Sunday, December 22, 2013

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

快到新年了,或许你终于有时间坐下来看看电影。 今天想为大家介绍的是一部2002年上映的电影--《巴尔扎克和小裁缝》。
Soon it will be new year. Maybe you will have some time to sit down and watch some good movies. Today I am going to introduce a movie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, which premiered at 2002.



这部影片讲述了一个文革时期发生在两个下乡知青和一位美丽的当地姑娘之间的爱情故事。
This movie tells a love story between the two young men from the big city and a beautiful girl in the village during the Cultural Revolution.

罗明和马剑铃是一同插队的知青。
Luo Ming and Ma Jianling are two young men from the big city. They are sent to a remote village to be re-educated during the Cultural Revolution.

对他们两名在城市中长大的年轻人来说,插队的劳动生活枯燥艰苦。
For the two young men, who grew up in the city, the life in the village is harsh and boring.

但是,美丽小裁缝的出现让他们对生活有了激情。
But the beautiful little seamstress makes them feel life is full of passion again.

他们同时爱上了这个姑娘。
They both fall in love with the girl the same time.

小裁缝不识字,两人从另一位知青那里偷来了禁书为姑娘念书,教姑娘识字。
The little seamstress can not read. So they steal some forbidden books from another young man, read the books for the girl, and teach her how to read.

书中的故事为姑娘展现了完全不同的外面的世界,小裁缝决定离开小小的山村去开始崭新的生活。
The stories in the books show the girl a picture of totally different world outside. She decides to leave the little village and start a brand new life.

影片中的对话全为四川话。四川话与普通话发音很接近,但是声调有差异。下面的视频有中文字幕。试试你能听懂多少。  :)
All the dialogue in the movie are Sichuan Hua (Sichuan dialect). The pronunciation of Sichuan Hua is very close to Mandarin. But the tones are different. The following video will show you this movie with Chinese subtitles. Let's see how much you could understand.  :)




More information about this movie on Wikipedia

Saturday, December 14, 2013

A Witty Game of Playing Chinese Characters

            Chinese characters are independent units. Each one of them has its own power to express a specific meaning. When you master the meaning and usage of each character, you have the ability to arrange them in your will to tell the story.
           Chinese language does not have tense morphology. The order of the words in the sentence plays a very big role. Today I am going to tell you a story about how a smart man, who was the secretary of 于右任 (yú yòu rèn ), played the characters in a witty way.
     
a picture of Mr. Yu
http://baike.baidu.com/view/67483.htm
于右任 (yú yòu rèn  ) was a very famous calligrapher, and activist in the early 1900's. Everyone wanted his calligraphy works. Our story happened during the time when he lived in the remote country side.  At that time, even the cities were in short of public sanitation facilities. Needless to say, the situation was worse in the country side. When he found that some people urinated in the corner of the courtyard, Mr. Yu decided to write a sign to stop that inappropriate behavior. So he wrote "不可随处小便"(bù kě suǐ chù xiǎo biàn ) on a paper and asked his secretary to post it in the corner of the courtyard. "不可" means 'it's not allowed, or it's not appropriate' ; “随处” means 'wherever you want, anywhere you want'; “小便” means 'urinate'.   "不可随处小便" means 'It's not appropriate or it's not allowed to urinate wherever you want'.

        After he got Mr. Yu's writing, his secretary thought it was such a beautiful calligraphy work that he felt bad to post it in the corner of the courtyard. He wanted to find a better place for those beautiful characters. But even the calligraphy was so precious, the meaning of the writing made it difficult to find a exhibition place. At last, the secretary found an interesting solution. He separated the characters by cutting up the paper. Then he rearranged the order of the characters into a new phrase with totally different meaning. What was that?  The new phrase was: "小处不可随便"(xiǎo chù bù kě suí biàn ).  "小处" means 'trivial matters' ; '不可' means 'it's not appropriate, may not' ;'随便' means ' casual, to do things as you wish' . The secretary gave the old phrase a new meaning : "One should always behave even over trivial matters" by setting the characters in a new order.

        Mr. Yu was impressed by the secretary's flexibility and intelligence. He signed and stamped his name on the paper.
   

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Chinese idiom -- long hair short wit

今天我要向大家介绍一句常用的俗语: 头发长见识短。
Today I am going to introduce a Chinese idiom: long hair short wit.
这句俗语有一定程度的性别歧视。
This idiom has a certain degree of gender discrimination.
一些有大男子主义的人会使用这句话评论某位女士。
Some masculist people may comment a female with this idiom.
关于这句俗语的出处,我也不清楚。
I am not sure where this idiom came from.
但是,在日常生活中,你会常常听到这句俗语。
But you may often hear this idiom in daily life.
下面我们来看一则笑话,其中就出现了这句俗语。
Next, let's read a short joke, in which this idiom is used.

头发与智慧
Hair and wisdom


在看日本动画片《聪明的一休》的时侯,爸爸问10岁的儿子:"你说说,一休为什么那么聪明呢?” “因为他没有头发呀!” “头发与智慧有什么关系呢?” “你不是说妈妈头发长见识短吗?“
When watching the Japanese series Smart Yi Xiu, the dad asks the ten years old son, " Tell me, why Yi Xiu is so smart? " " Because he doesn't have hair. " " Is there any connection between the hair and wisdom? " " Is that you who say that mom has long hair and short wit? "

关于《聪明的一休》
About Smart Yi Xiu


《聪明的一休》是一部日本动画片。上个世纪八十年代从日本引进中国后,一度家喻户晓,得到人们广泛的欢迎。
Smart Yi Xiu was a Japanese cartoon TV series. It was very popular when it was introduced to China during the 1980's. 

这部动画片的主人公是聪明的小和尚一休。他曾经是皇子。时局的变动让他不得不在幼年时就离开了皇宫,离开了他的母亲,进入禅寺成为了一名小和尚。他聪明好学,勇敢机智,富有同情心,常常对抗豪强,帮助弱者。这部电视剧总共有296集,每一集都讲述一个生动有趣的故事。

This TV series tells the stories about Yi Xiu, a smart little monk. He used to be a prince. But he had to leave the palace and his mother, and became a monk in the temple because of the change of political situation. He was smart, diligent, brave, and compassionate. He always tried to help the poor and weak, fight with the tyranny. There are 296 episodes. Each episode tells an interesting story.