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Chinese Tuesdays: Like a fish in water

 

如鱼得水 (rúyúdéshuǐ), “Like a fish back in water”, is so close to the English expression “A fish out of water” but means the opposite, to be happy to be back in one’s natural surroundings.

To me, looking at how different languages coming from vastly different cultures still depend on the same basic imagery to describe feelings and situations, it shows how similar we all are.

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Every question counts

A dispatch from the last day of the Gaokao

 

Beijing No. 5 Middle School is a few doors down from my flat in the hutongs, seperated by a public toilet and a mahjong parlour. From my rooftop I can see them play basketball on the outside sports court, and spy into the classrooms that line the south face of the wide, five story building, a Pringle tube tower of stairs tacked on one end. I watch students in their baggy blue and white overalls cram books, monkey around, and wipe clean the plastic windows every day before school ends.

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Chinese Tuesdays: Compass

 

When I first learnt the word for compass, 指南针 (zhǐnánzhēn – "south pointing needle"), I thought: That’s weird, why isn’t it 指北针 (zhǐběizhēn – "north pointing needle")? I read somewhere that the reason the needle points south is because the ocean is generally to the south in ancient China. Does anyone know if this is true?

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Subway Alarm

Science fiction by Han Song, translated by Rachel Faith

 

1. A Sorry Situation

Zhou Xing thought to himself that if ever there had been a sorry situation, it was surely his current one.

Monday morning rush hour in the subway was always like this. As managing to push through the massive crowds down there was a significant accomplishment on its own, cramming himself onto a train was no easy task for Zhou Xing. People were packed into the trains so tightly that they had practically fused together, holding you in place so firmly that any sort of moving around was out of the question. Zhou Xing would get off in seven or eight stops, and only with this end in sight was he able to continue tolerating his current position.

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Chinese Tuesdays: Beggars can't be choosers

 

There are a few ways to say this, but the best one I’ve heard so far is 要饭还嫌馊 (yàofànháixiánsōu). I haven’t been able to find a dictionary definition for it, so it might not be that commonly said or used nationwide.

The last character 馊 (sōu) means 'sour', as in food that has gone rancid, so a more literal translation of the phrase, depending on the situation, might be something like "You beg for food yet resent being given the leftovers."

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