Thursday, June 12, 2008
Simplified Schemplified
Have you ever wondered why some chinese characters were simplified and some weren't? I do. For example, why in the world did the Communists not simplify the character 的(de) ? It is probably the single most used character in the modern script. 8 strokes! 8 f!@$-ing strokes. If any character deserves to be simplified, it would be this one. But it was not. They could not bring themselves to do something like this:
No, the anti-Japanese sentiment are strong in these ones. How much simpler it would be if they only adopted this simplification scheme for the character?
Side note: Taiwan is going to experience its fair share of anti-Japanese sentiment given the recent fishing boat incident.
No, the anti-Japanese sentiment are strong in these ones. How much simpler it would be if they only adopted this simplification scheme for the character?
Side note: Taiwan is going to experience its fair share of anti-Japanese sentiment given the recent fishing boat incident.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Family Trees
My grandfather pulled out a book of geneology for those sharing out last name today and we had a very pleasant, long conversation. I've been asking to discuss a number of things with gramps, especially some issues regarding naming. I have come up with a few names I would like run past gramps.
There were a lot of things that I learned. For example, I didn't know that the Wen surname can be traced back to Shanxi province to the city of Taiyuan, which is the provincial capital today. I had visited Taiyuan with friends when I studied in China as well as other places in Shanxi province.
My own family geneology traced via the pateral line is a short one only because the records are hopelessly incomplete. Any past achievement has been washed away by the river of time. My brother and I start with a clean slate. The stories make up for their lack of length by being interesting.
I also learned an alternative interpretation to my brother's name. It doesn't deviate much from how I have come to understand it, but this new derivation firmly plants it in a Confucian context. This is very enlightening.
Also: I set in motion the process to replace the very important thing I lost.
There were a lot of things that I learned. For example, I didn't know that the Wen surname can be traced back to Shanxi province to the city of Taiyuan, which is the provincial capital today. I had visited Taiyuan with friends when I studied in China as well as other places in Shanxi province.
My own family geneology traced via the pateral line is a short one only because the records are hopelessly incomplete. Any past achievement has been washed away by the river of time. My brother and I start with a clean slate. The stories make up for their lack of length by being interesting.
I also learned an alternative interpretation to my brother's name. It doesn't deviate much from how I have come to understand it, but this new derivation firmly plants it in a Confucian context. This is very enlightening.
Also: I set in motion the process to replace the very important thing I lost.
1 Comments:
-
Andrew M said...
-
Hello, I stumbled upon your musings purely on accident, but I must say I enjoy your writings. I too am searching for something important that I've misplaced: my sanity. Good luck with your quest.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Further South and Further Out
Day trip to Kending. Realized I did some things I should not have done ex post. Lost something very important. Rediscovered the bug lover in me. Climbed rocks. A very good day, but a very tiring one. Here's a butterfly I found today. Sadly, my camera is doesn't do it justice:
It is beyond me to identify this one. It was a big one.
Making my way down this sandy hill was difficult. It might not look like a very long distance or a very steep descent. Take a look at the tiny people that dot the top of the cliffs. That gives a bit of perspective. The beach was abandoned.
Did you know, did you know, the sea tastes like steamed crabs. Oh wait, it's the other way around. See how silly we are when we become so distanced from the act of catching out own food?
Counts of non-East Asians: 98
White: 95
Latin: 2
Indian:1
It is beyond me to identify this one. It was a big one.
Making my way down this sandy hill was difficult. It might not look like a very long distance or a very steep descent. Take a look at the tiny people that dot the top of the cliffs. That gives a bit of perspective. The beach was abandoned.
Did you know, did you know, the sea tastes like steamed crabs. Oh wait, it's the other way around. See how silly we are when we become so distanced from the act of catching out own food?
Counts of non-East Asians: 98
White: 95
Latin: 2
Indian:1
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Graduation Redux
Today I attended the graduation ceremony of the cousin I'm staying with in Kaohsiung. He is the same year as I am. The weather was beautiful by southern Taiwan's standards, which means very hot and not too humid. It's amazing to see all the graduates walk around outside in their gowns. Is there some secret I'm missing here? That, or I just tend to sweat more easily. The actual ceremony was held indoors with several overflow rooms that had large projections of a live feed of the proceedings in the ceremony hall.
I caught this funny picture while I was wandering in the hallways (I mean, who wants to hear those old blokes blather about graduation anyway. I've discovered that regardless of location, they tend to talk about the same things.)
It reads "Mom...I've graduated!" There's something a bit overdone in this poster that hit my funny bone. I'm amused.
The best part of the ceremony actually took place after it ended. Some insane graduate student got up on stage and started talking about something I couldn't quite parse properly. It turns out he was proposing to his girlfriend. A group of undergrads, including my cousin started chanting "別想不開啊!" which might be translated literally as "Don't keep your thoughts closed!" This is to mean that in the event she turns him down, the guy should not check off the suicide box from his list of final solutions. It was certainly a bit of mean-hearted jeering. Naturally, I laughed.
This weird story managed to make the second headline on Yahoo Taiwan's homepage. Pics or it didn't happen you say? Take that! It's number 2:
Here's the link to the article in Chinese. It can't be that easy to get the girl to say "Yes" can it?
I caught this funny picture while I was wandering in the hallways (I mean, who wants to hear those old blokes blather about graduation anyway. I've discovered that regardless of location, they tend to talk about the same things.)
It reads "Mom...I've graduated!" There's something a bit overdone in this poster that hit my funny bone. I'm amused.
The best part of the ceremony actually took place after it ended. Some insane graduate student got up on stage and started talking about something I couldn't quite parse properly. It turns out he was proposing to his girlfriend. A group of undergrads, including my cousin started chanting "別想不開啊!" which might be translated literally as "Don't keep your thoughts closed!" This is to mean that in the event she turns him down, the guy should not check off the suicide box from his list of final solutions. It was certainly a bit of mean-hearted jeering. Naturally, I laughed.
This weird story managed to make the second headline on Yahoo Taiwan's homepage. Pics or it didn't happen you say? Take that! It's number 2:
Here's the link to the article in Chinese. It can't be that easy to get the girl to say "Yes" can it?
Friday, June 06, 2008
Night Markets
Night markets are a must experience event when you are in Taiwan. These are designated locations where local businesses set up stalls to sell food or game stalls where you can play to win prizes. These places open up for business at night, hence they are called night markets. They are invariably busy places with plenty of people. I even saw seven foreigners tonight, which ups my totals for this trip.
Night markets are fun. I went to one located in Tainan today called Dadong Yeshi - The Big East Night Market. I was in Tainan today because my cousin had a friend who was graduating from a fine arts college in the city. She was giving her graduation recital and had sent this cousin of mine a hand-written invitation. He thought since she had gone through this much trouble, it would be very bad for him not to show. So he rallied me and two other friends to attend.
After the show, we dropped off one of the girls in our party and picked up another. She is the daughter of a good family friend of mine. Having 1 year of college under her belt in Tainan, she served as our guide to delicious food like so:
We ate delcious food, played games, and collected booty at the end of the day:
I don't want to spam the blog with too many pictures. That's what albums are for. I'll find time to upload the pictures later. Wait! Where am I in these pictures? Hiding of course!
Counts of non-East Asians: 76
White: 73
Latin: 2
Indian:1
Night markets are fun. I went to one located in Tainan today called Dadong Yeshi - The Big East Night Market. I was in Tainan today because my cousin had a friend who was graduating from a fine arts college in the city. She was giving her graduation recital and had sent this cousin of mine a hand-written invitation. He thought since she had gone through this much trouble, it would be very bad for him not to show. So he rallied me and two other friends to attend.
After the show, we dropped off one of the girls in our party and picked up another. She is the daughter of a good family friend of mine. Having 1 year of college under her belt in Tainan, she served as our guide to delicious food like so:
We ate delcious food, played games, and collected booty at the end of the day:
I don't want to spam the blog with too many pictures. That's what albums are for. I'll find time to upload the pictures later. Wait! Where am I in these pictures? Hiding of course!
Counts of non-East Asians: 76
White: 73
Latin: 2
Indian:1
Thursday, June 05, 2008
The Joys of the Countryside
Today my cousin had a full day's worth of classes so I took a trip up from Kaohsiung to the city of Chiayi. I have some family living there from my mother's side in the nearby city of Puzi, so I decided to visit them for a day.
Southern Taiwan is more agricultural. There are also more people who speak the Taiwanese dialect which is largely incomprehensible to a speaker of Mandarin. It's an offshoot of a particular Minnan dialect spoken on the Mainland but with time, differences developed between the. Supposedly, however, you can still work out most of the other by knowing one of the two. As you travel north, the number of people who speak Taiwanese declines. Speakers, some of whom speak Taiwanese exclusively, are concentrated in the south. It is also interesting to note that speaking more Taiwanese has a positive correlation with being associated with the DPP, while the opposite sees a positive relationship with the KMT.
One of my uncles owns a chicken raising operation around the Puzi area. He also has a small plot of land where he grows his own food. The surplus he sells or gives away. Chicken farming is the key money-making business. He raising baby chicks starting from when they are in their cute yellow stage until they are ready to be slaughtered for their meat. It was at this place many years ago that I caught and killed my first chicken, thereby alerting me to the nature of what it means to be a meat eater. It's not much an accomplishment. These are domesticated creatures after all. The chicken was delicious.
The rain, which has been following me around throughout this trip, did not let up today. I sat with my uncle and aunt outside in a sheltered area looking out into his fields and the longhouse-like structures that housed his chickens. We drank green tea and ate grass jelly. By the way, grass jelly goes great with some milk, I discovered.
A friend of my uncle showed up shortly before we finished our second round of tea. He brought some vitamins. My uncle produced another cup and the three of us drank together. The newcomer spoke Taiwanese, a language I could only understand about 10% of. He went on for a bit with my uncle and then he decided to start talking to me. I answered his questions in Mandarin. This must have puzzled him, because it appeared as if I understood what he was saying. In fact, I didn't. I simply made some assumptions based on what I could pick out from his words and body language what he was saying and from that, I planned my reply. My lucky streak was lucky. When I finally admitted how little Taiwanese I knew and how I was figuring out what he was saying, he seemed a bit surprised. It's amazing what you can pick up when you try.
Southern Taiwan is more agricultural. There are also more people who speak the Taiwanese dialect which is largely incomprehensible to a speaker of Mandarin. It's an offshoot of a particular Minnan dialect spoken on the Mainland but with time, differences developed between the. Supposedly, however, you can still work out most of the other by knowing one of the two. As you travel north, the number of people who speak Taiwanese declines. Speakers, some of whom speak Taiwanese exclusively, are concentrated in the south. It is also interesting to note that speaking more Taiwanese has a positive correlation with being associated with the DPP, while the opposite sees a positive relationship with the KMT.
One of my uncles owns a chicken raising operation around the Puzi area. He also has a small plot of land where he grows his own food. The surplus he sells or gives away. Chicken farming is the key money-making business. He raising baby chicks starting from when they are in their cute yellow stage until they are ready to be slaughtered for their meat. It was at this place many years ago that I caught and killed my first chicken, thereby alerting me to the nature of what it means to be a meat eater. It's not much an accomplishment. These are domesticated creatures after all. The chicken was delicious.
The rain, which has been following me around throughout this trip, did not let up today. I sat with my uncle and aunt outside in a sheltered area looking out into his fields and the longhouse-like structures that housed his chickens. We drank green tea and ate grass jelly. By the way, grass jelly goes great with some milk, I discovered.
A friend of my uncle showed up shortly before we finished our second round of tea. He brought some vitamins. My uncle produced another cup and the three of us drank together. The newcomer spoke Taiwanese, a language I could only understand about 10% of. He went on for a bit with my uncle and then he decided to start talking to me. I answered his questions in Mandarin. This must have puzzled him, because it appeared as if I understood what he was saying. In fact, I didn't. I simply made some assumptions based on what I could pick out from his words and body language what he was saying and from that, I planned my reply. My lucky streak was lucky. When I finally admitted how little Taiwanese I knew and how I was figuring out what he was saying, he seemed a bit surprised. It's amazing what you can pick up when you try.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
What is That Thing?
My cousin and I made a trip to Taipei today to take care of some of his personal business. We blew a lot of money on the HSR tickets, but the results were satisfactory so I consider it money well spent. I managed to lose an umbrella and hit up a few more 誠品. It's goes by Eslite in English. I'm not too sure how to pronounce it. It has induced me to purchase a few CDs.
Anyway, as I was making the best of my time while my cousin took care of his business, I got hungry and found a nifty (read: small) Japanese restaurant. At the cashier's counter, this is what I saw:
What is that thing between its legs? I'm sure there's something I'm missing here. I laughed. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of my delicious katsudon, a dish filled with symbolism.
Oh yeah, since Computex is in full swing. The number of foreigners in Taiwan has shot up dramatically. This is evidenced by the jump in the total number of them spotted as documented below.
Non-East Asian Count: 69
White: 66
Latin: 2
Indian: 1
Anyway, as I was making the best of my time while my cousin took care of his business, I got hungry and found a nifty (read: small) Japanese restaurant. At the cashier's counter, this is what I saw:
What is that thing between its legs? I'm sure there's something I'm missing here. I laughed. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of my delicious katsudon, a dish filled with symbolism.
Oh yeah, since Computex is in full swing. The number of foreigners in Taiwan has shot up dramatically. This is evidenced by the jump in the total number of them spotted as documented below.
Non-East Asian Count: 69
White: 66
Latin: 2
Indian: 1
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Shopping for Stuff
There is a chain store in Taiwan that puts Barnes & Noble and Borders Books to shame. It's a book seller called Chengpin (誠品). I love the place. That, or I like shopping for Chinese language books. I found this picture book titled 想太多的豬之豬眼看人生 (literal trans: The Pig Who Thought Too Much, The Pigs-Eye View of Life). It's absolutely hilarious because "The Pig Who Thought Too Much" = Me.
There was another Taiwan chain called 夠壞堂 (Literal trans: The Bad-Enough Hall) where I managed to pick up a number of funny stickers. They're like bumper stickers but with a Taiwanese sense of humor. Here's two examples:
The Chinese on the sticker to the left reads in translation "I don't want to be a nice guy!" This pokes fun at the most commonly used rejection phrase here in Taiwan. Supposedly the girl would say something like "You're a really nice guy so I think you ought to find someone else better than me to go out with" or something close to that. It's the phrase ever boy hates to hear coming from the girl he likes.
The second sticker is funny because of the English translation. The Chinese simply says "Do not feed (the animals)"
Update on weather: It's supposed to rain until Saturday.
Special Counts:
Number of Gaijin seen IRL: 27
Number of white people: 26
Indians: 1
There was another Taiwan chain called 夠壞堂 (Literal trans: The Bad-Enough Hall) where I managed to pick up a number of funny stickers. They're like bumper stickers but with a Taiwanese sense of humor. Here's two examples:
The Chinese on the sticker to the left reads in translation "I don't want to be a nice guy!" This pokes fun at the most commonly used rejection phrase here in Taiwan. Supposedly the girl would say something like "You're a really nice guy so I think you ought to find someone else better than me to go out with" or something close to that. It's the phrase ever boy hates to hear coming from the girl he likes.
The second sticker is funny because of the English translation. The Chinese simply says "Do not feed (the animals)"
Update on weather: It's supposed to rain until Saturday.
Special Counts:
Number of Gaijin seen IRL: 27
Number of white people: 26
Indians: 1
Monday, June 02, 2008
City Names and More Funny Toothpaste
Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan, although it is much smaller than Taipei. It is located in the southwestern corner of the small island. If the traffic is good, you can get down from Taipei in about 4-5 hours. The new high speed rail (HSR) will take you down to the city from Taipei in about 2 hours. Southern Taiwan is supposed to be a little less humid but hotter in general than northern Taiwan, but yesterday when I came down, it was raining all the way. In fact, I think the rains have been following me wherever I go. Keeps the temperature down.
I'm told that the area where Kaohsiung was built was originally called Dagou by the aboriginal people. The Chinese wrote it as 打狗 (literal trans: To hit a dog). When the Japanese occcupied Taiwan, they changed the characters but kept the sound. Perhaps they found the orignal pair to be a bit distasteful. Using Japanese pronunciation, they substituted the original pair with the new characters. When the Chinese regained control of the island, they kept the Japanese characters but read their sound in Mandarin. This is how Kaohsiung's name came to be. Interesting.
This one was the final straw:
Whitemen toothpaste? This is just too much. I should get a shot of the two brands right next to each other.
Counts of things:
Number of non-East Asians spotted: 21
Number of White people: 20
Number of Indians: 1
I'm told that the area where Kaohsiung was built was originally called Dagou by the aboriginal people. The Chinese wrote it as 打狗 (literal trans: To hit a dog). When the Japanese occcupied Taiwan, they changed the characters but kept the sound. Perhaps they found the orignal pair to be a bit distasteful. Using Japanese pronunciation, they substituted the original pair with the new characters. When the Chinese regained control of the island, they kept the Japanese characters but read their sound in Mandarin. This is how Kaohsiung's name came to be. Interesting.
This one was the final straw:
Whitemen toothpaste? This is just too much. I should get a shot of the two brands right next to each other.
Counts of things:
Number of non-East Asians spotted: 21
Number of White people: 20
Number of Indians: 1
Sunday, June 01, 2008
A Change of Setting
I just got back to Hsinchu from Taipei. This is just a pitstop. I'm going to be making my way down to southern Taiwan, cutting a path along the western coast. The trip will take a week. I'll be with a cousin of mine. Southern Taiwan is very different from the north. You would think that for a place so small, it would be rather homogenous in terms of lifestyle and wealth distribution but that is not the case. Southern Taiwan is decidedly less urban and poorer. It has more agricultural industries and the people there are supposed to be friendlier.
This is the toothpaste I brush my teeth with everyday:
Does anyone recognize this? This brand of toothpaste is called Heiren (literal trans: black man). It is in this way that I start everyday with a smile. I swear Chinese people are so racist.
I'm keeping a number of counts:
Total White people spotted IRL thus far: 19
I'm keeping a glossary of the alphabet that gets worked into Taiwanese lexicon:
A-qian 錢 (To embezzle money)
B-xing ganyan 型肝炎 (A disease of the liver)
P-ke 客 (A buyer for retail purposes)
X-guan 光 (X-ray)
This is the toothpaste I brush my teeth with everyday:
Does anyone recognize this? This brand of toothpaste is called Heiren (literal trans: black man). It is in this way that I start everyday with a smile. I swear Chinese people are so racist.
I'm keeping a number of counts:
Total White people spotted IRL thus far: 19
I'm keeping a glossary of the alphabet that gets worked into Taiwanese lexicon:
A-qian 錢 (To embezzle money)
B-xing ganyan 型肝炎 (A disease of the liver)
P-ke 客 (A buyer for retail purposes)
X-guan 光 (X-ray)
2 Comments:
Re: simplified vs traditional in relation to Japanese Hiragana / Katagana, I know for those one is for the 'pure' Japanese words, and the other (Katagana) is reserved for Western and Non-Japanese-Native words, perhaps the simplified Chinese characters relates some to this.
-A
please see these blogs for more discussions on Japanese culturistics stuff saketalkie
or
japanetics
Post a Comment