Chinese Speaking Fans

The Chaoshan (潮汕) region has its own language, Teochew (or Chiuchow) – which isn’t mutually intelligible with Mandarin or Cantonese, actually I find it closer to Minnan (my dialect) spoken in southern part of Fujian Province with accent variation of course. If you speak Teochew, you can get by easily in Chaozhou, Jieyang and Shantou …

Again, China in your imagination is China retold from western perspective. Even as someone a Chinese diaspora in eastern hemisphere, who has growing up through western education perspective, China in my eyes is quite different from how western mainstream media, pop science, history, literature, let alone politicians portrays it. In early 2000s, when I am …

Well, in my humble opinion, these two Chinese characters don’t sound too old-fashioned. 莲 means lotus and its Pinyin is lián. And in a metaphorical way, it could mean purity. That’s why in a famous essay, Ode to the Lotus, or 爱莲说 in Chinese, by Zhou Dunyi, or 周敦颐 in Chinese, a renowned neo-Confucian philosopher …

The real name of Confucius is Kong Qiu (孔丘, kǒng qiū), with surname Kong (孔), and the given name (丘). In Chinese culture, it has been a tradition to add 子 (zǐ) to the surname the show respects. For example: Han Fei: 韩非子 (Hánfēi zǐ) Mencius: 孟子 (mèng zǐ) Obviously, Confucius is one of the …

Probably for the same reasons that when a fictional Mr. Xǔ Zhì Qiáng (許志強) settles down in beautiful America, he goes by the name “George”: To better-assimilate into the culture and environment of his new home Because 8 out of 10 persons probably cannot figure out how the heck to correctly pronounce his name, what …