你会说中文吗?

The language and ancient culture of China includes not just the world's most enormous country but spreads across various countries of Asia - and increasingly, well beyond. Here we explore all aspects of that culture.

Here, too, is your spot for asking questions, finding resources, and/or just hanging out & chatting in Chinese (mostly Mandarin, but Cantonese and others welcome, too!).

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Using Chinese astrology for travel guidance

  RootOfAllLight Lunar New Year 2024 has just ended, landing us in the year of the Dragon, and it got me to thinking: there´s quite a bit out there on where/how to travel according to Western star signs, aligning destinations with your astrological characteristics, but you don´t hear much of anything on the subject when it comes to Chinese astrology. As someone who´s studied Chinese and Sinic culture, I looked into it a bit, and here´s what I came up with, with a couple of destination…

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Started by José Balido
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How they celebrate New Year's in China

  You might wonder why this is even a question. But in fact, the Chinese-speaking world has its own big Lunar New Year celebration (in 2021, it's 12 February), and so while much of the rest of the planet makes a big deal out of New Year's Eve tonight, for many of the nearly 1½ billion inhabitants of this vast country, it simply isn't all that much of a thing. There are of course exceptions, and that's what I'm here to talk about. read post

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Started by José Balido
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  • Bernard Cleary January 6, 2010 at 11:55pm
    The radical (bei4)--the left half of the character--is a cowrie shell, and appears in lots of money/wealth-related characters: 貧,貨,販, 貪, 貴, 買,賣, etc.!
  • José Balido January 6, 2010 at 9:42pm
    We could all use a little more of the green stuff, that's for sure! Or failing that, cowrie shells... doesn't the "cái" in "gōngxĭfācái" originally (I mean like, 3000 years ago) refer to cowrie shells used as money in China?
  • Bernard Cleary January 6, 2010 at 9:13pm
    More than just making money, it has the sense of "strike it rich." What better wish for your friends, family and neighbors, especially in a culture where a substantial majority of the population has subsisted on the brink of starvation for millennia? Here's hoping the wish rubs off this year! The last couple years have been a little rough! :)
    (The spell-checker here doesn't like millennia! :P)
  • José Balido January 6, 2010 at 9:02pm
    恭喜发财！Or, roughly translated, "congratulations and may you make money," a colorful though admittedly materialistic way to wish folks a happy new year!
  • Bernard Cleary January 6, 2010 at 8:53pm
    祝各位中文交談俱樂部會員在新的一年身體健康,萬事如意!
  • David Paul Appell December 28, 2009 at 7:39pm
    麦克: 欢迎，很高兴认识你。我们在这个俱乐部里面有些中国歌儿。Just click below to go to the next couple of pages of the Comment Wall and you'll see some of these songs. Enjoy!
  • Michael Taylor December 28, 2009 at 4:34pm
    大家好！让我来自我介绍椅子下。我姓戴，名字叫麦克。我住在香港，经常到深圳去玩。我很喜欢中文，所以参加了这个俱乐部。我很喜欢中国歌，尤其是国语歌曲。我最喜爱的一首就是“童话”.
  • José Balido December 12, 2009 at 1:24am
    Good luck! I think you'll enjoy learning Chinese, it's definitely a fun language. One tip: Chinese has the easiest grammar on the planet, there's no gender, no verb tenses, no plural.... You know complex grammars like Spanish, with subjunctive moods and irregular verbs... there's none of that! The only difficult part is memorizing the characters, but you can do that! And getting used to the tones in pronunciation, but you'll get used to that too.
  • Meryl Pearlstein December 12, 2009 at 12:17am
    Thank you! I don't even know how to say that..... china Institute is closest to where I live so I'll start there.
  • José Balido December 11, 2009 at 6:54pm
    Ni hao ma, Meryl! Here are some leads for studying Chinese in New York:

    YMCA: www.YMCANYC.org/index.php?id=2519

    ABC Language Exchange (http://www.abclang.com)

    China Institute (125 East 65th Street, New York) www.chinainstitute.org

    The Chinese Art and Cultural Center (34 West 14th Street, 4th floor New York), caccny@yahoo.com
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