US Election in Chinese
5Sep2008 Filed under: observing Author: Jenny ZhuIn this week’s Chinese Soundbites, Amber and I reveal some election vocab. While the media coverage is drowning many of you in the States, why not take a mini detour and see it in a Chinese light?
I’m asked asked how the Chinese see the US election. I’d say first of all, the general public gives it the same amount of attention (or slightly over) as the US public would to Chinese politics. While Obamama drew mega crowds in Europe, he would probably be able to enjoy a bit of privacy and travel incognito in China, so would McCain.
5 Responses to “US Election in Chinese”
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About this blog
Hi, I am Jenny Zhu from ChinesePod.com. I bring you a slice of the Chinese language and culture in the daily podcast. But there is so much more than what a podcast has time for, so jennyzhu.com is a space of observation and reflection on the big, small and everything in between about China.
Reanne
September 6th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Hi Jenny,
I was curious as to how the chinese names for public figures are decided? I know how varied transliterations for english names can be. Is it popular usage that decides the name? Or is there some sort of official way of getting a chinese name for public figures?
Great show by the way, I always look forward to these.
Gerard
September 6th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I don’t know about everyone, but I know in Canada many politicians choose a Chinese name themselves, quite often they pay a consultant to choose a good one. This is especially true for anyone who is running for office in any urban area, where they absolutely must have a visibility in the Chinese media.
art
September 7th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
jenny and amber,
when i heard 总统, my mind was immediately transported back to my high school days in the philippines. i had this Chinese teacher who taught a course on reading the local Chinese language newspaper (most of us didn’t learn much) and she ended up teaching another Chinese-language class that my younger sister took two years later.
at that time, marcos was the president of the philippines. in Chinese, he was addressed as 馬可仕总统. one day, my sister came home to share that this teacher got creative with transliterating marcos and called the president 马狗死总统。i think everyone in my sister’s class thought it was funny. so did my entire family after hearing my sister tell us about it. it may seem disrespectful, but marcos was a corrupt dictator.
David
September 9th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Jenny,
Good to hear you and Amber are continuing on with this. I also like how you explain the meaning.
And I like how you both avoided talking about politics even though you talked about politicians. You ladies were quite smooth in avoiding it.
Art, that’s an interesting name your sister’s teacher had there. I’m guessing the teacher wasn’t a fan of his
China hearts Obama « Bold Little Swallow
November 12th, 2008 at 8:10 am
[…] News, Politics) (election 2008, barack obama, youku, China) I remember a while ago reading in Jenny Zhu’s blog that China wasn’t all that interested in American politics: I’m asked asked how the Chinese […]