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Beijing advice on looking good for the Olympics [snip] “Don’t ask foreigners their age, marital status, income, past experience, address, personal life, religious beliefs or political beliefs, it says.” By “personal life” we assume that they mean “sex”. I wonder what people in China (or Taiwan) for that matter, think of such advice. Could be along the lines [...]
Jun Fu Bets His Cow
From Tales of the Times — New Edition/ Stories from 3rd to 5th century, paraphrased Jun Fu Bets His Cow Wang Jun Fu had a prized cow named BaBaiLiBo. He or someone else regularly polished the animal’s horns and hooves until they shined. One fateful day, Wang WuZi said to Wang JunFu, “You are a better archer than [...]
On the merits/issues of simplified and traditional Chinese characters
The New York Times took on this often heated topic for debate recently. The experts comments provide the initial fodder, but it is the hundreds of comments that prove the most interesting and enlightening. And though complete conversion to a romanized based language is bravely (ignorantly?) proposed by a few, many posters note that reading [...]
The Linguists
Finally a film that gives linguists their due: “Like modern-day explorers, the two academics featured in The Linguists travel to forgotten places around the globe to unearth rare treasures—in this case, endangered languages. On a shoestring budget, professors David Harrison and Gregory Anderson navigate difficult terrain, searching for speakers of these forgotten and mostly hidden languages. [...]
Li ShiMin’s Horses (a.k.a. Emperor Tang TaiZong)
Li ShiMin’s Horses (a.k.a. Emperor Tang TaiZong) A colleague here in Nanjing said that he finds most famous tourist sites in China “underwhelming”. The Chinese somehow manage to take a relic or site that has an interesting story behind it and turn it into trivia and platitudes. I don’t know how the process works, but they [...]
Decisions
Localizing visual media presents interesting challenges. Decisions from 中翊 ED on Vimeo.
Asides
- Although Lohas is the consumer-friendly soft-sell version of social and environmental responsible living, the Chinese 樂活 often completely ditches the pesky environmental consciousness usually attached to the Lohas mindset. Although dedicated Chinese Lohas/樂活 sites still attach some importance to green consumption and living, when referred to by more mainstream media, especially lifestyle product advertisers, the term 樂活 more often than not just connotes "good living" without any of the socially progressive baggage. With slow living having established the similar conceptual construct of 慢活, 樂活 was ripe for the 'if it feels good do it" kind of marketing. Come to think of it, that's kind of happened with Lohas as well... #
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This is where Pristine people sound off on the cool, quirky, frustrating, and inspirational world around us from a distinctly cultural and linguistic perspective.
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