Jenny Zhu

How to promote the Chinese language? By setting up a cultural corner in the Olympic village where volunteers teach athletes 你好 or making delegations enter the stadium not in alphabetical order, but according to the order of the simplified Chinese characters. The organisers announced this yesterday. I’m not exactly sure what it means. But I assume it refers to the number of strokes in a character and delegatios will enter in ascending order. So the first country to grace the Bird’s Nest should be 日本. Who is the last besides China?  On this topic, I really like the logo of the Beijing games. It resembles a person in running motion but also the character 京.

For a complete list of countries in both alphabetical and simplified Chinese character oder (and much more), check the ChinesePod Olympics site.

http://chinesepod.com/olympics/

A few weeks ago Obama shot a 3 pointer, this time it was China’s premier Wen Jiabao’s turn. Mr. Wen is seen as the nation’s caretaker who lovingly comforts people in their distress (many draw parallels with premier Zhou Enlai, PRC’s first premier). It’s nice to see his active side. Not bad for a 66-year-old!  

The bonds between imperial China and Western missionaries are an eternally fascinating subject. Amongst them are Italian missionary Giuseppe Castiglione. He came to China to spread the gospel, but ended up spreading Western arts and science to the middle kingdom. Castiglione’s holy calling took a detour when his artistic skills impressed Emperor 康熙/Kangxi who later commissioned him to paint and design Western style houses for the royal family. Castiglione went on to work for the subsequent two emperors 雍正/Yongzheng and 乾隆/Qianlong. He also took the Chinese name 郎士宁/lang2 shi4 ning2.

His style was a unique blend of European painting and Chinese subjects and themes (see the portrait of Emperoro Qianlong). Castiglione’s time was the golden age of Qing Dynasty. Contact with the West thrived, especially in arts and science. Missionaries played a key role in the process. Castiglione even became the subject of a TV series about his life and work here. In a rather beguiling casting decison, he was played by famous Canadian sinophile Dashan (picture and clip).

Another prominent Italian missionary was Matteo Ricci‎/利玛窦 who contributed largely to math and science. Like Castiglione, he passed away and was buried in China. His grave is in a beautiful garden which is now the Communist Party School in Beijing.

Fully aware this is an incredibly one-sided argument, I dare to say that a key reason is they charge for food and drinks. While this has become a standard practice for airlines in North America and Europe, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Chinese passengers. 礼/li3 or hospitality is a cornerstone of our culture. That’s why most Chinese airlines still serve food and drinks, albeit substandard. But this is exactly the point. Chinese sensibilities cherish gestures over substance.

All this crystallised during a recent flight to Hongkong. I bought heavily discounted tickets. And I expected peanuts and drinks only. But surprise! We were served semi-proper breakfast, a choice of Western and Chinese. It even ended on a sweet note with an ice cream cone. In a time when airlines charge for fuel,  luggage and maybe even toilet paper, the offer of a meal is heartwarming for the passenger. How much does an economy class meal really cost? Cheap as chips. Serve meals and bill the passenger in the ticket fare since it reflects very little in the overall price anyway. But it can create far reaching customer appreciation.  

My grandma, whenever someone pays her a visit would always always offer the guest to stay for a home cooked meal, without ever meaning it. And mutual tacit understanding forbids the guest to actually say yes to her hypothetic offer. But that’s called PROPER in Chinese culture.     

I’ve picked up a new word and a new lifestyle (or at least an eating habit) in July: pescatarian. During a recent lunch with a friend who has also swore off meat (for life though), he was admittedly very proud of his choice and action. ‘Meat is the centerpiece of the meal. To pull off a pescatarian diet is an overhaul,’ he said. Yes, it is. But No, meat is NOT the centerpiece of a meal. Only at that moment did I realise how I’ve taken the fundamental diet difference between the West and East (albeit the generalisation) entirely for granted.

In Chinese diet, meat is a condiment. More often than not, it’s diced or sliced into bite sizes rather than being served as a thick slab. Meat doesn’t dictate the rest of the meal. On the contrary, it is treated as a component of a meal along with an ample amount of vegetable, which brings up another dietary fundamental: balance and moderation, which applies to both the use of ingredients and portion.

‘So what is the centerpiece of a Chinese meal?’ my perplexed friend wonders. I’d say rice. It’s a staple. In fact, a benchmark for whether a dish tastes good is if it compliments rice. We have a word, 下饭/ xia4 fan4, which means a dish tastes good, but essentially describes that the dish goes well with rice.

Read the rest of this entry »

Among the many closely guarded secrets at the Beijing Olympics, theme song is at the very top of the secret list. 5 songs stood out from more than 10,000 submissions to be shortlisted.

Olympic theme songs tend to be ostentatiously majestic. My favourite out of the 5 though is a refreshing tune that evokes folk songs of old Beijing. It’s called 北京欢迎您/Bei3 jing1huan1 ying2 nin2/ Beijing Welcomes You. If the other songs are grand prime ribs, this one is a sorbet, like a dash of summer rain. The music video takes you to different parts of Beijing while a comprehensive congregation of celebrities from the Chinese speaking world each gets to sing one line. If you are patient enough to get through the entire 6:50 minutes, you will have a good taste of Beijing and who’s who of our show biz.

These photos feature some of the most iconic places in China. However, what catches most people’s eyes is the naked man doing push ups. How scandalous! The naked man is a TV host from Guangdong. He claims that the series of naked photos display his pride of China and his body. 

You can probably figure out that such brave actions would scandalise China. But interestingly the focus is not so much on nudity in China’s ’sacred’ sites. But whether the photos are genuine.  I call this the ‘tiger syndrome’, aka the fake tiger photo fiasco which happened earlier this year. 华南虎/hua2 nan2 hu3/ South China Tiger is a breed near extinction. And as its name suggests, the tiger is an important cultural symbol (the real-life counterpart of the mythical dragon). Therefore, when a farmer presented a photo of the tiger taken it in the forest near where he lives, it ignited national excitement. He was rewarded money and made multiple TV appearances to describe his close encounter with the tiger. But a surprising sequence of developemnt ensued. The authenticity of the photo was challenged by the zealous internet community, China’s de facto civil society. And it turns out that the tiger was a superimposed image. As a result, no great photos go without the suspicion of photoshop. And quite good photos these are.   

The 汉办/HanBan, China’s equivalent of the British Council responsible for promoting Chinese worldwide has teamed up with 湖南卫视/Hunan TV, China’s guru in reality show and LOL entertainment to produce a competition that selects college students with the most formidable knowledge of the Chinese language and culture.

The competition, known as 汉语桥/ hanyu qiao/ Chinese Bridge has been around for almost 10 years. But it was largely an academic event. This year however, 汉语桥 gos to the masses (of Chinese and foreigners hopefully). This year’s theme is flamboyantly vibrant ‘fervor with Olympics, fun with Chinese’. And judging by the clip, it does deliver.

Yes, fun with Chinese! A theme of ChinesePod from the beginning. In fact, we are working with the Hanban, having set up their online Confucius Institute. http://www.confuciusinstitute.net/ ,and consulting on promoting Chinese overseas.

I remember the head of the Hanban speaking of ’soft promotion’ of Chinese where the language is presented as a vibrant part of culture and life. No longer are the learners confined to a classroom and dictionary, we experience Chinese, live, speak and play with it.

Fun with learning. Confucius would have been proud.

Thanks to the popularity of ChinesePod, I was featured on the cover of That’s Shanghai’s July issue http://shanghai.urbanatomy.com/thatssh/detail.cfm?aid=1779 . The magazine is the quintessential survival guide to Shanaghai life and so much beyond. It gets under the skin of the city just like its tagline promises. http://shanghai.urbanatomy.com/thatssh/

JFK Miller, editor in chief for That’s interviewed me. Despite the catchy name (which is his real given name), JFK hails from down under. Mick Ryan was behind the camera. He captures the life and light of his object. (Also made my legs look 10 times longer) www.mickryan.com. Big thanks to them. 

Poddies, hope you enjoy the photos and the article! And thank you for putting me on the cover in the first place.

On top of being America’s Independence Day, 4th of July now represents a new era for China and Taiwan’s relations as direct flights started on this day. Eventhough the two sides are inextricablly linked at the civilian level through trade and cultural exchange, direct flights hold deep sentimental value. Ever since 1949, there had been no direct traffic or mail communication cross the Straits. In the Cold War era, the iron curtain blocked all ties between the two sides. Many of those who moved to Taiwan with the KMT and still had families on the Mainland became the most immediate victims of the ideological battle. 

I remember the intense trepidation and excitement I felt when I made a stop-over in Taipei airport a few years ago. I had no family in Taiwan, but the experience still hit me at a very personal level. Collective memory and narrative make a two-hour flight a compelling emotional journey.