A key term in Chinese historical geography is guān 關 ("pass"). You can see from the shape of the character that it is framed by the two panels of a door, left and right, and that it has two upright, elaborated bars that could impede progress through the gate (I am thinking of the early […]
You've probably read about how k-pop stans pranked the Trump campaign — apparently several hundred thousand of them signed up for tickets to Saturday's Tulsa rally, creating embarrassingly over-optimistic attendance predictions. You may even have seen one of the celebratory tiktok videos:
[This is a guest post by Alex Baumans] I recently became aware of the Chinese idol survival programme 'Youth with you', which has resulted in the formation of the group The 9. I got to wondering about the members' names. The group consists of XIN Liu, Esther Yu, Kiki Xu, Yan Yu, Shaking, Babymonster An, Xiaotang Zhao, Snow Kong […]
From Politico's "China Watcher" Potpourri this morning (6/18/20): Chinese now has a term for “mansplaining”: die wei, or “daddy flavor.” Chinese internet users are increasingly using it as a derogatory term to describe anyone — male or female — who claim unwarranted authority and give unsolicited advice, reports Shen Lu. Chinese feminist organizer Lü Pin […]
Jeph Jacques' Questionable Content "is an internet comic strip about romance and robots". One current romance features Faye Whitaker, described as "Sexy, snarky, and endearingly combative", and Bubbles, a "Big scary combat AI. Actually quite shy." In the past few strips (starting here), Faye works up the courage to introduce Bubbles to her mother, expecting […]
Those who followed the origins of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will remember that it was often connected with a Wuhan "wet market" called Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Now another wholesale market is suspected of being the point of origin for a second wave of the coronavirus, this time in Beijing. Here is a report […]
Below is a guest post by Bob Ladd: The post “Whither, whence, whatever” of June 7 was prompted by the phrase whence [she] was exiled (from a book review in the Guardian), which I sent in to Language Log Plaza. The context made it clear that the intended meaning was ‘where she was exiled to’, […]
Chris Waigl is a longtime friend of Language Log — among her many accomplishments is the creation of the Eggcorn Database in 2005 (with contributions from Arnold Zwicky and me). These days she conducts post-doctoral research in the Boreal Fires team of the Alaska EPSCoR Fire and Ice project at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, […]
If you didn't know it already, "ABC" means "American-born Chinese". There's no reason why ABCs should necessarily speak Chinese, no more than why ABGs (American-born Germans) should speak German or why ABVs (American-born Vietnamese) should speak Vietnamese, etc. In this video, ABCs explain for themselves why they can't speak Chinese. This is a long (23:14) […]
From a Penn graduate student who recently returned to his home in Beijing, of which he is a born and bred native: I'm now back at home in Beijing after a 14-day self-quarantine in Tianjin, which was designated as one of the 12 cities to receive all diverted international flights to Beijing because of imported […]
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[This is a guest post by Mark Metcalf] Recently read a short story by Chinese sci-fi author Ma Boyong (translated by Ken Liu) entitled "City of Silence" (Jìjìng zhī chéng 寂静之城) — a tale about a highly dystopian future in ("not") China. The story was referenced in an article in Wired. Haven't been able to […]
Of the hundreds of pandemic memes that come to me, this is one that I didn't fully understand when I first received it: