Monthly Archives: October 2010

10/13/10

What Is The Wall Between The Village and The Asian Games?

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I recently posted about how Guangzhou is polishing her self for Asian Games that are just around the corner. One part of that is to build walls surrounding few shabby looking villages here in Higher Educational Mega Center (University Town/Island).

Here is a small and bumpy video clip showing the wall between Nanting village and Asian Games stadium (one of them). Sorry for the low quality. My boyfriend was riding a bike and I was sitting in the back shooting the clip. Other village called Beiting has the same kind of wall as well.

I am just wondering is this wall going to be around after the games too. It really makes the area look suspicious.

10/11/10

Should Chinese People Abandon Characters?

Is it possible? Last night over hot pot I was discussing about the matter with few fellow exchange students. It started with because Chinese characters are difficult even to Chinese themselves. Every week some of our teachers have to check the dictionary or his/her mobile to how to write a character. Because everyone is using computers to write, it seems to be hard to remember how to write by hand.

So should it be better to get rid of the characters and write with pinyin instead? I think that the pinyin we are using now isn’t enough to replace characters. For example for shi with fourth tone there seems to be over 40 different characters. One of my friends suggested that under or top of the pinyin you could add dots to sign the different meanings. This could be easy for syllables that have only few different meanings. But how messy would it be to try to mark all the 40+ different shi4?

But why were we really discussing about forgetting the hanzi? Are we worried about the Chinese people and how they use lot of time and energy to learn how to write their native language? Or are we just too lazy and don’t want to bother to learn the characters?

The history student in me also reminds that wouldn’t it be a great loss to ditch the characters? The first characters date back to Shang dynasty (1200-1050BC) so apart the modern day use the Chinese writing system also has it’s cultural and historical value. Shouldn’t it be protected like a world heritage site? Or will in in the future only researchers be able to read and write characters?

I do not have any scientific information or knowledge about this matter, so these are just my thoughts that rose during our conversation last night. I would be happy to hear more from you and if you have links to any relevant or interesting websites or blogs please let me know.

What you think? Is Chinese written language outdated and in need of drastic reform?

10/9/10

Is There Hygiene In China?

Yes. But maybe only in one cafe where you are supposed to eat your wrap with a plastic glove. One morning I saw something different when biking through the local market.

If you have a big piece of meat and you want to break it to pieces, what do you do? Of course you throw it to the ground as many times needed to get nice smaller pieces. Oh, did the neighbourhood dog his business to the same spot? Well, that’s not a problem at all, it just gives it a bit more flavour.

It is ok that there is no paper in the public toilets because it is easy to carry with you. But am I supposed to have my own soap as well? Well, I have to admit that after a long day of shopping I have been to one fast food place easting fries and happily forgot that I’ve just  gathered a ton of new bacteria.

There is no need to be over hygienic but where is the limit?

10/6/10

What You Want To Ask From Me?

I have been really happy because of the comments you have left to my blog. They keep me writing and help me come up with good ideas to blog about. But I want to hear even more from you so now you have the chance to ask me anything you want. I will answer to every question. But keep in mind that my mom is reading everything I write, so please keep it clean.

So what you want to know?