潘金蓮, the bad bad woman (I) (Literary figure)

Abundant news about Charlie Sheen are widely spreading on the paper and the radio. I don’t know why, but the news of this “bad man” just keeps reminding me of 潘金蓮(pan jin lian2), the “bad bad woman” in Chinese literature.

潘金蓮made her debut emergence in the Classical novel 水滸傳(shui3 hu3 zhuan4), Water Margin. To realize her more, you have to go to another classical novel, 金瓶梅 (Jing ping2 Mei2), which was labeled as an obscene porn 淫書(yin2 shu) and forbidden. (A forbidden book is called 禁書jin4 shu) The title of the novel is generally considered a combination of three women’s names, 潘金蓮、 李瓶兒(li3 ping2 er2) and 春梅(chun mei2), three of the many concubines of the protagonist’s,  西門慶(xi men2 ching4)

The brick-thick novel is about the life of the protagonist 主角(zhu3 jiao3)and his big family; how he had achieved success, made a big fortune and died young in the “bad woman” Pan’s bed; how his wife 妻(qi) and concubines 妾(qie4) had maneuvered and fought against each other to get his favor, as well as the power to control the whole family.

My friend Spenser told me something interesting about this novel. He said that the author 蘭陵笑笑生(Lan2 ling2 Xiao4 xiao4 Sheng) wrote the book to revenge for his father, who had been killed by a corruptive official. He wrote those pornographic stuff that was rarely seen back then and presented it to this feud. As he had expected, the official was lured by this 淫書and absorbed himself in it. The enemy was poisoned to death by the arsenic that had been applied all over the pages of the book.

I’d never heard of such a story before. If it is true, I think that’s quite a smart way to get even. At a time when you couldn’t count on the judiciary (the official himself WAS the judiciary!), you were totally on your own. Such a story sounds so much like one from a Kung-fu novel, with feuds, revenge, poisons. . . etc. These days, all we can do to our “enemy,” I guess, is sent him an email with bugs in it to crash his computer. (And pray that all his “vital” info is in it!)

In Chinese literature, 潘金蓮 is typical of a promiscuous devil woman. (We use the adjective 水性楊花(shui3 xiang4 yang2 hwa) to refer to a promiscuous woman.) She is水性楊花 because she not only seduced her brother-in-law 武松(wu3 song), the famous tiger-killer hero, but also committed adultery with several men, such as西門慶, who later became her husband, and her son-in-law 陳經濟 (chen2 jing ji4). She is devil because she not only murdered her husband 武大郎(wu3 da4 lang2), 武松‘s brother, to marry西門慶, but led to 西門慶’s death by luring him to take too much aphrodisiac 春藥(chun yao4).

(TO BE CONTINUED)

西門慶=西门庆

潘金蓮=潘金莲

水滸傳=水浒传

淫書=淫书

禁書=禁书

李瓶兒=李瓶儿

蘭陵笑笑生=兰陵笑笑生

水性楊花=水性杨花

春藥=春药

Castration or face tattoo? (Law)

A heated public debate on a proposal of performing chemical castration 化學去勢(hua4 xue2 qu4 shi4)on repeated sex offenders 性侵犯(xing4 qin fan4) has arisen in our society when we got shocked and indignant after a 13-year-old innocent girl was raped and murdered by a repeat sex offender, who had just done his time and been released one month before he committed the crime.

More than fifty thousand people signed up on Facebook asserting that this sex offender should be sentenced to death, which is related to another controversial topic—if the capital punishment 死刑(si3 xing2) should be abolished. 廢止(fei4 zhi3) Some legislator brought up chemical castration in the wake of the case.

Is that effective to curb the sex offenders? If we take into consideration all the incentives that cause a sex offense, said some experts, chemical castration alone won’t be enough. For one thing, sex offense involves not only physical 生理(sheng li3) but psychological 心理(xin li3)factors. For a sex offender, it doesn’t necessarily take a genital 性器官(xing4 qi4 guan)to make a sexual assault. He can do so even when he’s impotent,  sometimes even in a more “perverted” way.

Take the eunuch 宦官(huan4 guan), or 太監(tai4 jian4) for example. Though castrated 閹割(yian ge), many eunuchs, according to historical records, had promiscuous relationships with emperors’ concubines. Many of them even got married like ordinary people did, or even enjoyed a rich man’s life style with abundant concubines. Whether it was out of mental motives to shun loneliness, or to show off their wealth or power, we had evidence that castration doesn’t guarantee a man without sex drive.

As to face tattoo, 黥面(jing mian4), though a ritual for some Taiwan’s aboriginal tribes to mark a girl’s adulthood, it had also been a punishment for long in Chinese history. Words or patterns were inscribed onto obvious parts of the body, such as face of the convicts. Ink was applied so the marks would last forever. The convicts suffered not only in the process of it, but had to carry this shameful mark for the rest of their lives.

Instead of tattooing their face, we’ll publish a sex offender’s name and criminal record online, said the Minister of Domestic Affair today. We’re going to have a “Megan’s Law” of our own.

As a mother and a citizen of this society, I certainly don’t want to live with these dangerous people around. But on the other hand, we have to be very cautious with the capital punishment. It’s just too convenient a solution that sometimes we think it solves everything. But we are inevitable to complain why we, as taxpayers, should labor ourselves working but spend our money feeding those rascals in prison?

These days I’ve started to view this from another angle. What if we see these sex assaults as illed people and treat them like we do those T.B. patients? We pay and do what we can to quarantine and treat them, not only for their good but for OUR own? It certainly makes me feel better. And beyond the indignation that would make me yell “just execute them!” and sorry for the money I’ve “wasted,” I’m feeling something else for those sex offenders.

化學去勢=化学去势

廢止=废止

太監=太监

閹割=阉割

Retrieve your shock (folk therapy)

I recently read an article where the author recalled her experiences of 收驚(shou jing), literally meaning “retrieving your shock.” I myself never had the experience of receiving such a ritual that has been passed along from our ancestors and still been a common practice in our society. But one of my sons had abundant experiences in this before he was about three years old, which is why I’ve had some contacts with this ritual.

To be exact, I should have said “retrieve your soul” when I gave the title but for the reason that I’d like to translate the term word by word. It is generally believed by the Chinese people that we humans have “three souls and seven spirits,” 三魂七魄(san hun2 qi po4) When you are shocked good by a sudden incident, such as a car crash, a natural disaster, or an encounter with “it” from another world, 陰間(yin jian), you might lose some of them. That’s why sometimes we’ll say someone is 失魂落魄(shi hun2 luo4 po4) when he looks absent-minded or listless. 失and落 means to lose.

As those souls and spirits are vital to our Yang陽氣(yang2 qi4), the shocked ones might show different abnormalities, such as crying and howling for babies; sweating, glazed eyes, lack of vigor, or insomnia for adults, depending on how much they have lost their souls and spirits. To “retrieve” the lost soul or spirit that’s wandering outside, a ritual of收驚has to be conducted.

Normally the ritual is conducted at a temple or a private altar, where different divines might be worshipped. The ritual varies in terms of the device and procedure. But it usually involves with incantation 咒語(zhou4 yu3), worshipping 祭拜(ji4 bai4) or 拜拜(bai4 bai4), and written incantation 符咒(fu2 zhou4) Sometimes the one to receive the ritual doesn’t even have to be there in person. A piece of his clothes will do.

Take my son for example. Before he was three, he would, like once every other month, be very restless and wake up crying like every ten minutes in the middle of the night. We were sure he was neither wet, hungry nor sick. My husband and I, both keeping a full-time job then, would take turns holding him in the living room, wandering around to pacify him to sleep. When the poor parent thanked God when he/she thought the little one had finally decided he’d tortured his parents long enough to his heart’s content and fell asleep, ten minutes later he was UP again.

“No wonder some parents will end up killing their own baby!” This was the thought haunted me most when I was holding this baby of mine. And I confessed I might have spanked him two or three times. (My husband once “dropped” him to the couch, not very high, though.)

So, when the nanny mentioned about 收驚, I was more than happy to try it. I was told this man was a pro, being the third generation to run the business, and had won his reputation not only for his “expertise,” but his honesty. He would tell you frankly when the baby was sick and needed a doctor without charging you.

The man started with checking the top of the baby’s head to tell if he had really been shocked 受驚(shou4 jing). If so, he would burn the incense, worship the divine and ask for his help. He would tell him the baby’s name, the time of his birth and his address. Then with a brush pen he wrote down the incantation on a small stripe of brownish paper, which is called符咒. The paper was required to be burned and mixed with water and drunk by the baby. A little bit of Chinese mugwort 艾草(ai4 cao3) was asked to be put into the bath water for the baby. 

Do not accuse me of being unhygienic for feeding my son such stuff. It worked like magic! Neither do you have to suspect if it was any scam like sleeping pills or anything alike. After that my son slept only when he should and it was nothing like the effect of any meditation. We did frequent the altar those two years. Later as he was growing up, such a problem stopped plaguing us.

收驚=收惊

陰間=阴间

陽氣=阳气

咒語=咒语

Born this way (chop suey)

These days I’ve been “brainwashed” by the radio with Lady Gaga’s latest release “Born this way.” It’s like whenever I turn my radio on, I hear the song.

Funny that these years we’ve converted the word “comrade” 同志(tong2 zhi4) into referring to gay. The term with such a strong political color has now turned sexual. In my neighborhood there is a lane called同志巷(tong2 zhi4 xiang4), Comrade Lane. I remember reading on paper how some of the residents had wanted to change its name as they didn’t feel comfortable about it. (But I still saw the same street name the other day when I drove past it.)

As to the lesbians, we have transliterated the word into 蕾絲邊(lai2 si bian), a term quite feminized since it’s associated with lace used in feminine attire.

Back at ancient times, we had a euphemism for gay, which was also relevant to clothing. It was recorded in a historical classic, 漢書(han4 shu), where 漢哀帝(han4 ai di4), Emperor Ai, was recorded to have petted a male official so much that he kept him as his close servant and lived every moment of his life with this handsome-looking man, 董賢(dong2 xian2). One day Emperor Ai woke up from his afternoon nap and wanted to get up, only to find that one of his sleeves was pressed under Dong, who was sleeping by his side. Worried that he would wake up Dong, he took his knife and cut off the sleeve so that Dong wouldn’t be disturbed.

Thus came the term 斷袖之癖(duan4 xiu4 zhi pi4). 斷is to cut off while袖is the sleeve. The word癖has a negative implication as it often refers to an abnormal mania. And sodomy was called 雞姦(ji jian). 雞is chicken, 姦, adultery. From these derogatory terms you could tell how people had viewed homosexual back in old times.

Thirty years ago in Taiwan, before we use同志, gays were called 玻璃(bo li2), glass. I have no idea where the term comes from. Some people say in argot glass means bottom, which implies the way gay people have sex.

I learned from the net that in Beijing people use rabbit, 兔子(tu4 zi3) to call gays, which I really can’t figure out any association. In Shanghai it’s 屁精(pi4 jing), where butt屁 is involved.

People in Taiwan are getting more and more open-minded toward homosexual or transsexual compared to older generations. However, it’s natural that people vary in their attitude towards sexual orientations. Yesterday we had a piece of news where a man was convicted a 55-day detention for referring the term娘(niang2) to another man, which used to mean “mom” in ancient times but now is used to mean “feminine” in a derogatory way to men.

蔡康永(cai4 kang yong3), a well-known out-of-closet host, once wrote an article expressing his hope that some day the term 娘will be a compliment, or at least a neutral term to refer to the generally recognized “feminine” traits such as tenderness, thoughtfulness or cautions. Looks like we have a long way to go seeing from this legal case.

蕾絲邊=蕾丝边

漢書=汉书

漢哀帝=汉哀帝

董賢=董贤

斷袖之癖=断袖之癖

雞姦=鸡奸

大核民族 vs 鹽荒子孫 (Joke)

It has been reported that some Chinese were fighting to buy salt as they believed in the hearsay that salt鹽(yan2) , with iodine 碘(dian3) in it, could alleviate the damage from radiation 幅射(fu2 she4) . The news revealed how people have panicked after the nuclear crisis hit Japan.

This fever for salt has triggered heated discussions on the internet. Some parodies were made to mock such a phenomenon, which shows the ignorance and lack of confidence in the government. One of them is presented in the form of 對聯, couplet.

The former part of it is「日本大核民族」(ri4 ben3 da4 he2 ming2 zhu2), with the latter as「中國鹽荒子孫」(zhong guo2 yan2 huang zi3 cun) The

across short one is 「有碘意思」(you3 dian3 yi4 ci)

This parody is making use of the abundant homophones in Chinese. We generally call the Japanese people as “Yamato people“大和民族(da4 he2 ming2 zhu2), which is pronounced exactly the same as 大核民族, with核 meaning nuclear. 「炎黃子孫」(yan2 huang2 zi3 cun), “Descendants 子孫of Yan 炎and Yellow 黃Emperors” is an ancient Chinese term to refer to the Han Chinese. Here the parody uses the term with similar pronunciation 「鹽荒子孫」to mock those people. 鹽荒 means a famine of salt.

As to有碘意思, it has the identical pronunciation with有點意思, which means somewhat interesting.

Remember the Chinese philanthropist 陳光標(chen2 guang biao), who I’ve mentioned about in my previous writing 高調行善 vs 不食嗟來食? He once said, “The most painful thing in life is that you haven’t used up your money when you die.” Based on this quotation, someone wrote on the Internet, “What is the most painful thing in the world?—You run out of your salt when the radiation comes. What is the most most painful thing in the world?—It doesn’t work to eat salt when the radiation comes. What is the most most most painful thing in the world?—The radiation doesn’t come but you got too much salt. What is the most most most most  painful thing in the world?—You die but you haven’t used up your salt!

As I’m writing this article, I’ve heard the news that people had stopped purchasing salt like crazy. In some areas some people even started to ask for refund. Looks like people now are worrying that the “most most most most” painful thing will happen to them.

鹽荒子孫=盐荒子孙

對聯=对联

中國=中国

陳光標=陈光标

高調行善 vs 不食嗟來食=高调行善 vs 不食嗟来食

Hong Kong foot? (Body)

These days my students are learning about expressions when seeing a doctor. We talk about symptoms 症狀(zheng4 zhuang4) of different diseases. When talking about the athlete’s foot, my students just called it “Hong Kong foot” as what we called it in Mandarin, 香港腳 (xiang gang3 jiao3)

According to Wikipedia, the name “Hong Kong foot” originated from the stationing of the British army in Hong Kong after the Qing Dynasty of China had lost the first Opium War. Not used to the hot and humid weather in Hong Kong, many British soldiers had suffered from the athlete’s foot for wearing their military boots without good ventilation.

In Chinese, we put hand 手and foot 足 (another name for 腳) together to call siblings. When two persons, though unrelated, are very close to each other like siblings, we’ll say they 情同手足(qing tong2 shou3 zu2) In English, you work “tooth and nail,” while in Chinese, you 胼手胝足(pian2 shou3 zhu2), you work so hard that the skin of you palms and soles thicken.

When you’re scurrying or acting in a great bustle, we say 手忙腳亂(shou3 mang2 jiao3 luan4) But on the contrary, if you work with great efficiency, we’ll say you’re 手腳俐落(shou3 jiao3 li4 luo4). 俐落 means efficient, brisk, neat and clean. And we have a similar expression when praising someone who has his feet on the ground—腳踏實地(jiao3 ta4 shi2 di4)

With the current nuclear crisis in Japan, many nuclear power plants under plan or construction have been stopped. When you stop something in the middle of it, we say we “chop it at the waist,” 腰斬(yao zhan3). 腰 is your waist. The phrase originates from a way of executing in ancient China, which is seemingly very inhumane from today’s point of view.

As its name suggests, the executed convict was cut right into half from his waist. The executed wouldn’t die at once, but bleed consciously to death. It is said that one of the executed had dipped his finger into his own blood and wrote the word 苦(ku3), meaning bitter or painful, on the ground seven times before he died.

The most common execution at ancient times was probably beheading, 斬首(zhan3 shou3), or more orally, 砍頭(kan3 tou2). 首is another way to call your head. Many novelists have written how the family of the executed bribed the executor to ask him for a俐落的execution. An unhappy executor might take a blunt knife and torture the executed. What a time of 紅包(hong2 bao)! (red-envelop, bribery)

I’ve been busier these days as I got some extra work to do. But I certainly will manage to keep writing and posting on this blog. I’ll never let this blog 腰斬

症狀=症状

香港腳=香港脚

手忙腳亂=手忙脚乱

手腳俐落=手脚利落

腳踏實地=脚踏实地

腰斬=腰斩

斬首=斩首

The same rice feeds various kinds of people (slang)

These days as we are watching closely the aftermath of the disasters in Japan, I believe many of us have shed tears like some of my friends told me on seeing the miserable scenes. On the other hand, however, we’ve heard different remarks, though very rare, that kind of gloated over this disaster out of some blind “nationalism” 民族主義(min2 zu2 zhu3 yi4) originating from the past history of wars.

As a Taiwanese saying goes, 一樣米養百樣人(yi2 yang4 mi3 yang3 bai3 yang4 ren2), the same rice feeds various kinds of people. Such remarks, though disagreeable, are no surprise at all. We have saints like Mother Teresa, but we also have merciless killers like Hitler. Even the same parents will bring up children with extreme differences. With this, we have another expression in Taiwanese--五隻手指不同長(wu3 zhi she2 zhi3 bu4 tong2 chang2), even your five fingers are of different length.

Basically Confucianism 儒家(ru2 jia) believes人性本善(ren2 xing4 ben3 shan4), people are born with good nature. 孟子(meng4 zi3) once said 「惻隱之心，人皆有之」(ce4 yin3 zhi zin, ren2 jie you2 zhi), everyone has a惻隱之心, which means a heart of sympathy and compassion. That’s why you feel sorry for others when seeing them in misery. You shed tears and help them.

With this惻隱之心, you share others’ suffering and can’t bear to hurt others. When you see others fall, the first thing that comes to your mind is to offer help, but not exercise you brain doing the complicated recall of what wrong this person, or his great grandfather might have done to you or your great grandfather.

If we act on the blind nationalism and accumulate all the historical hatred, we might all end up feuding with each other. A Jew should spit on a German for some ancestors of his have been killed cruelly by some of the German’s forefathers. Chinese people have to spit a lot since they had the invasion of “Eight-Nation Alliance” 八國聯軍(ba guo2 lian2 jun) in 1990 and the Japanese invasion during World War II. And Taiwanese people should be “happy” about this quake because our great grandfathers had suffered a lot during the Japanese-ruling era from 1895 to 1945.

Should we? Are we ?

Indeed, 一樣米養百樣人. And we all are sure to be people of different characters and notions. For those who make such apathetic remarks, they might have forgotten that same things could happen to them. And what good is it if we humans record the history but learn nothing from it?

一樣: the same

養: feed

百樣: a hundred kinds of; various kinds of

民族主義=民族主义

一樣米養百樣人=一样米养百样人

五隻手指不同長=五只手指不同长

惻隱之心=恻隐之心

八國聯軍=八国联军

體面的日本人 (Chop suey)

When I was writing about how President Obama’s more and less expressed a prevailing concern for falling behind another booming power, China, in his State of the Union in “China’s moon, the tiger moms & 揠苗助長,” I was planning to talk about this later from another viewpoint in terms of my trip to Xian, China last year.

In the wake of the devastating disaster happening in Japan, people have noticed how Japanese, though going through such a horrible threat of life and property, still show their decency 體面(ti3 mian4), or self-esteem 自尊(zi4 zun) Their social order doesn’t fall apart. On the streets you see people waiting in line for food, water, or pay phones. Convenience stores offer free food or water for people on the streets. Relief works are conducted efficiently by the government. You cannot help but call them an “advanced,” “civilized” country, no matter how they might be struggling in an economic stagnancy these years.

For Obama, president of a super power, it’s natural to view China from the viewpoints as to who has the fastest train, the fastest computer, or an extraordinarily potential market. But as a person, you don’t necessarily think very highly of some people, some nation just because they are rich or powerful.

After my trip to Xian, I have to say that I finally realized why I have heard so many foreigners praise Taiwan by saying how friendly 友善(you2 shan4)people are, or why a writer from Singapore has written about how great Taipei is as to how orderly it is besides having friendly people. I’d never felt strongly about this until I had the trip to China.

First of all, the tour bus 遊覽車(you2 lian3 che) ride was horrible. I found that Chinese drivers just loved to horn. They kept horning loudly on the way even when there was no car ahead of them at all! (Just to warn the drivers in other lanes?) I was sitting by the driver and saw clearly how he drove. I could hardly rest during the long ride. Too much noise.

The horning was just 小意思(xiao3 yi4 si)* compared to what the taxi driver had brought me since it was nothing but annoying. The taxi driver had brought me to a scene that I’d only seen in a Hollywood movie when he was trying to pass the car 超車(chao che)ahead in a underpass by intruding to the opposite lane with a car driving to us at a high speed. Fortunately the retired professor sitting next to me did not have a heart attack!

It was surprised to see that there weren’t so many traffic lights as it should in some traffic circles 圓環(yuan2 huan2)or intersections 十字路口(shi2 zi4 lu4 kou3).Tons of people and vehicles just hustle around together. You got to be very alert and fast to move around the city and not get injured. It seemed that horning was the voice of this old city.

It took us like hours to get back to our hotel when we were just about 500 meters away from it. The tour bus ahead of us went into the wrong lane, which appeared to be a dead lane 死巷(si3 xiang4), and had to back out of it. Instead of waiting with a little patience, all the vehicles just horned and sped up to pass it. The traffic flow was congested as the tour bus was nudging and pausing by inches. “Wouldn’t it be faster and safer if the drivers behind just stop and wait for about 20 seconds and let the bus back out and drive on?” It would definitely be what drivers in Taiwan do. I thought to myself.

On arriving at our hotel, we had another frightening experience. No exaggeration. The driver just stopped the tour bus right in the middle of the narrow street and asked us to get off. With the car running by us, we got off and took our luggage. Luckily everyone was intact. “Is there any law here?” I asked and figured out it seemed to be a vicious circle. You don’t take other people’s convenience and welfares into consideration 替別人著想(ti4 bie2 ren2 zhao2 xiang2) since no one else takes yours into consideration. You have to “fight” your way on the street.

Another bad impression I had was when we were at the rest area 休息站(xiu xi2 zhan4)of the express way waiting in line to use the bathroom. We Taiwanese stood in line 排隊(bai2 dui4)as we always did in Taiwan. What made it different was that we had to try very hard to prevent those local women from cutting into our line 插隊(cha dui4). Practically we had to work as a “team” to stop them edging their way. I still remember what they were like when they were kind of “sneaking” into the line. Anyone would look ugly that way whatever name brand he might be wearing.

Is it that they have so big a population that they have to act this way, to “fight” to “survive?” I did some thinking on this and tried to give an explanation.

That’s why I miss Taiwan so much when in China. And why Japanese people have won my respect right now. It’s not difficult for people to maintain their dignity and manners at good times. But it’s something else when facing such a devastating disaster. That’s the real體面

Some eleven years ago when the 7.3-magnitute 921 Earthquake hit  Taiwan, people also showed this kind of體面 and helped each other. I don’t remember hearing any news of people robbing each other. (Few cases of people taking advantage of the donation, maybe.) The donations of food and water and clothes were so much that the charity had to ask people to stop.

As we always say, “God helps those who help themselves.” 天助自助者(tian zhu4 zi4 zhu4 zhe3) I believe people act with this體面will undoubtedly have the courage and perseverance to restore from the natural disasters, however devastating they are.

*Note: 小意思 a small case, nothing. Please refer to my previous writing意思意思 for more information.

體面=体面

遊覽車=游览车

超車=超车

圓環=圆环

替別人著想=替别人着想

排隊=排队