User Comments - tvan
tvan
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 31, 2009 at 4:16 AMI had a question on 团团转。 The third expansion sentence, "你真没用，居然被一个女人耍得团团转," seem to use the phrase to mean "fooled/taken in/bemused." I found the definitions of "every turn" and "anxious" both of which appear in my dictionary.
Can it also mean dizzy or confused as implied by the second sentence? Or did I misunderstand the sentence?
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 30, 2009 at 8:46 PMLeeht, perhaps I shouldn't prolong this discussion, but I got through the first 15 minutes of the first video link you posted. While the production quality seemed good, the video seemed fanciful and, for the most part, unsupported by any credible historical source.
There was, however, a migration of Nestorian Christians into, I believe, present day Xinjiang around 400 A.D. (They didn't get along with the Catholics.) Also, I think that Mozi's ideal of universal/brotherly love closely parallels New Testament teachings.
In terms of Chinese characters' ancient origins, like many writing systems, it seems that religion provided a strong impetus for their development. However, based upon objective evidence to date, that religion focused on ancestor worship and divination.
Posted on: Making Dumplings
January 27, 2009 at 4:18 AMqingdaosadventuesdotcom, 放'ed it on top?
Posted on: Slang-ular Momentum
January 25, 2009 at 3:54 AMI've also seen 886/八八六/bābālìu used to say good bye. 屈原 must be turning over in his cyber-grave.
Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟
January 20, 2009 at 8:33 PMbarto and changye, thank you both for your insights.
Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending
January 20, 2009 at 3:03 AMJust to chip in my two cents worth/lack, I think that one of CPod's strengths is to make use of the personnel at hand. Amber had a personal interest in modern Chinese culture, and CPod, wisely, allowed her to produce a show that reflected and built upon that interest. If Pete has interests/background in another aspect of Chinese culture, it makes sense to me to allow him free reign to share that interest with us, not to try to fit a 文言 peg in a 白话 hole.
Insofar as not completely understanding Chinese poetry, no offense intended, but some of the comments here struck me as a bit elitist. If someone wishes to analyze the syllabic rhythm as spoken during the Han dynasty based upon a phonetic analysis of 1st century Chinese derived from a Japanese treatise on Korean history, great. Personally, I just listen and let my imagination work. IMO, both approaches have equal merit.
Posted on: Stop in the Name of the 法 (fǎ)
January 13, 2009 at 8:23 PMtravesty, both Macs and PC's include Chinese IME's. They then work with whatever programs you normally use (e.g. web browser, MS Word, etc.). What kind of system do you have?
Also, in another example of 法, there is an advanced lesson on Chinese IME's, also known as 输入法.
Posted on: Outrageous Power Bill
January 9, 2009 at 3:22 PMdunderklumpen, I call my friends 王八. As with the two English examples cited above, I thinks its all in the tone.
Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
January 5, 2009 at 2:06 AMCleaver, you are a better judge of shrimp emotions than I; I just know they wiggle going down your throat live.
Seriously, I am one of those politically incorrect hunter/fisher guys and, accordingly, directly cause the death of a fair amount of my food. While I agree that anthropomorphicisms can get out of hand, based upon personal experience, animals definitely suffer. I won't go into specifics here but, when it happens, even the most hardened hunter (or farmer) feels that he has somehow failed.
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 31, 2009 at 2:24 PMThanks for all the answers. I asked because I recently ran across the sentence in a book, and it used 团团转 to describe a reaction by the hero to a special martial arts blow of some sort, which I also couldn't find in a dictionary. (Too lazy to look it up now.) I think Changye's definition also fits there.
miantiao, now I'm going to have to go to AustralianPod to find out what a "chook" is. ;-)
calicartel, there's pretty good evidence that the first westerners to get into Chinese characters were merchants/businessmen (maybe women?). However, the Jesuits left the longer impression because of their scholarly nature, thorough analysis, and tendency to publish. I believe Jesuits tended to immerse themselves into a culture and then modify the Mass to make it more approachable. They also did so in China, but the Pope rejected their proposal in the Chinese Rites controversy.