A few years ago, I had a heated (calm on my part) exchange with a super patriot over whether 聰明 is an adjective. My interlocutor, whom I don’t want to embarrass (name concealed), fervently insisted that 聰明 is a noun and that I should not use Western standards.
I provided several examples where 聰明 quite obviously behaves as an adjective, but I was accused of thinking that Daoism and Confucianism are religions (??? a topic I have never even considered, much less discussed). She concluded the discussion with a string of what looks like meaningless gibberish: “你怎么跟个刺锅额死来混身净cer” (maybe it’s some new slang?)
Are standard dictionaries all wrong? Do mainland schools teach basic Chinese grammar? Or is it just that westerners are always wrong?