国保/国宝

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| China: life & times | Chinese take-out |

Pronounced: guó ​bǎo
Literally: National Security/National Treasure
Means: The two terms are homophones, and “national treasure” often means “panda”. A writer at Seeing Red in China explains the rest: “how panda becomes the symbol for Chinese security thugs: Chinese national security (more like secret police) is called 国保 (guó ​bǎo) for short, and it’s pronounced exactly the same as 国宝, national treasure. Netizens sometimes refer 国保 as 国宝, jokingly, hence Panda, China’s national treasure. Kungfu Panda movies provided the basis for Panda to be a martial character.”

With the recent confrontation between Batman actor Christian Bale and some infamous Chinese security thugs, online Chinese are been passing around “Pandaman vs. Batman” jokes, and photoshopping “Pandaman” into all kinds of scenarios, including movie posters and images from other security embarrassments and scandals. See here, here and here for more.

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黑改苦教

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| China: life & times | Chinese take-out | Meta-narratives | Propaganda |

Pronounced: hēi gǎi kǔ jiào
Literally: dark reform bitter education
Means: “The labour camp is dark and reeducation through labour is bitter.”

Related phrases include:

  • 劳动改造
    láodòng ​gǎizào
    (Reform through labour)
  • 劳改
    láo​gǎi
    (1. shorthand for 劳动改造; 2. a prison camp)
  • 劳动教养
    láo​dòng​ jiào​yǎng
    (Reeducation through labour)
  • 劳教
    láo​jiào
    (shorthand for 劳动教养)

You can see/hear some of these terms, with English subtitles, between 7:10 and 8:47 of this Al-Jazeera investigative report.

The sign says:
Who are you
What is this place
Why have you come here

You can find the answers to those questions in the video linked above.

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心眼

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| Being Chinese about it | Chinese take-out | Cultural perspectives |

Pronounced: xīn yǎn
Literally: heart/mind eye; eyes of the mind
Means: calculating, wily

The post “Dumb Americans”and one of its comments explain it this way:
“To many Chinese, Americans don’t have xin-yan (心眼, meaning, literally, eyes of the mind; or figuratively, calculating, wily), they trust what you say, and they believe you are doing what you say you are doing. For that, they are dumb. …to speak your mind straightforwardly, to defend your position forcefully, and to uphold what you believe without compromise, are all signs of childishness. A lot of Americans, alas, fill that bill.” [Link 1]

“There is another xinyan word/phrase: 心眼。 It means solid, blocked 心眼 (note that also means “hole”), and, figuratively, honest, lack of wily flexibility. It is sort of like 心眼,the difference being, 心眼 means no 心眼 at all while 心眼 means not necessarily the absence of of 心眼,but the insistence on doing things in a more principled way. It is generally recognized that, in China, 心眼吃亏 — if you are too principled, you stand to lose, you suffer, and you are dumb.

“I read somewhere that the Eskimos have a lot of words for snow; and heck, we Chinese have tons of words for 心眼!” [Link 2]

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杀鸡给猴看

By ~
| Chinese take-out |

Pronounced: shā jī gĕi hóu kàn
Literally: kill a chicken, show the monkeys (also )
Means: punish or make an example of someone as a warning to others.

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狗血

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| Chinese take-out |

Pronounced: gǒu xiě
Literally: dog blood
Means: cheesy, cliché, melodramatic, contrived. As in, “This Korean soap opera is too dog blood!” 我看的韩国剧太狗血了! Wǒ kànde hánguó jù tài gǒu xiě le!

I’ve wondered how to express “cheesy” in Chinese for a long time. The World of Chinese gives an interesting explanation of where this gory term came from and how it evolved into the meaning it has today.

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汉奸

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| Chinese take-out | Meta-narratives | Race & Nationalism |

Pronounced: Hàn jiān
Means:
traitor of the Han (race);
traitor of the Chinese people
;
sometimes translated “race-traitor”.

What you get called if you dare slander Chairman Mao (and thereby aid Western civilization in its quest to overthrow the Chinese civilization), like this guy.

For more on the psychological connection between the Chinese race, Chinese nationalism, the Chinese Communist Party, and China’s history with the West, see: Why Mainlanders are taking it personally, racially, and facially – the short answer

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毛毛虫

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| Chinese take-out |

Pronounced: máomao chóng
Literally: hair-hair worm
Means: caterpillar

And here’s a Chinese translation with English and pinyin mouseover pop-up of the classic children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar“.

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史丹利杯

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| Chinese take-out | Vancouver |
史丹利杯

Pronounced: Shǐdānlì Bēi
Means: The Stanley Cup

加人

Pronounced: Jiārén
Means: Canucks

(Found this vocab here.)

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爆炸、报复社会

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| China: life & times | Chinese take-out | Propaganda | Tianjin |

爆炸

Pronounced: bàozhà
Means:
1. explosion; to explode.
2. What happened at a government building in Tianjin this week by a guy who wanted revenge on “society” (according to China’s state media). Example:
“An explosion happened at the front door of the Tianjin government.”
天津政府门前发生了爆炸

报复社会

Pronounced: bàofù shèhuì
Means:
1. Get revenge on society.
2. The alleged motivation of the guy who set off a bomb at a government building in Tianjin this week.

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痛宰 / 惨

By ~
| Chinese take-out | Vancouver |

Pronounced: tòng zǎi / cǎn
Means:painfully slaughter” / “wretched; miserable; badly“.

Words used to describe a sports team getting its butt kicked. For example:
“Boston just totally slaughtered Vancouver.”
波士頓温哥华
“Vancouver lost miserably.”
温哥华

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    国保/国宝

    Pronounced: guó ​bǎo
    Literally: National Security/National Treasure
    Means: The two terms are homophones, and "national treasure" often means "panda". A writer at Seeing Red in China explains the rest: "how panda becomes the symbol for Chinese security thugs: Chinese national security (more like secret police) is called 国保 (guó ​bǎo) for short, and it’s pronounced exactly the same as 国宝, national treasure. Netizens sometimes refer 国保 as 国宝, jokingly, hence Panda, China’s national treasure. Kungfu Panda movies provided the basis for Panda to be a martial character."

    With the recent confrontation between Batman actor Christian Bale and some infamous Chinese security thugs, online Chinese are been passing around "Pandaman vs. Batman" jokes, and photoshopping "Pandaman" into all kinds of scenarios, including movie posters and images from other security embarrassments and scandals. See here, here and here for more.

    - 2011/12/19

    View all

    InterWǎng Debris

    Recent China internet debris.

    Those aren't Chinese New Year's fireworks; they're "recreational munitions"

    From Nankai Rob's Chinese New Year 2012 post "Spring Festival Time. . .Lock and Load":
    "...parties are held on a scale so massive that Caligula would have nodded in approval, and enough recreational munitions are set off to make the Battle of Waterloo feel like a suburban bar mitzvah. You’ll notice my careful word choice here: “recreational munitions” rather than “fireworks.” “Fireworks” as a term carries with it more celebratory, even innocent connotations, but you can’t define Chinese celebratory fireworks by the intent behind them. Certainly they’re set off with great excitement and joy, but you can, after all, also lob a grenade into a dumpster with great excitement and joy, and most of what is being set off these days qualifies for inclusion in the dumpster-grenade category. So: recreational munitions."

    For more about the genuinely stunning Chinese New Year fireworks phenomenon with photos and video, see:

    Happy Chinese New Year!

    - 2012/01/22

    Tension rising with Mainland students in American universities

    Interesting observations at China Law Blog about how Mainland Chinese students studying in the USA -- in contrast to Chinese from other countries -- are apparently generating a lot of anger among the American students: Chinese Students In America. It's Bad Out There.

    It seems that Mainland Chinese attitudes toward education don't play well among their American classmates. For example:

    "They cheat all the time. It is pretty unbelievable how often I have seen them cheating. I am always complaining to my professors about this, but they usually just act like they are too important to deign to deal with something like this. Just come watch a test being adminstered and it will be obvious. They are allowed to get away with it because they pay the foreign tuition rate."

    "One student told me of how all the students not from China agreed not to speak one day to see what would happen. There was no class discussion and the teacher asked them not to do it again."

    - 2012/01/11

    A brief introduction to Watchman Nee & the Little Flock Movement

    You've maybe heard the name "Watchman Nee" before. That's because he founded one of the largest Christian groups in Chinese history before dying in a Chinese labour camp. Here's a summary of a longer article on him and his work, with a link to the PDF of the original article: Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China

    A basic understanding of the place of Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Chinese history adds some helpful nuance to understanding the relationships between the Party, Chinese Christianity, the TSPM, and Chinese patriotism and anti-foreignism.

    - 2011/12/29

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