Chinese Stew

1. There are no solely left-handed Chinese. All kids have to be right-handed. Some kids who start out left-handed surreptitiously maintain the skill and are ambidextrous, but no one is just left-handed.

2. My Chinese to English dictionary (no English to Chinese) is 2,139 pages long. If I want to look up a character and I don't know the pinyin (alphabetized spelling), I first use a paper radical index to find the pinyin, then look up the word alphabetically in the dictionary. There are often pages and pages of characters that share the same pinyin. It gets easier with practice, it takes me less than a minute now to find a new character.

3. The standard greeting here is "Have you eaten yet?" This is because for so long there has not been enough food. Being able to eat is a big deal.

4. Most advertisements for Chinese products have elderly people in them because in Chinese culture the elderly are respected and admired for their wisdom. The exceptions: some Western products like Pepsi, which feature young celebrities.

5. In China, the leading cause of death for women is suicide, and more women commit suicide here than men. Very sad. I'm racking my brain thinking of something I can do to help while I'm here.

6. The word for maternal grandmother is 'foreign old woman.' According to my tutor, this is because women are traditionally outsiders in Chinese families; she comes from another family. But this is changing in urban areas in China, where girls are losing the "outsider" stigma. I wonder if this name will change.

7. The slang word for girls who lose their heads over a cute boy is 'foolish flower.' Asking someone "What thing are you?" is a huge insult.

8. My new cell phone has Chinese and English loaded, which means I can type in Chinese characters. This is really helpful for writing myself notes of character hotel names, city names etc. Also, texting in Chinese is a good deal, because you only get 160 letters/spaces in English, but 70 characters in Chinese (the equivalent of 300-400 letters/spaces).

9. I've been practicing Chinese character drawing this summer. There is a beautiful yin/yang aspect to the strokes, which must be memorized and drawn in the correct order and direction. I'm taking a calligraphy class in the Fall on my campus to learn to write characters with the large art brushes used in Chinese art. I'm really looking forward to it.

10. One more picture: our fans crowded into the window of a beauty salon to watch us go by. (Click to enlarge.)

I'm leaving again in the morning for a week or so. Take care, all!