoy, as opposed to places they think visitors should see.

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

December 20, 2008 at 1:08 AM

Cleaver,

I drew the connection with 'The A-Team' song too :)

I think all moments in Chinese history are of significance, whether constructive or deconstructive. Certainly whether events are/were positive or negative depends on from whose perspective one is viewing them from, and yet these perspectives ('histories' as it were) will change too - thus everything is important. Again, it depends on your interests, your passions etc as to what each individual wishes to study/learn about.

I myself prefer an even smattering of the more dated histories and the ultra-contemporary. The 20th century history is very interesting but, comparably, not as alluring as my aforementioned.

Mao Era history is something that is studied with a great amount of bias no matter which point of view one studies it from, thus people are quick to accuse and/or excuse.

There is so much more to the unraveling of events than we can gather from the sources at our disposal and thus as a historian, one must keep digging, gathering all kinds of data, and, above all, try to remain objective.

oooook. So I meandered a little. Who was your favourite 'A-Team' hero?

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

December 18, 2008 at 6:14 AM

Bababardwan,

Although it would provide more ammunition to launch a new class struggle, I have trouble believing that there could have been pre-release previews of lessons for 'elite' users. :)

lol

Posted on: The Person Component

December 18, 2008 at 12:05 AM

I must admit that I found the juxtaposition of the straight host and wannabe-retarded sidekicks to form a strange/dumb, yet titillating frame from which to deliver some light academic content, the cheezy editing and soundtrack seemed to suggest that it was indeed tongue-in-cheek.

I must admit that I watched a lot of Chinese movies during my first 2 years of Chinese learning in order to better immerse myself in the language, yet have fun doing it, although many around me preferred more serious methods - different horses eh!

Keep up the experiments guys!