I .M Pei (1917 – 2019) Summer vacation is around the corner – where would you visit this year? Chances are, you have probably seen, or heard, have been, or will be inside one of buildings designed by the architect we will talk about in this blog post. These are landmarks of top tourist destinations… Continue reading Buildings that bridge time
Continuing from our last blog post... First attempt by a Chinese native Nothing much happen in the realm of Chinese language education until three hundred years after, when the Qing Dynasty had past its heyday and started to feel the force of machine guns brought by industrialized Europeans. At the turn of the 19th century,… Continue reading How did people learn Chinese before Pinyin? (2)
If you were tasked with the mission to make the Chinese language easier to learn, what would you do? A stone carving depicting a wealthy scholar with his apprentice, whose main job was to carry the scholar's scrolls around For thousands of years, the Chinese language was exclusively studied by the privileged, or those who… Continue reading How did people learn Chinese before Pinyin? (1)
God Påske! It is the time of the year again: in shop windows, home decoration, advertisement, social media, the Easter bunny is filling all empty space with overloading cuteness and colourful eggs. A symbol of fertility and life in the Western tradition, the fluffy innocent rabbit embodies the season of Spring. In Chinese culture, however,… Continue reading The cunning hare has three burrows: A Chinese tale on smart strategies
Drizzling in the fresh spring breeze A traveler passed by with a broken heart Where was the liquor store, he asked A shepherd boy pointed to the village of almond flowers. This is one of the most well know Chinese poems written by the famous poet Dumu 杜牧 (803-852AD) about the day of Qingming, which… Continue reading “Drizzling in the fresh spring breeze”
We have been talking about languages and translation in our last blog posts. This time, we want to talk about a language that goes beyond border – music. Many of our readers may be fans of classical music – if that is you, you are also likely to know the name Lang Lang, a contemporary… Continue reading Lang Lang and the Classical Music Market in China
“Slip carefully” is the Google Translate for 小心滑倒, a common sign in Chinese for “Caution, Slippery”. Hilarious fails aside, we have to say Chinese-English translation can be tricky. Sometimes, what seem to make sense logically from the translators’ point of view, is spectacularly wrong for the audience. Here are four most common reasons for translation… Continue reading Not so lost in Translation 2
You might have seen hilarious translation fails from Chinese to English on signs and menus, and had some good laughs. However, you may want to consider the fact that translation between Chinese and any other phonetic languages is by nature a complex task. Culture and grammar aside, to start off, unlike other alphabets-based phonetic languages,… Continue reading Not so lost in Translation
Millions of Chinese have travelled back home from cities to rural areas last week for the Spring Festival celebration, but there were not photos of long lines of traffic jams like those during Christmas in Europe or North America. The reason? Most people travelled by train for their annual trip. Not only is it a… Continue reading China Express: the story of the Chinese railway
Do you know the lucky colour red came from a folklore that involves a monster called "Year"?
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