A whole book on the way Chinese people choose English names, and why those names sometimes seem odd to native English speakers: In China, My name is…
A 1975 documentary (viewable online) on the Mao-era “barefoot doctors“.
In aging China, a change of course
…when Shanghai government officials … began encouraging young couples to have more than one child, their reaction was instant and firm: No way.
[...]
Wang … said she wants an only child because she was one herself: “We were at the center of our families and used to everyone taking care of us. We are not used to taking care of and don’t really want to take care of others.”Chen Zijian … put it more bluntly. For the dual-career, middle-class parents … it’s about being successful enough to be selfish. Today’s 20- and 30-somethings grew up seeing their parents struggle … and don’t want that kind of life for themselves, he said.
Related:
Pronounced: pái wài
Literally: exclude outers
Means: (1) to be xenophobic. (2) to be xenophobic toward other Chinese who aren’t locals. This is a common attitude in all major cities, but Shanghai is especially notorious for giving non-local Chinese (migrant workers, domestic tourists) second-class treatment. The “外” (wài / “out”) can refer both to foreigners (外国人 / “out-country-people”) and out-of-towners (外地人 / “out-place-people”).
A political scientist, a couple of sociologists, and a professor of Chinese studies provide brief but relatively nuanced understandings of racism in China today:
Growing up in Beijing, as a member of the Han majority, I did not see China as a country which exhibited racial discrimination … However, after having lived outside China for over 20 years … I now realize that many in China are simply unaware of the racism and prejudice that exists.
China’s Changing Views on Race.
In Canada the Province of British Columbia gave us a free CD with a hippie/new-age reading of a poem for infants about how “YOU. Are a chiiiiild of the UUUNiverse…”. In Tianjin our friends who had their baby here got this free bib with a One Child Policy slogan on it:
“Fewer births, scientific and healthier births, lifelong happiness”
or
“Fewer and better births make your life happier”
or
“Few births, scientifically bearing children, happiness for whole life”
少生优生，幸福一生
shǎo shēng yōushēng, xìngfú yìshēng
Other One Child Policy stuff:
- “There are too many Chinese!” (translations of One Child Policy signs in a Tianjin village).
Some other Vancouver stuff:
- China takes over world, starts with 2010 Olympic mascots, exacerbates Canadian identity crisis
- Chinese tattoos in Vancouver
- Aiya, Wen-ge-hua… 哎呀，温哥华……
- A “foreigner” in my own country, “yellow” people, and other funny Chinese racial talk
- How to: Confuse the traffic in your hometown
A fascinating analysis of the 2008 television series “Dwelling Narrowness” (蜗居) describes contemporary Chinese urban society in terms of social classes that are distinguished according to the exploitation of sexual resources: the sexless class, the sexual middle-class, and the sexual bourgeoisie. Ridiculously inflated housing prices, which make family living spaces impossibly out of reach for many, greatly exacerbate the problem.
The plundering of sexual resources has not only created a lack of social morality and justice, but has also led to a degrading sexual co-existence … This is no longer just a problem in a moral sense, but concerns the entirety of social stability. [...] If ‘Dwelling Narrowness’ was banned, it would not be because it contains topics relating to sex, it would be because this TV series is like a needle, it pokes at the sensitivities of the whole society, making us understand exactly what is sabotaging our values system. ‘Dwelling Narrowness’ is a vivid portrayal of society as a whole…”
I just saw something… satisfying. It’s this morning around 10:45. Traffic is horribly constipated and visibility is less than two city blocks even though it’s “sunny.” A bus has cut into the bike lane so he can sneak up the side and budge back in near the front of the line. Of course this means a whole line of cars have decided to ride his coattails — all of them displacing the cyclists. The masses of bikers, me included, have to jump onto the sidewalk just to get by. Maybe one bike could squeeze past, but just maybe.
I realize there’s something odd as I approach the bus, which is sitting about 100 meters from the intersection (卫津路/南门外大街和南京路): it’s not moving and its front door is open. Facing the bus, right in the middle of the lane, is a lone, stubborn, indignant old man on his bicycle, wagging his finger at the driver through the windshield and giving him a big tongue-lashing. The driver is just sitting in his seat with that safely neutral/passive posture you see a lot, not willing to engage. A middle-aged passenger who looks like he thinks he’s somebody is out of the bus and trying to argue with the old man, who’s having none of it. Me and the other passing cyclists are chuckling to one another; 加油, Grandpa!
I want to take a picture but decide against it. When the old man finally starts to move on I head up to the stop line at the intersection with the rest of the herd. The bus inches forward; with a high curb on one side and a guardrail on the other, the bike lane barely contains the bus. Wishing I’d taken a photo of the bike lane hero, I turn around to see that the bus has stopped again because another old man, this time on a three-wheel cart, has parked himself directly in front of the bus and is giving him what-for. This guy has a case, too, because there isn’t enough room for his sānlúnchē to go around and those things are harder to lift onto the sidewalk. The light turns green and I jump back onto the sidewalk to take a photo, but I’m five seconds too late, so the bike lane hero grandpas remain anonymous. Still, it was nice to see those lane-hopping ozone-puncturing asphyxiators get what they deserve! :)
You know how like, some people totally have these like, annoying ways of talking? OMG! Chinese people do, too! “Netizen Selects Top Ten Most Annoying Chinese Phrases”
From the China Daily, China’s official English news source: Rule of law best help to freedom of faith
