Filed under: Learning Chinese, chinese alphabets | Tags: chinese alphabets, Learning Chinese
If you do not know a single word in Chinese, but I tell you that I can help you and in less than 8 hours you will be able to read about 20% of the words in a Chinese newspaper. Would you believe me? Probably not! But read on.
One of the difficulties for foreigners learning Chinese is that Chinese has no alphabets. “When you read you begin with ABC”. So what do you begin with when you read Chinese. I would say with the 20 most frequently used Chinese characters.
Further, everyone would agree that the best way to learn the English alphabets is by the popular jingle “A for apple, B for boy, C for cat……”, at least that is how I learned when I was a kid. So wouldn’t it be nice if there is a jingle made up of the top 20 Chinese characters, which can help you learn Chinese.
One of the interesting facts about Chinese is that the uses of Chinese characters are concentrated on hundreds of characters. Based on a study carried out by a Chinese linguistic expert in 2004, the mostly used character in Chinese is 的, which was said to be used 2.5 times as much as the next character 一. Also according to the same study, the top 10 mostly used characters were said to be appeared in about 14 times out of 100 characters used in popular publications such as Chinese newspapers, magazines and Internets and the top 20 characters about 20 times.
I have made a jingle out of those 20 mostly used characters to help you learn those characters. Here is the jingle.
他们来中国为的不是在 tāmen lái Zhōngguó wéi dí búshì zài
有你这一个上大人*和我 yǒu nǐ zhè yī gè shàng dàrén hé wǒurure
They came to China not because there are “such an upstanding great man like you” and I.
You may learn each and every one of the above characters by clicking on the respective characters. The English translation is not a character by character translation of the jingle and is solely to help you understand the jingle and does not necessarily make any sense nor is it grammatically correct.
After you spend some time (make sure not more than 8 hours) on those characters, please click here or here and read the news articles therein. See if you can recognise, on an average, 20 characters out of 100 in those article. Please let me know of the results. In the meantime, I am working on the next set of mostly used characters.
*上大人 is part of a popular Chinese verse, the whole of which is 上大人, 孔乙己, 化三千, 七十士, meaning “there is one great man named 孔乙己 he had 3000 students of whom 70 became scholars”.
Filed under: Hong Kong, china, population | Tags: china, Hong Kong, population
My South Americans friends from time to time asked me whether I had any kids, when they knew that I am married. They were surprised when I hold them I do not have kids and do not intend to have any. A Colombian friend, when I gave him such answer, gave me a lecture as to one’s obligations to have kids. This is the reason he has four kids and it seemed that he intended to have more. Many of my South Americans friends have big families and having ten siblings is nothing unusual.
A lot of married couples I know of in Hong Kong are in the same situation as me, i.e. no kids. Pre 1997, Hong Kong young people held off the decisions to have kids due to the uncertainty of the future of Hong Kong at the time. In 2003, the SARS epidemic, which killed a number of Hong Kong people within a short period of time. also delayed Hong Kong couples’ decisions to have kids. Now the good time is back. It is likely that the fertility rate of Hong Kong would improve, but only slightly as stated below.
As a matter of fact, Hong Kong as a special region by itself, like most industrial countries, is having a low birth rate. A lot of factors are affecting one’s decision as to whether to have kids or not. Now that the uncertainty of political future of Hong Kong is out of the question, so what is holding its people back from considering have kids. It is a well known fact that the young people in Hong Kong are preoccupied with their jobs. It is a norm that an employee is expected to work until 7:00 p.m. every day. It certainly dampens young people’s desire for sex. It is no wonder that Hong Kong ranks bottom in a sex frequency survey.
The females of our generation in Hong Kong are now more financially independent than our parents’ generation. Increasing number of them opt for remaining single. Further, unlike my parents’ generation, married couples are also now more financially independent and do not need or expect to rely on their children. if any, for financial support when they grow old. Therefore that is one less motive for having kids.
In terms of numbers, in 1983, the Hong Kong’s fertility rate was 1.72 person per woman and it dropped to .966 in 2005. It is predicted that that rate would only increase slightly to .99 in 2023.
Mainland China is also in similiar situations. Due to the country’s policy each couple is only allowed to have one kid. This policy is largely observed by the the citizens of the country. Although a couple may have more than one kid, if they were to pay a penalty to the government. Nevertheless, the population of Mainland China is not expected to increase significantly in the future.
It is clear that the population of South America will continue to grow while the population in China (including Hong Kong) is expected to remain steady. I joked with my Colombian friend that one day Hispanics would outnumber Chinese in this world.
Filed under: china, wen jiabao, western medias | Tags: china, Sichuan earthquake, wen jiabao, western medias
I had previously written on the Tibet issue and criticised the western medias for China bashing. Nevertheless, I did not say the western medias were entirely to be blamed (read more in my blog of 24/04/08 ). I am happy to see that the western medias have overwhelmingly turned to praising China in its handling of the current Sichuan earthquake.
The Los Angeles Times reported that “Amid Tragedy lies opportunity:”
“Within a few hours after the quake, the Communist Party’s central propaganda department issued an order that Chinese news organizations not send reporters to the scene, but instead only use material from CCTV or from the official New China News Agency. What happened next, however, indicates how much China has changed… And Chinese media broadly ignored the propaganda department’s order. Many newspapers and regional television stations sent reporters to the scene. By Tuesday, the propaganda department appeared to have given up, and simply instructed that journalists “implement the spirit of the central government and use a reporting tone stressing unity, stability and positive publicity,” according to a journalist who had read the order
In The Wall Street Journal, Chinese born, raised and educated reporter, Li Yuan reported that “Sichuan Quake Shows Changing China:”
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Sichuan within hours, accompanied by the state press corps. State media, from the Central Television Station to the Xinhua News Agency (my former employer), covered the disaster vigorously. ”
The New York Times reported that “A Rescue in China, Uncensored”
Dali Yang, the director of the East Asian Institute in Singapore, said the [Chinese] government might have come to the realization that openness and accountability could bolster its legitimacy and counter growing anger over corruption, rising inflation and the disparity between the urban rich and the rural poor. “I think their response to this disaster shows they can act, and they can care,” he said. “They seem to be aware that a disaster like this can pull the country together and bring them support…
“Mr. Shi [a professor of media studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing] said he was surprised by the government’s candor and the vigor of the state-run Chinese press… like many experts, he said the Olympics were pushing China to experiment with a greater degree of openness. “This is the first time the Chinese media has lived up to international standards,” he said, adding, “I think the government is learning some lessons from the past.””
The Times magazine and the Washington Posts made similar comments in the respective articles entitled “China Quake Damage Control” and “China Expedites Vast Rescue Operation“.
At the centre of all these media mania is none other than the people premier, Wen Jiabao. Within 2 hours of the earthquake, Wen was already on the plane flying from Beijing to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Wen then immediately proceeded to the epicenter of the earthquake, Beichuan, overseeing the rescue operation. Wen of course knew the seriousness of a scale 7.9 earthquake as his training was in geology. Wen had promptly mobilised the military forces and medical staff to the scene. If China were to proscrinate (like Mynamar), the casualties would have been more serious than the 50,000 deaths currently estimated.
We could see Wen at various cities around the epicenter of the earthquake directing the rescue units, comforting and lending support to the victims and their relatives. In the photo above, Wen was personally comforting a child wounded in the earthquake. What Wen did not only won the praises of the western medias but also touched the hearts of over 1.4 billion Chinese all over the world.
What is more important is that China did not blame the disaster on ”heaven” (which Chinese (the race) would traditionally do on such occasion). As a matter of fact, the country tries to get to the root of the problem. The state run newspaper, China Daily, said in its Editorials that “we cannot afford not to raise uneasy questions about the structural quality of the school buildings“. A large number of school children died as a result of the collapses of the schools. The central government of China announced that it would launch a full scale investigation into whether some local officials had violated state policies with regard to the construction of schools. It was said that some of the schools were built of shoddy quality and some violated the height restrictios. The government had made it clear that any officials, if found guilty of wrongdoings, would be seriously reprimanded.
I think the same investigions should be extended to other buildings in the affected cities as well as throughout the nation. Personally, I think, due to the rapid economic growth of the country, China has been laxed in its approval of building constructions, especially at the local level.
On 15 May, China, in a news conference, welcomed assistance in the form of medical aids from other countries, which is quite unusally as China tends to keep things of such nature as its internal affairs. Financially, China should have no diffiulties in meeting the huge expenses to be incurred in this disaster. However, China lacks experience, resources and expertise in dealing with earthquake of this magnitude. As a matter of fact, volunteers from the United States and Japan are giving their helping hands to China. This certainly helps ease the tension between tbe Chinese people and foreigners, which made headlines news recently.
The Sichuan earthquake is a real tradegy. The only good thing comes out of it probably is the apparent change of attitude of the western medias towards China and verse versa. Let’s hope that this crisis would live up to the true sense of this word in Chinese, ”危机 “, which semantically means “to every danger there is an opportunity”. Let’s make it an opportunity that China would view the western medias and foreigners in a more positive light.
Filed under: Hong Kong, Others, democracy, food crisis, human rights, wen jiabao | Tags: china, democracy, food crisis, Hong Kong, human rights, wen jiabao
The photo on the right was extracted from an article published in the China Daily on 5 May 2008. It appears to be an ordinary photo taken from a school cafeteria showing a teacher having a lunch with his students. However, the older person in the photo is not an ordinary citizen of China, he is the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao. It was taken when he visited the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, capital of China, on the day before. As can be seen from the photo Wen was having a conversation with the students in a very relaxing atmosphere. Further, he was eating about the same food as the students. I am very impressed and. in fact, moved by the photo as Wen appeared to be very friendly and down to earth, which is the reason Wen is well known as the People’s premier. What is encouraging is the messages that he conveyed to the students during the visit to the university, which are quoted as below.
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A law student should develop a high degree of sense of responsibility for the country, the society and the people. He or she should be fair-minded and above all, love this country.
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To promote democracy, improve the legal system, and rule the country by law is not only a national strategy, but also serves to safeguard the personal rights and freedom of every citizen.
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We will better implement the policy of “administration according to Law”.
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only when policies addressing issues of people’s livelihood were stipulated into law, could people enjoy the benefits of these policies for a long term.
It is clear that democracy, human rights and the law and order are at the hearts of our leaders and they are policies of our nation. Although the mainland China’s interpretation of those subjects are different from the West (even different from Hong Kong), I think China is moving in the right direction. Although China does not have universal suffrage (neither does Hong Kong), the government and its leaders have the overwhelmed support of its people. I have the confidence that they will lead China to be a more equitable society.
During Wen’s visit to the university, he expressed his concern over the recent price rise, and asked the students if they could afford the daily food and whether the scholarship could help them solve their difficulties. As you can see the “food crisis” is affecting China as well, of course, not as severe as on other developing countries. Further, it shows that the Chinese leaders are aware of the grievances of the people in the “main street”.
