Archive for the ‘wàidìrén’ Category
Beijinghua, the school
April 1st, 2008
Special thanks to a reader in the sānlǐtún (三里屯) area for bringing this to my attention and providing the sound clip. You’ll probably recall the local Beijinger uproar last August when it came out that that Legal Mirror was publishing some Shanghai dialect expressions in a grammar book.
Why, they wondered, couldn’t Beijing get equal treatment for its beloved tǔhuà 土话?
(Here’s a link to the Danwei summary of the controversy and some pretty off-the-mark interpretations of local dialect words from the mouths of youngsters.) Read the rest of this entry »
A Hútòngr Story
March 21st, 2008
Regarding neighborhood enmity, L=N, and other hútòng realities.
Reality is never quite what you think it is, let alone the way you relate it to others. To tell a story you have to simplify, abstract, highlight and gloss over, of course. That’s the nature of storytelling. Trouble is, a lot of times what you end up with is wishful thinking, platitudes & nostalgia — an idealized reality that isn’t real at all. Read the rest of this entry »
