Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
Conversational scenarios, expression techniques, and pronunciation correction exercises—focused on practical Chinese speaking skills
Well, it depends on situations. I mean, there are varieties of contents written in Classical Chinese, for instance, essays, philosophical tracts, biographies, history books, poems, plays, and novels. What kind of text you refer to, what era it was written and what level of understanding it demands for a modern reader also varies. Classical Chinese … Read more
No, not at all. Referring to a woman as 美女 (mei nü, Mei Nv) is a normal in China. It’s certainly not sexist. However, you should keep in mind that Mei Nv is usually used to refer to the young women. You can’t call an old woman Mei Nv. Similarly, you can’t refer a girl … Read more
They could refer to Green Dragon of the East, or 东方青龙 in Chinese, and White Tiger of the West, or 西方白虎 in Chinese, two of the Four Cardinal Points of directions in Chinese culture. The other two are Vermillion Bird of the South, or 南方朱雀 in Chinese, and Tortoise and Snake of the North, or … Read more
Well, it depends on you. I mean, if you choose 芸婕 as the combination of one generational name and a given name, then you could choose to select 施, or shi in Pinyin as your Chinese surname. 施芸婕, or Shi Yunjie in Pinyin is a great name. And this surname sounds similar with your own … Read more
Since your name is Navodya Dissanayaka, I would suggest you take this name as your Chinese name, i.e., 狄雅娜, whose alphabet letters are Di Yana and pronunciation is dí yǎ nà. As you can see, the pronunciation of this Chinese name shares similarities with your birth name. I mean, the letters di are in your … Read more
As I understand it, Buddha 佛陀 means 覺者 the enlightened. As far as I know, the Indo-European root is *bheudh, and means to be aware, or to make aware. It is etymologically related to the English forbid or forboding, and the Lithuanian budėti to be awake. In all the decades I have followed the Buddha, I have … Read more
No, it is not. Tsang is the Cantonese romanization of the surname 曾, whose Pinyin version is Zeng. When Zang is seen as a surname in mainland China, it refers to another Chinese character, which is 臧, whose Wade-Giles version is Tsang. So, you could see that this surname 臧 is written as Tsang in … Read more
Instead of frightening readers with implacable monsters, Chinese ghost stories tend to use the spirit world (the very concept of “ghost” is rather fluid) to warn of the consequences of unethical behavior. 鬼故事 guǐ gùshì / goei guhshyh is a very common equivalent for “ghost stories”, but the word 鬼 refers to all sorts of spirits, … Read more
Friends who know me well are aware that I have a bee in my bonnet over a large number of Simplified Chinese Characters that have been made standard, most of them falling under one of the following two (2) categories: Merging of two (2) distinct characters into one (1), largely on the basis of them … Read more
If this is the kind of slum you are talking about, unfortunately, there are none in China. What is associated with slums in China are “urban villages”, or old urban areas that are now dilapidated. The “urban villages” are only densely built up, but there is no problem with running water, sewerage, electricity, etc. Some … Read more