chinesefever

2012-11-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

棋子 (song)

Chinese singer Faye Wang has a song entitled “棋子 (qi2 zi3),” Chess, where she compares herself to a chess, who is stuck and manipulated by something stronger than herself, be it a lover or fate or God.

象棋 (xiang4 qi2), or Chinese Chess, is a strategy board game for two players. 象means elephant; 棋, chess. Why elephant? I really don’t know. (Some people express their ideas about this online but I’d rather skip the part I’m not sure.) The chess board looks like this:

Chess of different color, red and blue (or black), represent the two sides of the game, each of the chess with a name slightly different from their counterparts. For example, the “king” of the red chess is named 帥 (shuai4); while 將 (jiang4) for the blue. Both mean general, the highest ranking commander in the army. (But帥哥(shuai4 ge) refers to handsome guy.) The two sides confronts with each other with a border zone 楚河(chu3 he2)、漢界(han4 jie4) between them. The side that captures the king of the other side wins. That’s why we often use楚河漢界to refer to the boundary.

The lowest rank of the chess are 兵(bing) for the red side or 卒(zu2), the blue side. They both mean soldiers. We often use 無名小卒 (wu2 ming2 xiao3 zhu2) to refer to small potatoes, or nobody. In this song, it uses 不起眼的小兵 (bu4 qi3 yian3 de xiao3 bing) to mean the same. (In your eyes I’m not the unique general but an obscure soldier.)

In Xiangqi’s rule, 兵 and 卒can only move forwards, not backwards. Once they cross the borderline楚河漢界, they can move both forwards and aside, but still not backwards. That’s why when we are a condition that allows us only to go forwards and there’s no backing down, we’ll use過河卒子(guo4 he2 zu2 zi3) to describe ourselves. We’ll say “Now I’m a 過河卒子and all I can do is go forwards without looking back.”

Another example of such a “chess expression” is飛象過河 (fei xiang4 guo4 he2), referring to those rule breakers who cross the line. Because when playing Xiangqi, 象 of the blue side or 相of the red side, can’t cross 楚河漢界. So if an “elephant” flies across the river, he’s breaking the rule.

There are not only rules for the player, but also rules for the watchers. Sometimes it’s hard for some people to keep quiet and let the players play the game on their own. They just can’t help expressing their opinions and interrupting the game. So for the watchers, we say 觀棋不語真君子(guan qi2 bu4 yu3 zhen jun zi3), when watching a game, those who are silent are really gentlemen. Here 君子means gentleman.

What follows it is 起手無回大丈夫(qi3 shou3 wu2 hui2 da4 zhang4 fu), those who won’t change their moves once done are real men. This is a regulation for the players. For some hesitant players, they might sometimes regret their moves and would like to move back and do it again, which is considered improper and despicable. In Wong’s song, she uses 舉手無回 (ju3 shou3 wu2 hui2). It’s the same idea.

Not every Chinese play Xiangqi, but they do use these related expressions in their lives.

Here you can hear the song with lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Ip9Xle_So

楚河漢界=楚河汉界

無名小卒=无名小卒

過河卒子=过河卒子

飛象過河=飞象过河

觀棋不語真君子=观棋不语真君子

起手無回大丈夫=起手无回大丈夫

舉手無回=举手无回

2012-10-14T20:22:00.001-07:00

撿屍 (up-to-date term)

The other day I read a piece of news where a teenage girl accused a man of taking her home in the way of 撿屍(jian3 shi) and raped her.

撿屍, literally meaning “picking up the body,” is a term coined recently from night clubs. In the early morning outside the night club, you might see some girls badly wasted lying motionlessly on the ground like dead bodies. Horny men come to them, pick them up, take them somewhere and have sex with them.

We do have a term 屍姦 (shi jian) for raping a body. Well, since a body won’t be able to express her will, it is considered a rape. That’s why we use the word姦 , meaning rape as in 強姦(qiang2 jian) ,or adultery as in 通姦 (tong jian).

It reminds me of an occupation in Taiwan called撿骨(jian3 gu3), picking up the bones. In Taiwanese custom, those who are buried underground will be dug out of the earth several years later, their bones washed, rearranged into a jar and buried again (except for those who pass away younger than sixteen.) Such a job is carefully done by professionals called撿骨師 (jian3 gu3 shi) with complicated procedure.

Well, for those who don’t want to be treated like a body but want to have fun at night clubs, maybe they should pick up their designated driver指定駕駛 (zhi3 ding4 jia4 shi3) before they start to party.

撿屍=捡尸

屍姦=尸奸

撿骨師=捡骨师

指定駕駛=指定驾驶

2012-09-30T03:55:00.001-07:00

Moon River (Chop Suey)

I learned from the paper Andy William’s death. Immediately his song “Moon River” came to my mind and so did his voice.

It’s Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節(zhong qiu jie2) today. For the Chinese people, it’s a day of the moon and the family; for today’s Taiwanese, barbeque too.

There’s too much to talk about as far as the moon is concerned—stories, customs, poetry, songs. One of the most often told story is the beautiful resident of the moon 嫦娥(chang2 er2) , who flew to the moon after taking her husband’s 仙藥(xian yao4), magic drug of immortality.

Along with her on the moon is the rabbit 玉兔(yu4 tu4), who keeps pounding medicine to make仙藥. And a man 吳剛 (wu2 gang), who keeps felling a cinnamon tree that will never fall, much like Sisyphus rolling up the stone.

Taiwanese of my generation were told as kids that we shouldn’t point at the moon. If you do so, one of your ears will be cut. Back then threatens of this kind from parents or grandparents were common for a certain educational purpose. (If you don’t finish the rice in your bowl, you’ll marry a freckled faced husband/wife.) For this one, many people interpret it as a teaching to treat nature with awe and respect.

Previously I’ve mentioned poet 李白Li Bai’s moon-related poetry several times. (See “低頭族” & “Raise your glass.”) Legend has it that the poet himself died from drowning himself when trying to scoop up the moon from the river on a boat. This story is called 李白撈月, Li Bai scooting up the moon. The legend consolidates Li’s relationship with the moon even more aside from his numerous well-written lines on her.

With so many poems chanted on her, you’ll find dozens of colorful names for the moon, some of which very poetic and beautiful. For example, 冰鏡(bing jing4)，ice mirror; 白玉盤(bai2 yu4 pan2), white jade plate; 銀盤(yin2 pan2), silver plate; 嬋娟(chan2 juan), beauty. . . .

My favorite lines on the moon are mostly form Li Bai. But that’s not what I’m gonna focus now, for I’d rather talk about it later than make this one too long. I’d like to wrap up my writing here with a well-know song by Faye Wong 王菲, whose lyrics is in fact a poem 水調歌頭(shui3 diao4 ge tou2) by 蘇軾(su shi4).

The last stanza of the song is as follows: (adopted from Wikipedia)

人有悲歡離合 People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart.

(ren2 you3 bai huan li2 he2)
月有陰晴圓缺 The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wan.

(yue4 you3 yin qing2 yuan2 que)
此事古難全 This imperfection has been going on since the beginning of time.

(ci3 shi4 gu3 nan2 quan2)
但願人長久 May we be all blessed with longevity.

(dan4 yuan4 ren2 chang2 jiu3)
千里共嬋娟 Though thousand miles apart, we are still able to share the beauty of

(qian li3 gong4 chan2 juan) the moon together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIdDASnirbY

中秋節=中秋节

仙藥=仙药

吳剛=吴刚

低頭族=低头族

李白撈月=李白捞月

冰鏡=冰镜

白玉盤=白玉盘

銀盤=银盘

嬋娟=婵娟

水調歌頭=水调歌头

蘇軾=苏轼

人有悲歡離合=人有悲欢离合

月有陰晴圓缺=月有阴晴圆缺

此事古難全=此事古难全

但願人長久=但愿人长久

千里共嬋娟=千里共婵娟

Rip Van Winkle vs 南柯一夢 (Idiom)

2012-09-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

In a short story published in 1819, the author Washington Irving created the literary figure Rip Van Winkle. To escape his wife’s nagging, the somewhat idle and hermitic man wandered upon the mountain with his dog. After drinking liquor with a group of men he met there, he fell asleep.

The man woke up as any other humans would, except it was 20 years later. Everything had changed: American Revolution taken place, his wife gone. . . .

The story is known as “李伯大夢(li3 bo2 da4 meng4)” in the Chinese world. 夢 refers to a dream. What Rip had is not a small dream but a “big” one. This “big dream” is often compared with the Chinese legendaries南柯一夢(nan2 ke yi2 meng4) or 黃粱一夢 (huang2 liang2 yi2 meng4)

A man named fell asleep under a big tree in his yard on his birthday after drinking with his family and friends. In his dream, he went through a series of successes such as topping at the Imperial Exam, married the princess, assigned as governor of 南柯county and gained the favor of the emperor.

Three decades passed and the man turned a father of 7 kids with fame and wealth and people loved him. Things began to turn against him, however, as the dream went on. He was dispatched by the emperor to fight a war and he lost it. He was discharged from his post and ended up an ordinary civilian with nothing.

Screaming and yelling the man woke up to find what he had gone through was only a dream.

This man was not alone in the Chinese history to have such a dream. A man surnamed Lu had a similar story to tell. On his way to the Imperial Exam, he met a Daoist priest at an inn, who gave him a pillow and claimed that it would guarantee a “sweet dream.”

Lu went to bed with the pillow when the inn keeper started to cook a crop called黃粱.

Like magic, Lu had a wonderful voyage of life similar to the dream mentioned above. He ended up a man of power and money with a beautiful wife and a big family, who enjoyed a long longevity of 80.

When Lu woke up from this sweet dream, the crop was not even done.

“Is it only a dream?” asked the puzzled dreamer.

“Isn’t life so?” replied the Daoist priest.

The great author 蘇軾(su shi4) also has a beautiful line on this dreamy life thing:

人生如夢，一尊還酹江月

(ren2 sheng ru2 meng4, yi4 zuan huan2 lei4 jiang yue4)

Life is a dream. Why don’t we make a libation to the moon on the river?

南柯一夢=南柯一梦

蘇軾=苏轼

人生如夢，一尊還酹江月=人生如梦，一尊还酹江月

方便 (Joke)

2012-09-09T06:52:00.001-07:00

Some Chinese expressions have so multiple meanings that they cause a lot of misunderstanding. Here is an example:

A foreigner who has learned a little Chinese comes to Taiwan for the first time. He’s invited to a restaurant by some Taiwanese friends.

After led to their table, a Taiwanese friend says, (1)“Sorry, but I have to方便 (fang bian4)” and then left. Another Taiwanese friend explains to the foreigner that方便 means “going to the bathroom.”

During the meal, one of the Taiwanese friends says to the foreigner, (2)“I hope next time when I go to your country, you can offer me some方便. ” The latter wonders, “Why do I have to offer him bathroom?”。”

The folks eat and talk until the closing time. A waiter comes to the table and says, (3)“Sorry, but it’s our closing time. Would you please check the bill if it’s方便 for you?” The Taiwanese goes to the bathroom before he pays the bill. The foreigner wonders if it’s a special custom in Taiwan to go to the bathroom before checking the bill.

Before they leave, one of the Taiwanese says to the foreigner,(4) “I’d also like to treat you to dinner when we both 方便.” The foreigner’s puzzled why they keep talking about going to the bathroom when inviting him to eat?

Besides being a euphemism for “going to the bathroom,” 方便mainly means convenient. That’s why we have to use it when inviting someone. For example, in English you might say “Is it convenient for you to come tomorrow?” In Chinese it would be “明天你方便來嗎？” (ming2 tian ni3 fang bian4 lai2 ma?)

In the second sentence, 方便 means favor, help. So the Taiwanese is asking for a potential favor from the foreigner. Such favors are often business ones, especially from the authority. For example, when passing the Customs, some celebrities or high ranking government officials might be allowed special entrance to give them privacy. This is a方便offered to them.

In China, 方便麵 (fang bian4 mian4) refers to instant noodles while in Taiwan we call them 泡麵 (pao4 mian4).

I’d also like mention one thing about inviting someone for dinner. It’s Chinese way to be modest and keep a low profile. As a result, when inviting someone to a meal, we often call the meal 便飯, which means a simple, usual meal, nothing fancy or luxurious.

So, next time, when you’re asked when it is方便 for you for a便飯, it has nothing to do with your nature call. And very unlikely it will turn out to be a simple potluck!

明天你方便來嗎=明天你方便来吗

方便麵=方便面

便飯=便饭

我本將心託明月 (chop suey)

2012-09-01T08:35:00.003-07:00

Recently I’ve read a book by George Kao, where he talks about how he has started to translate the American novel “The Great Gatsby.” He mentions that 林以亮 (lin2 yi3 liang4) has once used the poetic line “我本將心託明月(wuo3 ben3 jiang xin tuo ming2 yue4)，誰知明月照溝渠 (shei2 zhi ming2 yue4 zhao4 gou qu2 ” as a conclusion to the theme of this novel.

Literally the line means “I meant to trust my heart to the moon, only to find her shining on the ditches.” When you treat someone with unreserved trust and sincerity but end up being treated relentlessly, this is a line you can use to show your disappointment and regret.

We can say that all Gatsby has done in his life is spurred by his obsession with Daisy, an attractive but shallow woman who once was in a romantic relationship with him. He goes from rags to riches as a bootlegger, moves to Daisy’s neighborhood and throws lavish parties in the hope that she will come. In the end he even gives away his life playing a scapegoat for her.

Gatsby’s life is built on an illusion that is created by his clinging to the past and his obsession with Daisy. He sacrifices his life for this nostalgic complex, but Daisy, the very center of this illusion, doesn’t even show up at his funeral. (As a matter of fact, few people do.)

To me, this is a novel about disillusion. Somehow more or less we have to experience such a disillusion in our own life. We create lots of beautiful bubbles and eventfully have to watch them broken, no matter how they have once made this world amazingly colorful. When people feel they’re taken for granted or mistreated like Gatsby, they may look up, take a sigh and utter the line, 我本將心託明月，誰知明月照溝渠!

我本將心託明月，誰知明月照溝渠

=我本将心托明月，谁知明月照沟渠

大不一樣 (Joke)

2012-08-25T05:47:00.002-07:00

Here’s a joke to show you how the same Chinese characters can give very different meanings only by changing the order they are put.

A woman asks her doctor: “I’d like to have a boob job, but what difference will it make?”

“Well,” the doctor replies with composure, “There’re five possibilities:

1. 大不一樣 (da4 bu4 yi2 yang4)
2. 不大一樣 (bu2 da4 yi2 yang4)
3. 不一樣大 (bu4 yi2 yang4 da4)
4. 一樣不大 (yi2 yang4 bu2 da4)
5 樣大不一 (yang da4 bu4 yi)

All the five expressions are made up of the same four words with different orders and different meanings accordingly, except for 3, and 5, which have very similar meanings. Also, have you noticed that 不 is not always pronounced with the same tone?

一樣means the same, which makes 不一樣 “not the same,” “different” because 不means “not.”

1. 大不一樣: Hugely different.大means big, huge, very much.

2. 不大一樣: Not exactly the same. Somewhat different.

3. 不一樣大: Not of the same size. (Oh, my!)

4. 一樣不大: The surgery doesn’t make any difference. They’re still of the same size—no big. (Sue the doctor!)

5 樣大不一: Not of the same size.

大不一樣=大不一样

Packed like sardines (idiom)

2012-07-25T02:13:00.005-07:00

Recently I went on a trip to Hong Kong. It was a short trip of only three days, as what we often call, 走馬看花 (zou3 ma3 kan4 hua), to look at flowers while riding on the horseback. What I got was only passing glances and superficial impressions.

Like any other big cities in the world, there’re big crowds of people on the downtown streets. Moving in the city is like moving in a stream of people. On the overpass, in the subway, on the way to the ferryboat, you’re always moving among people walking in two directions, most of which without much expressions and many of which with their earphones on. No wonder in Chinese we’ll use a lot of water-related idioms to describe what it is like with crowds of people or vehicles moving around, such as 川流不息(chuan liu2 bu4 xi2), and 水洩不通 (shui3 xie4 bu4 tong), where 川is river whereas水, water.

Another expression for such jostling each other in a crowd would be 摩肩接踵(mo2 jian jie zhong3), literally meaning touching (摩, 接) each other’s shoulders肩and heels踵.

One morning when moving among the stream, however, a poem I read in college, some twenty years ago, flashed into my mind. It’s Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” in 1911:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

The textbook I read said this poem was a mimic of Japanese haiku, which is actually very Chinese. With those faces approaching, I imagined countless petals blossoming in front of mine.

I used to think Taiwan was a crowded place but when I saw those clusters of uprising buildings in Hong Kong, I realized how “big” Taichung, the city I’m living in, is comparatively. Closely they are standing very neatly to each other like fish scales or teeth of a comb. That’s what 鱗次櫛比(lin2 ci4 jie2 bi3) means. Spiderman will be thrilled swinging among them, I think. Perfect playground for him.

While watching the old buildings on the hill, I couldn’t help recalling those characters living in the stories told by Eileen Chang. Yes, this is a city where people are packed like sardines. Perhaps that’s why 范柳原(fan4 lie3 yuan2) and 白流蘇(bai2 lie2 su) could manage to meet each other in “Love in a Falling City.” And as a tram passed by the bus I was on, I seemed to be hearing the jingling sounds that make the background of so many of her stories. I began to realize that I love Hong Kong for the sake of Eileen Chang, not for anything else.

走馬看花=走马看花

水洩不通=水泄不通

鱗次櫛比=鳞次栉比

白流蘇=白流苏

低頭族 (up-to-date-term)

2012-07-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

More than one thousand years ago, when the Chinese poet 李白, Li-bai put down one of his most well-known lines, “ 舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉(ju3 tou2 wang4 ming2 yue4, di tou2 si gu4 xiang,” “I look up at the bright moon, and then lower my head thinking about home,” he wouldn’t have foreseen that years later there would be a group of people labeled as “低頭族,” people who lower their heads.

(from idn-news.com)

Ever since smart phones hit the market, we’ve seen more and more scenes as above: on the bus; in the train; in a restaurant or a coffee shop, where people meet and are supposed to talk or socialize with each other. . . . As a result, a new term was coined for those smartphone addicts--低頭族

Besides its literal meaning, 低頭also means surrender, giving in. Sometimes when people have to compromise, yielding to a stronger power, we’ll probably sigh and say “人在屋簷下，不得不低頭 (ren2 zai4 wu yan2 xia4, bu4 de2 bu4 di tou2), ” you have no other choice but to lower your head under eaves.

A more literary expression for 低頭 is 俯首(fu3 shou3). When confronted with hard evidence, a crime suspect insisting on his innocence may lower his head and confess. The act is called俯首認罪(fu3 shou3 ren4 zui4). Or you might lay down your arms and surrender to someone. In that case, 俯首稱臣(fu3 shou3 cheng chen2) will be proper for the situation.

On the contrary, when people are triumphant and making great strides with their heads up, you can say they’re 昂首闊步(ang2 shou3 kuo4 bu4). But people these days may lower their heads before they stride. Think about those Spanish football fans, what did they do first when their team won the 2012 European Football championship? Probably texted the news to friends or spread it on Facebook!

低頭族=低头族

舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉=举头望明月，低头思故乡

人在屋簷下，不得不低頭=人在屋檐下，不得不低头

俯首認罪=俯首认罪

俯首稱臣=俯首称臣

昂首闊步=昂首阔步

Getting stood up (Slang)

2012-07-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

“I got to tell you this!” My friend Agnes exclaimed to me, panting.

“But I’m starving!” She took a bite of the hamburger in her hand.

“We got stood up by the aboriginal driver who said he’d like to adopt two of the puppies. He kept us waiting for 40 minutes and his cell phone was off!”

“It sucks!” answered me with anger.

“Perhaps it’s better not to give those puppies to people of this kind. If he stood you up and turned his cell off, he’s irresponsible and will be likely to abandon the dogs when he doesn’t want them.” I concluded.

Previously I wrote about how my friend Spencer had lost his dog “Star” and got her back in the writing “完璧歸趙.” She’s delivered a litter of 7 puppies. Now the puppies are ready to leave their mother and we’re trying to give them away.

We often use to term “放鴿子(fang4 ge zi),” releasing a dove, to refer to the act of standing someone up, when someone makes an appointment with someone else but doesn’t show up, not because of irresistible causes. Sometimes a cabbie or a tour bus driver might make the passengers get off before reaching the destinations. Such act is also called放鴿子.

I really have no idea why we say that. One possible relation is the under-the-table gambling of dove race in Taiwan. To train the racing doves, the keepers would take them far away from home, set them free, and then go home without the doves. The doves have to find their way home. Probably this is why.

Another expression related to “放,” set free, is 放牛吃草(fang4 niu2 chi cao3), literally meaning to release the cattle to graze, leaving them alone. Some parents ride with a loose rein when bringing up their children. You may use the expression to describe their attitude.

Back to the old times, before the cattle were replaced by machines in farming, the farmers would bring the cattle to a grass, releasing and letting them graze freely on the grass. There’s no need to bind or control the cattle. Such a “let-it-be” attitude thus is called放牛吃草.

It turned out that my friends were not 放鴿子. The driver was stuck by a mud slide in the mountain, where the two puppies are now running around happily growing up, I believe.

完璧歸趙=完璧归赵

放鴿子=放鸽子

氣味相投 (Idiom)

2012-06-29T06:21:00.002-07:00

I read on the paper that there have been so-called “pheromone parties” in some cities, where guests find their match by smelling. Before the parties, each guest has slept in a T-shirt for three nights in a row to capture their odor. Each T-shirt is put into a bag and assigned a number for the guests to smell. People in the parties find their dates based on scents.

In Chinese we have an idiom for this perfectly. When two people have a lot in common, sharing similar interests or temperaments and are compatible with each other, we often say they’re氣味相投 (qi4 wei4 xiang tou2), having compatible scents.

According to Wikipedia, A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Long before the term was coined, Chinese had used the idiom to describe people turning into friends because they have compatible scents.

Sometimes we might jokingly change it into “臭味相投(chou4 wei4 xiang tou2) ” to make fun of what we like. 臭味is stink.

You might be wrong if you think everyone likes fragrant smells. Some people, unlike most other, may have unique tastes and prefer stinky ones. We have a term for these people, 逐臭之夫(zhu2 chou4 zhi fu)，man who chase after smelly.

Another thing I’d like to bring up here is that in English we use “romantic chemistry” to refer to a romantic attraction between two people. In Chinese we use “electricity” as we say 來電 (lai2 dian4), literally meaning “having electricity.” Don’t mix this up with another condition, when someone’s calling you on the phone, we may also say “someone just來電. “

Pheromone or scent, they’re all chemistry in fact. I guess these terms all make sense.

氣味相投=气味相投

來電=来电

Pork’s feet with thin noodles (Custom)

2012-06-10T14:25:00.008-07:00

I think it’s a good idea to sell 豬腳麵線(zhu jiao3 mian4 xian4), pork’s feet with thin noodles, outside Taiwan’s prisons. Why? What’s so special about the food?

You might have seen such a scene from Taiwan’s news: A celebrity comes home from prison after doing his time, greeted by his family with a dish like this. Without exception he will eat the food, some even accompanied by a ritual called 過火(guo4 hou3), stepping over burning flames.

It’s been Taiwanese’s belief that eating豬腳麵線 can rid people of ill luck. So people eat 豬腳麵線 to get rid of ill luck. People who just leave prison or survive a disaster such as a car crash certainly have some ill luck to kick away. This is why they eat pork’s leg—let the pig’s feet do the kicking!

And 麵線, fine noodles, symbolize longevity since they’re long. Back in grandma’s time, people ate豬腳麵線 on their birthday. They were cautions about not cutting off the noodles while cooking or taking them into the bowls, which is a bad sign—cutting off your longevity.

These days those who sell豬腳麵線must be happy, because we have another custom that is related to this food. This year we have an extra lunar fourth month, which is called intercalary month, 閏月(run4 yue4), which is said to be bad for parents’ longevity. So those married daughters will get 豬腳麵線 for their own parents as a wish for their health and longevity.

Well, for Taiwanese sometimes food is not only food. Got some bad luck to kick away? Let the pigs do the job for you. What about kicking ass? That I don’t know.

豬腳麵線=猪脚面线

過火=过火

閏月=闰月

完璧歸趙 (idiom)

2012-05-25T20:53:00.001-07:00

Four days after I wrote “狐群狗黨” talking about my friend Spencer’s dog, Star’s missing, she returned. She was captured by a certain animal protection organization and her photo was posted online. Spencer not only has two dogs fight now, for he adopted a puppy during Star’s missing, but he’s expecting a litter of puppies!

When you retrieve something you’ve lost, we call it失而復得(shi er2fu4 de2). If something precious is returned intact, we’ll use the idiom 完璧歸趙(wan2 bi4 gui zhao4)

During Warring States Period 戰國時代(zhan4 guo2 shi2 dai4), (476BC to 221BC), King of state of Zhao got 和氏璧(he2 shi4 bi4), jade of He family, which was a very precious gem. Learning the news, King of state of Qin sent a letter to king of Zhao offering an exchange of the jade for 15 cities. King of Zhao was stuck in a dilemma. He had a doubt if he would get a fair deal since State of Qin was much stronger and its king was known for his ambition.

Someone recommended 藺相如(lin4 xiang4 ru2) as an ambassador to State of Qin to handle the deal. Lin asserted King of Zhao had to take the risk so that state of Qin wouldn’t have the excuse to invade state of Zhao.

After showing the jade to King of Qin, Lin observed that the king didn’t show any intention to keep his words, so he claimed that he’d like to show King of Qin a flaw on the jade and got back the jade.

Standing by a big pillar, Lin remarked that King of Zhao had neglected others’ opposition and taken his proposal to accept the deal because he believed that as a leader of a great state, king of Qin would keep his promise. But it seemed that he had been wrong. He showed an intention to hit the pillar and crash the jade after the speech.

King of Qin made a fake promise for fear that Lin should smash the jade. Detecting King of Qin’s real intention, Lin delayed the deal till five days later with an excuse but detached someone to send back the jade.

Instead of killing Lin, King of Qin let go of Lin. And the jade was returned to State of Zhao intact, which is why we use the idiom完璧歸趙 today. 完璧means the intact jade; 歸趙 returned to state of Zhao.

We also use the term to 完璧describe a virgin girl as in完璧之身(wan2 bi4 zhi shen), a body of intact jade. In terms of this, it’s not so proper to use the term 完璧歸趙 to this incident of Star’s coming back. For she’s now with puppies and we’re all looking forward to seeing them.

What if you give something but never get it back? We’ll say it’s 肉包子打狗, to hit a dog with dumpling stuffed with meat. It will end up 有去無回(you3 qu4 wu2 hui2), never getting it back.

完璧歸趙=完璧归赵

狐群狗黨=狐群狗党

失而復得=失而复得

有去無回=有去无回

狗腿 & 馬屁 (Animal)

2012-05-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Very often when we pass by our dog Prince, who’s lying prone idly with his legs spreading on the ground, we’ll watch his legs and say: “好大的狗腿！ (hao3 da4 de gou3 tui3)” –“How big his legs are!”

When we call someone 狗腿, it means that he’s a brown-noser, someone who gains favors, such as a promotion, a raise by kissing ass.

It is said that there once was a rich man who broke his leg. To please him, a servant offered to have his own leg cut and given to his master.

“What about your own leg?” asked the master.

“I can have a dog’s leg,” replied the servant.

“What about the dog’s leg?”

“Make him one out of mud.”

This is why a dog has to raise a hind leg when he pees—so that the leg made of mud won’t be washed off.

Besides狗腿, the horse is also used in describing the same act of kissing ass. Literally it means “patting the horse’s ass”—拍馬屁(pai ma3 pi4) People who are good at this are labeled as馬屁精(ma3 pi4 jing) .

But kissing ass doesn’t always succeed. Sometimes you think you’ll please someone by your 馬屁. Instead of pleased, however, this person just got annoyed because you play the trick wrong or he’s too smart to be fooled. We’ll say, instead of patting the horse in the ass, you pat it in the leg. 馬屁拍到馬腿上了(ma3 pi4 pai dao4 ma3 tui3 le)

Another dog-related term would be 狗嘴裡吐不出象牙(gou3 zui3 li3 tu3 bu4 chu xiang4 ya2), a dog’s mouth emits no ivory. You can never expect wise advice from a foolish man, or elegant talk from a filthy mouth.

Speaking of mouth, sometimes 烏鴉, crow, will be connected with it to be 烏鴉嘴. Chinese believe that crow cawing could be a bad sign and bring ill luck. So when someone says something unlucky that seems to be a curse, people might stop him by calling him a “craw’s mouth.” 烏鴉嘴

On the afternoon before Taiwan’s 921 Quake happened in 1999, I was informed that I would have some extra classes on the next day, which meant I would have 7 periods the next day. Learning this, I told my niece I wished the next day would be a day off. But there wouldn’t be any typhoon. “What about an earthquake?” It slipped out of my tongue. I didn’t mean it but that midnight, the 7.3-magnitute happened and claimed thousands of lives.

This is my personal experience of playing a烏鴉嘴, a very big one.

馬屁精=马屁精

狗嘴裡吐不出象牙=狗嘴里吐不出象牙

烏鴉嘴=乌鸦嘴

Divination (III) (Mystery)

2012-05-05T06:04:00.004-07:00

5. 占星(zhan4 xing) Astrology: In ancient China, astrology was also used to forecast a country or an emperor’s future. A lot of emperors had astrologers as their counselors. They monitored closely for the relative positions or movements of the celestial bodies.

It is also used as a form of fortune-telling for individuals. 紫薇斗數(zi3 wei2 dou3 shu4) is probably the most well-known system. It is the study of a person’s life based on the movement and location of the Zi Wei Star and other stars at the specific time the person was born.

6. 占夢(zhan mong4) Dream interpretation: Speaking of interpreting a dream, you have to know a book called 周公解夢(zhou gong jie3meng4), which consists of interpretations of seven kinds of dreams and is passed along with anonymous authors. As I know, it has nothing to do with the historic figure周公. But in the Chinese language, we often use the term “夢周公” (meng4 zhou gong) to refer to sleeping.

7. 八字相命(ba zhi4 xiang4 ming4) Four Pillars of Destiny: It’s telling one’s personality and fate by his 八字, “eight characters of birth time.” It’s called “eight characters” because each of the four pillars (representing the year, month, day, and hour of one's birth respectively) is represented by two characters. It shows the relative position of the sun when one was born. Philosophy of陰陽五行(yin yang2 wu3 xing2),Yin & Yang, the Five Elements (gold, wood, water, fire, earth) are utilized in telling one’s fortune here.

8. 易經卜卦(yi4 jing bu3 gua4)：易經，the Classic of Changes, one of the oldest texts, contains a divination system. 八卦(ba gua4), referred to as "trigrams" in English, is eight diagrams used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. The eight trigrams are extended into 64. One of the ways to divine is flip three coins to get different head -tail combinations, each of which represents one of the 64 trigrams. The trigram is interpreted according to易經as a prediction for the future.

9. Animal: Some people use animal to divine. For example, I’ve seen birds do the job. You ask a question then the bird picks up an answer for you. I heard that roosters are used too. You might want to see this on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcS0AWB8wzA&feature=related

A friend told me that by chance he once got a “book” of his destiny, which records important occurrences of his life. He read it until the part to the end of that year. He stopped there because he didn’t have the nerves to go on. Some event, though seen much unlikely when he was reading it, really came true later.

For thousands of years, people have been trying very hard to have a peep into the future. We’re always wondering what will happen tomorrow or further ahead, or sometimes we’re just too confused or too weak to decide which way to go. So we resort to an old mysterious way, divination.

I think it’s good to know the weather forecast as to decide what to wear or if you should go out with an umbrella. But foreseeing the future, like who you’re gonna marry or when you’re gonna die?

I think I’ll do the same if I should have the chance to get my “book” as the friend mentioned above. I don’t think I’ll open and read it. Like a Hong Kong science fiction novelist 倪匡(ni2 kuang) put in one of his novels, what is the fun of life if you live it like reading yesterday’s newspaper?

(THE END)

紫薇斗數=紫薇斗数

周公解夢=周公解梦

陰陽五行=阴阳五行

易經=易经

Divination (II) (Mystery)

2012-04-26T19:07:00.003-07:00

My friends did not divine the way those Shang Emperors had. There’re many other ways to do it these days. I’ll give some as I’ve seen or heard.

1. In my previous writing “Bwa3-bui 跋杯” on 04/23/2011, I talked a lot about the practice of using a pair of crescent-shaped, wood or bamboo-made utensil to ask deities questions in the temples. This is one of the commonest ways to divine, often accompanied with the act of 抽籤(cho qian), lot drawing. Please refer to my old writing for the details.

2. 扶乩(fu2 ji): Usually it’s a ritual practiced in the temple by someone who is “possessed” by a god or an immortal. The messages are conveyed through a spirit writing usually using a stick in sand or incense ashes. The characters have to be read and interpreted by someone who is capable of doing this. Long ago I’ve been to a ritual of this and watched it. I didn’t ask any questions, but I remember the process vividly. I picked up one from YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptzZ_2f-Kh8, though it’s not exactly the same as I’ve seen, it’s basically the same thing.

3. 相術(xiang4 shu4) Physiognomy: Fortune-tellers foretell someone’s future by watching his face, features, palm, figure, or 氣(qi4) . . , etc. Some even do this by watching his moles or feeling his wrist bone, which is called 摸骨(mo gu3) in Taiwan.

4. 測字(ce4 zi4) Literomancy: The literomancer tells someone’s future by the Chinese character and the subject the client gives. To do this, you have to know a lot about the Chinese characters. I goolged and found an example like this, which I’m not sure about the authenticity but just give you an idea what literomancy is like:

Giving the word天(tian), a girl asks if she will marry her boyfriend that she’s been seeing for a couple of years. The literomancer gives a positive answer since the word can be separated into 二(er4), two and人(ren2), person. You put two persons together and it turns into 天. If you extend one of the strokes, 天turns into 夫(fu), which means husband.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

抽籤=抽签

相術=相术

氣=气

測字-测字

Divination (I) (Mystery)

2012-04-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Two friends of mine recently have tried divination respectively. One is indecisive if she should retire; the other wants to know if her husband should go to China for a career change.

A couple of weeks ago I read about how divination占卜(zhan bu3) and worship of ancestors had taken most of the time of China’s emperors in Shang Dynasty (1600 BC–1046 BC). With a gap of some three thousand years and Armstrong’s first step onto the moon, funny that divination is still with us. I’m not saying this judgmentally. I’m more of curious about this.

On a summer day of 1899¹, author and scholar 劉鶚(liu2 e4) went to a Chinese herbal medicine pharmacy in Beijing to get something for his friend Wang suffering from malaria. When the pharmacist was pounding the medicine, 龍骨(long2 gu3), dragon’s bones, which refers to fossils of mammals, such as elephants, rhinos, cattle, etc., Liu saw a certain script similar to Chinese characters on the bone.

Later Liu and Wang went around Beijing’s pharmacies and bought all the “dragon’s bones.” 1058 strange old characters, older than anything that had been known, were found on these bones.

Liu made public his discovery in 1903 with the book 鐵雲藏龜 (tie3 yun2 cang2 gui). Those characters found on the bones are called 甲骨文(jia3 gu3 wen2), Oracle bone script.

(from Wikipedia)

For years (from 500 A.D.) farmers had dug out from a big mound in 小屯(xiao3 tun2), 河南(he2 nan2) “dragon’s bones” to sell to the pharmacies in town. Nobody had paid much attention to the script on them.

After a large-scale of digging, around 170 thousand bones have been found and some 5000 of them are with script on them. About 4500 characters have been labeled as甲骨文, one third of which were recognized and confirmed the meanings.

The bones, whatever beasts or turtles they’re from, are called 甲骨. The Shang Emperors believed that their ancestors’ souls were around the gods in heaven. Whenever they wanted to communicate with them, they use the bones to divine. They asked about wars, crops, dreams, the weather, . . . or presented their wishes to the ancestors by doing the ritual.

First they polished a bone from the cattle or a shell from the turtle, and carved concaved lines on it. They asked their questions loudly to the ancestors and put a burning hot branch into the concaved lines. The high temperature would crackle the shell making a sizzling sound, which was considered the “talk” of the bone.

Answers to the questions were found from the crackles the heat had made. The questions and answers were often inscribed on the bones or shells and stored.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Note ¹: The following description on 甲骨文is based on the book Tecknens Rike (China: Empire of Living Symbols) “漢字的故事” by Cecilia Lindqvist.

劉鶚=刘鹗

龍骨=龙骨

狐群狗黨 (Animal)

2012-03-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

One of my friends lost his dog the other day when she rushed out of a pet shop on her first oestrus cycle. It’s a heartbreaking experience and he’s had a hard time getting over it.

Which reminds me of my own experience, when our dog ran away from home on her oestrus cycle. We had kept the dog ever since she was born. You didn’t have to leash her when walking her. She would always follow you back home when called.

But things were quite different when she was on her oestrus cycle. She just ignored us and ran away, staying outside with a gang of dogs. You saw her there but she wouldn’t come back no matter how hard you called.

Such a scene of our dog staying out with a gang of her species makes me realize why we use狐群狗黨(hu2 qun2 gou3 dang3) to describe a gang of villains getting together doing wrong. 狐, fox; 狗, dog; 群and黨both refer to a group or a party. The phrase literally means a group of foxes or dogs.

For example, one of your old friends is keeping bad company and you’d like to advise him to get away from them. You may say to him, “You’d better keep away from those 狐群狗黨 before you get into real trouble.”

Perhaps it’s dogs’ instinct to be together with their own species during a certain period. I just hope very soon my friend’s dog will leave her狗黨 and be back.

狐群狗黨=狐群狗党

狗咬呂洞賓 (xie houyu)

2012-03-19T19:49:00.001-07:00

What does it mean when someone says「你這麼做真是狗咬呂洞賓」? “What you did is just like a dog biting Lǚ Dong-bin.”

L ǚ Dong-bin is one of the “Eight Immortals,” 八仙(ba xian) in the legend. It’s said that before Lǚ became one of the Eight Immortals, he was a scholar. He had a friend ,苟杳(gou3 mao3), who was orphaned and lived in poverty. Lǚ thought very highly of him. They became sworn brothers and Lǚ took Gou in, hoping he would study hard and become successful.

One day, a guest came to Lǚ’s and was impressed by Gou. He liked the young man so much that he’d like to marry his beautiful sister to him. Lǚ rejected for Gou in fear that it would distract him from his studies. Hearing about the beauty of the guest’s sister, however, Gou insisted on marrying the girl.

After long meditation, Lǚ said to Gou, “ I won’t stop you as long as the bride spends the first three nights with me.” Though reluctant, Gou nodded his head since he was dependent on Lǚ and even couldn’t afford the wedding.

On the wedding night, feeling humiliated, Gou hid himself away from the crowd. Lǚ enter the bride’s room, which was called 洞房(dong4 fang2), the “cave room” in ancient time, and just sat there reading without unveiling the bride. (It’s a traditional custom for the bride to wear a veil on the wedding day and be unveiled by the groom on the wedding night, which was very likely the first time the two met.)

The bride sat on the bed waiting and waiting until the middle of the night. The groom just wouldn’t go to bed, so the bride slept alone without changing. When she woke up in the morning, her husband had been gone. It went on like this for three nights in a row.

Three days later when Gou finally got to enter his room, he saw his bride crying. She asked, “Why did you just sit there reading, ignoring me for three consecutive nights and left me in the morning?” She looked at her husband, only to find a different face.

The couple then realized that Lǚ was urging Gou not to forget about his studies after getting married in this special way. Now they turned their resentment towards Lǚ into gratitude.

A few years later, Gou garnered success in the imperial exam and became a high-ranking government official. The couple said goodbye to Lǚ and moved away for Gou’s position.

Eight years later, a fire broke out and burned down Lǚ’s house. He’d lost everything he had. He had no other choice but to go to Gou for help.

He went a long way and finally reached Gou’s place. His old friend treated with hospitality but mentioned nothing about helping. Lǚ stayed for several months but got nothing. Embarrassed and humiliated, he left without saying goodbye.

On arriving his hometown, Lǚ was surprised to see from a distance that his shabby cottage had turned into a new house. He was more surprised to see a coffin in the house and his way howling and mourning.

His wife was stunned to see him, thinking that she had seen a ghost.

The truth is, not long after Lǚ left his home, a gang of workers came to build a house and left when they were done. The day before yesterday, some came to inform Lǚ’s wife of Lǚ’s death. They left a coffin behind. That was why the whole family was mourning over his death.

Lǚ split the coffin with an ax and found a lot of gold and jewelry, along with a letter from Gou:

“I’m not someone ungrateful, who will ignore his friends in need. You had left my wife alone and brokenhearted for three nights, so I make your wife weep for you in return.”

The two were closer ever since. From the story came a Xiehouyu, "苟杳呂洞賓，不識好人心," Gou-mao and Lǚ Dong-bin mistake good guys for bad guys. Since Gou’s name pronounces like 狗咬(Gou3 yao3), it changes into today’s version.

Another saying is that Lǚ Dong-bin had once been bitten by a dog he was feeding. So the Xiehouyu is used to describe when someone bites the hand that feeds him.

Since I have the same surname as Lǚ Dong-bin, if my dog should bite me, I can certainly yell to him, “This is really狗咬呂洞賓!”

狗咬呂洞賓=狗咬吕洞宾

不識好人心=不识好人心

觀音 (Song)

2012-03-10T04:08:00.000-08:00

This is Mt. Guan-yin. Located in the northern part of Taiwan, it is famous for its colorful foggy scenes, which was labeled as one of the “Eight scenes of the northern Dan-shui” 淡北八景(dan4 shui3 ba jing3) in Qing Dynasty.

According to Wikipedia, Guanyin 觀音is “the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female.” Watch the picture below, you’ll see why the mountain is named after her.

Taiwanese poet 羅智成 has a poem titled as 觀音. It is set to music composed by musician 李泰祥

柔美的觀音，已沉睡(rou2 mei3 de guan yin, Yi3 chen2 shui4)

稀落的燭群裏(xi luo4 de zhu2 qun2 li3)

她的睡姿是夢的黑屏風(ta de shui4 zi shi4 meng4 de hei ping2 feng)

我偷偷到她髮下垂釣(wu3 tou tou dao4 ta fa3 xia4 chui2 diao4)

每顆遠方的星上(mei3 ke yuan3 fang de xing shang4)

都大雪紛飛(dou da4 xue3 fen fei)

The tender and beautiful Guan-yin has been asleep soundly.

Among the sparse candles,

She is posed as a black folding screen of dream.

Stealthily I go fishing under her hair.

Upon every faraway star

Heavy snowflakes are flying and fluttering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQViKqLKaeE

柔美的观音，已沉睡

稀落的烛群里

她的睡姿是梦的黑屏风

我偷偷到她发下垂钓

每颗远方的星上

都大雪纷飞

掩耳盜鈴 (idiom)

2012-03-05T18:19:00.004-08:00

Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Nagoya, told Liu Zhiwei, a high-level Chinese official visiting from Nanjing, that his father, who was in Nanjing in 1945 at the end of the Japanese occupation of China, denied that mass murders and rapes known as Nanjing Massacre had ever happened, and that he believed only a “conventional fight” took place.

In “Spring and Autumn Period,” (771-476BC) when Fan, nobility of State of Jin, was exterminated, people rushed to their place to rob. Someone would like to take away a big bell but in vain for the huge size. He tried to hammer it into pieces but was worried that the noise would incur competitors. He covered his ears and kept whacking the bell.

This episode was kept in Lüshi Chunqiu, and we have the idiom掩耳盜鈴(yan3 er3 dao4 ling2) from this story. 掩耳means covering your own ears; 盜鈴to steal a bell.

The author commented as advice to the rulers of a country: “It’s understandable that you don’t want others to hear it. However, it doesn’t make sense to keep yourself from hearing it.”

The idiom then is used to refer to the act of lying to others as well as to yourself. For people like Kawamura, I think they need to brainwash themselves a lot before they try to brainwash others.

These days in Taiwan we have a step-down director-general of BAPHIQ from Council of Agriculture for covering up the outbreak of H5N2 avian flu in Changhua—just another act of 掩耳盜鈴.

掩耳盜鈴=掩耳盗铃

1984 vs. 老天有眼 (chop suey)

2012-03-02T18:28:00.002-08:00

In the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” George Orwell depicts a fictional world where the ubiquitous telescreen (transceiving television set) monitors the private and public lives of the populace. The landscape is adorned with posters of the Party leader, Big Brother, bearing the caption “BIG BROGHER IS WATCHING YOU.”

When Orwell composed the novel, it was supposed to be a political sarcasm and the world, a fictional dystopia. He may not have expected that this world full of “eyes” had somehow been seen in today’s

Taiwan

in some way.

The much discussed Makiyo incident is a proof.

Makiyo, a half-Taiwanese, half-Japanese entertainer of 27, took a taxi with a Japanese man 友寄隆輝and two other female entertainers in Taipei after drinking. After arguing with the driver for refusing to buckle up, the group got off the taxi. 友寄隆輝and Makiyo beat up the driver and kicked him in the head before they left by another taxi, leaving the wounded driver alone on the ground.

When the incident was revealed, Makiyo had a press reference and gave a version of this incident, which was proved to be full of lies after a recording from a taxi driver’s event data recorder was disclosed. The group was slammed by the society for their violence and lies.

In the past when there was no surveillance or EDR as today, when things like this had happened and you had different versions about an incident, which is called 羅生門(luo2 shen men2), Rashomon, a film based on two stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, all you could count on was reliable witnesses, or God to show the truth.

As a result, when a puzzle is resolved and the justice is done, people will always say老天有眼(lao3 tian you3 yan3) , literally meaning God has eyes. Whatever you do, God is watching you. Like what is in the novel, “BIG BROGHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Or what Taiwanese often say 舉頭三尺有神明(ju3 tou2 san chi3 you3 shen2 ming2), Above your head God is watching you.

羅生門=罗生门

舉頭三尺有神明=举头三尺有神明

"Keyboardization" in Chinese writing (joke)

2012-02-25T06:27:00.001-08:00

There’s a report on United Daily about the prevalence of mistakes when writing has been “keyboardization” today. Instead of handwriting, people just type on their keyboard to communicate.

For a non-alphabetic language with so many homophones like Chinese, the tendency has a great impact. For one thing, a lot of youngsters are retrogressing in their handwriting. They don’t know how to write since clicking on keyboard has replaced writing the characters stroke by stroke. As a result, they just recognize a general “outline” of a word instead of each stroke of it, which leads to wrong characters.

For another, there’re many typing systems for the Chinese characters. For those who don’t learn any of them, they might use Mandarin Phonetic Symbols to type. To be more specific, the new system of it, which automatically picks out a word for you among the dozens of homophones and requires you to correct it if it picks out the wrong one. For people communicating online, very likely they just don’t bother to do the proofreading since they talk fast. Mistakes or misunderstanding thus come along.

The report shows some hilarious examples of how a sentence can mean so differently if you just don’t check on the words computer has picked up for you. The highlighted parts are the homophones of the red characters, which are what you really mean.

有隻豬在我電腦上 There’s a pig on my computer.

有蜘蛛(zhi zhu)在我電腦上 There’s a spider on my computer.

同學去世真的超好笑 A classmate’s death is super hilarious.

同學去勢真的超好笑 A classmate’s being castrated is super

hilarious.

同學趣事(qu4 shi4)真的超好笑 A classmate’s interesting episode is super hilarious.

你會癢是嗎？ You are feeling itchy, aren’t you?

你會仰式(yang3 shi4)嗎？ Can you swim the backstroke?

及時通上吹噓，我弟李添財

I was bragging on Messenger about my brother Li Tian-cai.

及時通上吹噓，我地理天才(di4 li3 tian cai2)

I was bragging on Messenger about my geographic genius.

你腋下如何？ How is with your armpit?

你意下(yi4 xia4)如何？ What do you think?

外面吃東西，儘可能氫彈

Try to eat as much hydrogen bombs as possible when eating out.

外面吃東西，儘可能清淡(qing dan4)

Try to eat as much light food as possible when eating out.

老師教學生電腦，問大家觀音笑了嗎？

The teacher asked students if Guan-yin Goddess had laughed when teaching the computer class.

老師教學生電腦，問大家關音效(guan yin xiao4)了嗎？

The teacher asked students if they had turned off the sound effect when teaching the computer class.

This is why Chinese is a language of poetry, I guess. In fact, Taiwanese poet 陳黎(chen li2) has really composed a poem of such kind that turns a love poem into a dirty one. The title of the poem takes mistyping on the computer as an excuse to make such a twist.

Bombs of laughter might just explode when you’re typing Chinese characters with your computer.

有隻豬在我電腦上=有只猪在我电脑上

同學趣事=同学趣事

及時通=及时通

外面吃東西，儘可能清淡=外面吃东西，尽可能清淡

關音效=关音效

陳黎=陈黎

人面桃花 vs. daffodil field (idiom)

2012-02-20T18:21:00.001-08:00

I read a story on the paper about how the daffodils at Mt. Yang-Ming in Taipei had blossomed these days, which is nothing unusual. What makes the story special is that the administration of the daffodils has set up a sign in search of an old lady who took a taxi and came all the way from Taoyuan four years ago just to watch daffodils in full blossoms. She burst into tears when told that she was too late and had missed the blossoms. “I haven’t seen a tract of daffodils for decades since I left home!” she cried.

Along with other 1949 immigrants, the lady came to Taiwan from

China

when young and was in her 80s when she visited Mt. Yang-Ming to see the scene of her dream. People invited her to come next year but she had never been seen since then.

Immediately I remember the story of人面桃花(ren2 mian4 tao2 hwa). 崔護(cui hu4), a poet in Tang Dynasty, once had an outing in spring to the suburbs and came to a cottage surrounded by peach blossoms. Out of curiosity he knocked the door asking for a cup of water to see who was living inside. Beyond his expectation, a beautiful girl answered the door and entertained him with hospitality.

The next year when he visited the same place in the same season, to his disappointment the girl had been gone. The regretful poet could do nothing but left a poem on the door, which went as:

去年今日此門中，人面桃花相映紅；

人面不知何處去，桃花依舊笑春風。

Last year today inside the door I saw the rosy face reflecting the bright color of the peach blossoms.

Now the peach blossoms are smiling in the spring wind but the face is nowhere to be found.

So we have the idiom 人面桃花. 人面refers to the beautiful face of the girl; 桃花, peach blossoms. Cui was definitely not alone to have such regret when facing the same old surroundings without the beloved one.

Peach or daffodil blossoms, it really doesn’t matter what the flowers are. I certainly hope that those daffodils will see the lady they’re expecting.

All about eating (III) (Slang)

2012-02-18T00:02:00.000-08:00

囫圇吞棗(hu2 lun2 tun zao3): Literally it means to swallow a jujube without chewing. 囫圇means intact; 吞, swallow; 棗,jujube. When someone is learning something, he does not try to comprehend it thoroughly with deliberation but finishes it hurriedly and carelessly, we can use the term. For example, how can you read between the lines if you just囫圇吞棗when you’re reading this literature classic of deep meanings?

膾炙人口(kwai4 zhi4 ren2 kou3) 膾 is finely cut meat while炙 is barbequed meat. These are food loved by people. Beautiful works of poetry, prose, music or movies are well-liked by people just like delicious food.

吃不了兜著走(chi bu4 lyao3 dou zhe zou3) Literally it means you have to take out the leftover if you can’t eat them all. But the actual meaning is that someone has landed himself in serious trouble, or has to take the consequences he can’t bear. For example, “I’ll let you吃不了兜著走 if you should take my money,” said the rascal.

吃案子(chi an4 zi) “Eating the case” is the literal meaning. Sometimes the irresponsible policemen might shun their responsibility by not filing a case. This act is called吃案子.

吃人(chi ren2) It doesn’t necessarily mean “eating people” but often refers to the situation when a major bullying or oppression happens.

吃飽了撐著(chi bao3 le cheng zhe) In my previous writing on June, 28, 2011 about planking, I’ve talked about this slang. when someone seems to have too much time on hand and is up to something meaningless, such as meddling into others’ affair that is none of his concern, we’ll say he’s吃飽了撐著, getting too full up.

Conclusion: If you totally understand these “eating terms” and use them without difficulty, foreigners, you’re practically a Chinese expert.

(THE END)

囫圇吞棗=囫囵吞枣

膾炙人口=脍炙人口

吃不了兜著走=吃不了兜着走

吃飽了撐著=吃饱了撑着