Code-switching is a linguistic term for when speakers of two languages (like say Chinese and English) who can each speak both languages mix words and phrases from the languages together. While code-switching is a still controversial area for linguists most agree that code-switching is a thing. For example, one of my classmates commented "the 天气 today is 不好" or in English English "the weather today isn't good" or my friends will say "yesterday the 阿姨 was 很麻烦" or "the maid was being troublesome." These sentences aren't really English but they also aren't really Chinese ether, they is a mix of both languages. I myself will great people, even my English speaking foreign friends, with a 你好, say goodbye with a 再见, and say "thanks" with a 谢谢. Sometimes people will also throw in whole Chinese sentences in an English conversation. So for instance today when I had to answer a question for a classmate I commented to my friends who I was talking to "他是我的同学" or "he is my classmate." In general, I have noticed the more confidence someone has in their Chinese the more code-switching happens. My friends who just started studying the language use Chinese words far less than my friends who have studied Chinese for some time. I even noticed I have been code-switching more in my second semester at ECNU than my first. Apparently this is just a normal part of speaking multiple languages with others who speak the same multiple languages. It is apparently super noticeable in Hong Kong where most of the population speaks Cantonese and English so they will often use English words or phrases embedded in otherwise Cantonese sentences. I have also noticed I will embed more Yiddish in my English the longer I spend at Chabad, at home, or talking with other Jews in general. At Chabad, a comment like "oy vai ist mir, he's a schmuch" or "ugh, he is an idiot" is not uncommon. I am glad most of the people at Chabad don't have the best Chinese, I don't even wan't to know what my English would be like then. I think some people back at Juniata will lose me when I mention "chhhh! Our 服务员 is a putz" or "ugh, our waiter/waitress is an idiot."
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If you ask most Americans to name a Chinese actor they will probably name Jackie Chan. This makes sense since, unlike many Chinese actors, Jackie Chan has released several popular English language movies in the United States. Jackie Chan is no less popular in his native China, but Jackie Chan and 成龙 (Chéng Lóng in standard Mandarin Chinese, Jackie Chan's stage name in China) are two separate entities. While Jackie Chan's work, like Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon, are comedies 成龙 has a more diverse filmography. While many of his films, like Drunken Master and Police Story (1985), have a comedic tone some of his other Chinese language films, like Police Story (2013) and the soon to be released The Foreigner, are significantly more serious. Furthermore, 成龙 has a well respected music and opera career; in China, he not only does his own stunts but he does his own soundtrack too. 成龙 is significantly more political than Jackie Chan: he has criticized the ruling Democratic Progressive Party on Taiwan (almost earning him a ban form the island), 2008 Olympic protesters, and Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters while supporting Xi Jingping's drug war and Chinese nationalism (even writing an explanation for the Chinese National Anthem, The March of the Volunteers). This year's Spring Festival Gala 成龙 sang a rather serious song about loving his homeland, China (this is somewhat important since Jackie Chan is a resident of the Hong Kong SAR and some in the Hong Kong SAR don't see themselves as Chinese). It is not like there weren't comedy bits in the Spring Festival Gala (it is important to note though that comedy bits and funny bits are different things, particularly in the Spring Festival Gala), it is just that he chose not to participate in those segments and, since he has done more serious stuff in the past, this wasn't weird to anyone. From what I also heard, he even had a sex scandal in China, which he survived I believe in part because he is seen as a more mature actor in China than he is in the US. 成龙 is defiantly more respected as an actor in China than Jackie Chan is in the United States, probably because of the more diverse and serious roles he has taken in China along with his successful Chinese language music career. This begs the question, are there any commonalities between Jackie Chan and 成龙 other than they are both stage names for the same dude? Yes actually. Even in China, Fáng Shìlóng (房仕龙, Jackie Chan/成龙's birth name), still has made his name with funny movies where he does martial arts and stunts without a stunt man, like he did in the US. His style of martial arts is also the same both in China and the US, from what I have read it is a deliberate contrast to Bruce Lee's martial arts style. He also tries to be a good role model in his Chinese and English movies, he avoids cursing and playing villains in both languages, preferring to play more every man type roles. Whatever you call him 房仕龙/成龙/Jackie Chan has, undeniably, made his name as a major actor and a house hold name. The only issue is what name your house knows him as.
In my recent post about the inclusive religions of China, I mentioned Puyi (溥儀) who was the last Emperor of China and the only Emperor of Manchukuo. I realized that not everyone might have the context for what Manchukuo was and how did Puyi end up as its Emperor. In short, the Great Empire of Manchukuo (大滿洲帝國) was the Japanese puppet state set up in Manchuria, northern China, after the Japanese took the region form the Chinese in the early 1930s. Legally Manchukuo was a constitutional monarchy with the Concordia Association of Manchukuo (滿洲國協和會) serving as its only legal party; minority groups were permitted to have their own political organizations (there were actually two Jewish political organizations, the Betarim Jew Zionist Movement and the Far Eastern Jewish Council under the direction of Dr. Abraham Kaufman but I can’t find much information on ether) but they could not contest the rule of the Concordia Association. In practice, Manchukuo was never independent form Japanese rule: the Manchukian military relied on the Japanese military, Japanese officials wrote most of Manchukuo’s laws, and Manchukuo was a member of the Japanese backed Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In Puyi’s book From Emperor to Citizen he describes the Manchukian Privy Council Meetings where the Council would meet to agree that the Japanese wrote awesome laws and that Puyi should sign them without question. The Japanese also attempted to make Manchukuo more Japanese: Japanese was an official language of Manchukuo, a large number of Japanese settlers moved to Manchukuo, the Emperor of Japan Hirohito was equally revered to Emperor of Manchukuo Puyi (in Form Emperor to Citizen Puyi mentions that all classrooms in Manchukuo had portraits of both himself and Hirohito), the Japanese tried to integrate the Manchukian Imperial family into the Japanese Imperial family (Puyi discusses how the Japanese were able to get his brother to marry a distant relative of Hirohito and how they wanted him to marry a Japanese women), and (as I mentioned in the inclusive religions blog post) the Japanese attempted to get the Manchukians to worship Shinto gods. While the Japanese did attempt to preserve some elements of China, for example Puyi became Emperor because having the former Qing Emperor be the Emperor of Manchukuo would give legitimacy to the new state, I believe that Manchukuo would have gotten less and less Chinese as time went on. I do not believe that Manchukuo would have remained independent for very long if the Japanese won the Second World War, Manchukuo would have eventually been annexed into Japan like Taiwan or Korea. Today Manchukuo is not remembered well, Chinese historians will often call the Great Empire of Manchukuo something like the “Illegitimate Manchu State” or the “Manchu Puppet Government” and write about the war crimes that took place there. Since 2004, there are a small number of people in Hong Kong who claim to be the Manchukuo Temporary Government (滿洲國臨時政府), but they are kind of a Poe’s Law type entity where it is hard to tell if they are serious about reestablishing the Empire of Manchukuo, commenting on the modern Chinese government, joking, or are basically a bunch of Chinese political historical LARPers. Oh ya, if you are worried about poor poor Emperor Puyi don’t. He died peacefully in a Beijing hotel 1967 after being pardoned by the People’s Republic working as a gardener for the Beijing Botanical Garden (Puyi quite liked gardening and spent a good deal of his time as Emperor of Manchukuo gardening).
Two days ago at the time of my Mom and I took a China Eastern flight to Xi'an, the ancient capital of China. We didn't have time to do more then get dumplings for dinner and see a bit of the city on the first night. Furthermore, my suitcase broke on the way to the airport so we had to have it wrapped before we left and we had to be extra careful with it.
\nThe next day our tour guide picked us up in the hotel lobby to take us to the Terracotta Warriors. The Warriors are always impressive, particularly in the off season when there are fewer people around. On our way to lunch we got to shake hands with Mr. Yang, one of the five farmers who discovered the Army back in the 1970s. We ate biang biang mian (a dish who's character is so complicated my phone can't actually reproduce it), eggplant with beans, and enjoyed a traditional Chinese tea ceremony complete with a wide array of very interesting teas. We then drove back to Xi'an city proper to check out the old city walls and the Muslim quarter. The Muslim quarter houses a very interesting old Mosque that is done in the style of a Chinese garden. The Mosque is surrounded by some great shopping. I was able to buy a full set of Mao pins and a new suit case. \nAfter a short break back at our hotel, my mom and I met our guide again to go do dinner and a show. Dinner was more dumplings; 11 different types to be exact. All were very good but the duck dumplings were by far the best (and shipped like little ducks). The show was interesting. It seems like every Chinese cultural show is a bit of a trip and this one was no exception. Even though they did spend a bit too much time recreating Tong Dynasty poetry as dances it was an experance. Somewhat early yesterday morning my Mom and I went to a real Hong Kong tailor to have some suits custom made. It was a very quick and professional experance, we picked fabrics, a design, and I got a fitting in about 20 minutes. We then tried to see the Hong Kong Big Buddah, but the cable car was down for repairs and the line for the bus was three hours long. We decided to check out the local Jewish Community Center. The JCC here puts Livingston to shame; that have a 100 year old syngague, kosher market, kosher restaurant, and several signed Chagall prints. We took a break before getting more Cantonese food for dinner.
\nThe next day we returned to the tailor to get a final fitting for the suits. The tailor and his assistants made up a model suit to use for the fitting that they will then build my real suit from. This was also a quick process, even if you include the time talking to the guy. We then saw the rather well done Hong Kong Maritime Museum and lived the museum by taking a ferry to Kowloon Island. On accident we discovered Michelin raised Din Tai Feng as we looked for late lunch. Even at 2:00pm we had to wait a bit to get in, but the excellent Taiwanese food was well worth it, particularly for the price. Finally we took a cab up to see the peak, the highest point in Hong Kong, to see the rather impressive views. For dinner my Mom and I got sushi form a proper sushi conveyer belt. While it was tasty it could be dangerous if you don't watch what you eat. Yesterday I took the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, to meet my Mom for two weeks of touring. My first night we basically got to the room and ate dinner. The next day we hit the ground running and went to Kowloon Island to shop and see the remains of the Kowloon Walled City. The Kowloon Walled City was formally the densely populated place on Earth before it was demolished by the PLA in the early 90s. Because it was technically part of British Hong Kong while surrounded by Qing run China it became a manufacturing center, for both legal and illegal goods. The little museum said 80% of Hong Kong's fish balls were made in the Walled City. There are a few things left in what is now a very nice park. My Mom and I then went to the Ladies Market to buy some 100% totally legit designer goods. We ended buy buying two belts from some Chinese lady and two purses from a Pakistani guy. He then recommended us a very good Indian place near by which, while base, was extremely tasty. Finally we walked through the Jade Market where we didn't buy jade, we bought a Chairman Mao watch. Finally we went out to a Cantonese place and had a very interesting fried brisket with a bean sprout and mushroom dish. The food continues to be good here, though I have to get use to eating at places several tears above Lamian.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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