As a honkey, I can't tell where other white people are from. If there was someone from Germany or Czech or Finland or Ireland walking down the street, I wouldn't have a clue where they were from unless I heard them speak. This is excluding, of course, obvious giveaways like public drunkenness (Irish) or someone with a moustache that's only an inch wide (German).
So my question for a Chinese guy is this: can you tell where other Asian people are from? The Asian people I know seem to be able to tell a Chinese person from a Japanese person from a Korean person on sight.
Its hard on sight because there has been alot of mixing going on. But I can tell when they speak either their own language (vietnamese, cantonese, mandarin, japanese and korean are totally different). And also when they speak english, since those native languages are so different, their accent when speaking english is different too.
FanIn80: For the porn question, I believe it is Japanese fantasy. For dominant men to have sex with young submissive girls who act like little girls. The high pitched voice is a normal Japanese trait though. So when they're having sex and excited, the voice will be much higher too! Japanese women train their voices to have a high pitch. It is cultural. Loud women with lower voices are considered very un-feminine. The executives may be speaking in a loud, aggressive, booming voice, then when the secretary comes in, everyone has to be very quiet so that they can even hear what she is saying. If you went to a mall in Japan or even the airport.. all announcements would be in this incredible high pitched voice.
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Last edited by GirlySports; 07-03-2012 at 10:59 PM.
Who wears the pants, so to speak, in the modern chinese family.. or does anyone for that matter? I know in my family, nobody has the final say... Decisions are a joint effort and if concensus can't be achieved, nothing happens.
Who wears the pants, so to speak, in the modern chinese family.. or does anyone for that matter? I know in my family, nobody has the final say... Decisions are a joint effort and if concensus can't be achieved, nothing happens.
Obviously we can only generalize, but it varies depending upon which part of China the family is from. Shanghai tends to see the women having a lot more say in the family, the NE is definitely much more the man having the say in the family. Can't say with a lot of confidence for other parts of the country specifically though. A lot of it also comes down to whose side of the family is richer/more influential and how parents get involved in managing the lives of even their adult, married children.
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Its hard on sight because there has been alot of mixing going on. But I can tell when they speak either their own language (vietnamese, cantonese, mandarin, japanese and korean are totally different). And also when they speak english, since those native languages are so different, their accent when speaking english is different too.
Huh. Well, in perfect white guy fashion, they all look the same to me.
That's racist!
Anyway, I am disappointed that my potshot at the infamous fotze has been ignored.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
For the porn question, I believe it is Japanese fantasy. For dominant men to have sex with young submissive girls who act like little girls. The high pitched voice is a normal Japanese trait though. So when they're having sex and excited, the voice will be much higher too! Japanese women train their voices to have a high pitch. It is cultural. Loud women with lower voices are considered very un-feminine. The executives may be speaking in a loud, aggressive, booming voice, then when the secretary comes in, everyone has to be very quiet so that they can even hear what she is saying. If you went to a mall in Japan or even the airport.. all announcements would be in this incredible high pitched voice.
That's interesting, in a very creepy way, but if it's not too difficult, could you remove the answer about porn from your reply to me and address it to the filthy-minded character that asked the question about Asian porn?
Do North American chinese couples still prefer to have boys rather than girls? or is this strictly a mainland China preference?
Depends how traditional the couple is. My parents had absolutely no preference, while some (such as my grandparents) would take that concept and run.
It seems to be a dying brand though as the culture becomes less ingrained into the children. Concepts of "face" and politically created social status play less of a role in Canada than they do in traditional Chinese areas.
Again though, it's a family variant thing. Most I've met don't care too much.
I have a colleague who is second-generation Canadian of Chinese descent. She looks Chinese and has a distinctly Chinese name. However, she can't speak more than a few words of Chinese, and those words are slow and heavily Canadian-accented.
She recently traveled to China, and had lots of trouble with the Chinese customs officials because she couldn't speak the language. Meanwhile, all the whiteys on the plane had no problems without knowing a word of Chinese.
Have any of the Chinese posters here ever experienced that (or known anyone who has)?
What is the deal with superstitions based on numbers? Why am I more likely to sell a house to a Chinese person if the street address is, say, 88 than if it is 44?
My wife used to work in an office with a lot of Chinese people in it. She had low seniority, but got a nice office with a window because there was a cemetery a little ways down the street. Her Chinese coworkers avoided the window office because of spirits from the cemetery or something? Does that sound familiar?
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Its because the number 4 sounds like death and the number 8 represents wealth and prosperity. That's also why you see some license plates like slava888 and things like that.
I have a colleague who is second-generation Canadian of Chinese descent. She looks Chinese and has a distinctly Chinese name. However, she can't speak more than a few words of Chinese, and those words are slow and heavily Canadian-accented.
She recently traveled to China, and had lots of trouble with the Chinese customs officials because she couldn't speak the language. Meanwhile, all the whiteys on the plane had no problems without knowing a word of Chinese.
Have any of the Chinese posters here ever experienced that (or known anyone who has)?
What is the deal with superstitions based on numbers? Why am I more likely to sell a house to a Chinese person if the street address is, say, 88 than if it is 44?
My wife used to work in an office with a lot of Chinese people in it. She had low seniority, but got a nice office with a window because there was a cemetery a little ways down the street. Her Chinese coworkers avoided the window office because of spirits from the cemetery or something? Does that sound familiar?
Yes this is an unfortunate reality in many Asian countries where they naturally assume that if you look Asian, then you should speak the language and you are frowned upon or they look at you like are ######ed if you cannot. I've definitely gotten many strange looks and a lower level of service because of this.
Caucausians/Westerners have "gaijin power" and are given the benefit of the doubt based on appearance alone.
Getting a Chinese VISA wasn't too difficult but a somewhat annoying thing for me as I had to explain my employment and educational background to the customs agent who barely spoke Cantonese and spoke no English.
Because of this, I have a bit of complex about travelling to Asian countries where I blend in (China, Japan, Korea) and feel like I need to learn a good measure of language before I even visit.
I have a colleague who is second-generation Canadian of Chinese descent. She looks Chinese and has a distinctly Chinese name. However, she can't speak more than a few words of Chinese, and those words are slow and heavily Canadian-accented.
She recently traveled to China, and had lots of trouble with the Chinese customs officials because she couldn't speak the language. Meanwhile, all the whiteys on the plane had no problems without knowing a word of Chinese.
Have any of the Chinese posters here ever experienced that (or known anyone who has)?
What is the deal with superstitions based on numbers? Why am I more likely to sell a house to a Chinese person if the street address is, say, 88 than if it is 44?
My wife used to work in an office with a lot of Chinese people in it. She had low seniority, but got a nice office with a window because there was a cemetery a little ways down the street. Her Chinese coworkers avoided the window office because of spirits from the cemetery or something? Does that sound familiar?
In Mandarin, the word for the number 4 sounds very similar to the word for death. For eights, I think it's the similarity between the sound of the word for 8 and the word 发 which has a meaning of development/growth suggesting a development towards wealth.
The cemetery thing is pretty normal. Still lots of superstition here. For example, my mother in law was insistent that I change my flight date for returning to Canada to July 9th because the 8th was an unlucky day to fly (on the lunar calendar). She even criticized my wife for not caring enough about her husband because my wife didn't see any need to change the flight either.
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The Chinese language is the basis of many Asian languages and because of those roots, they have similar sounds. The number 4 sounds like death and the number 8 sounds like prosperity. It's a number superstition.
What's fun is if you combine Eastern and Western superstitions.
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The Chinese language is the basis of many Asian languages and because of those roots, they have similar sounds. The number 4 sounds like death and the number 8 sounds like prosperity. It's a number superstition.
What's fun is if you combine Eastern and Western superstitions.
Yep, my building lacks floors numbered either 13 or 14 too.
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An Asian lady drops two of her three kids off at the same bus stop as one of mine. I would say she is Chinese, but I am not certain. Our conversation is usually limited to "hello", and "have a good day"
After she drops the younger two children off, her and her eldest walk to a different stop for the junior high bus. Anyway, usually I am off home pretty quick, but one day I was held up at the stop by another neighbour and witnessed an interesting scene.
They walked maybe 20 meters from the stop then they both stopped. The boy turned towards his house across the street and performed at least three bows from the waist.
Nobody was visible outside the house, but someone might have been watching from a window. I believe an elderly female relative is living in the house.
So, after all that long story, the question is; was this some daily ritual? Something special?
I want to go back and answer a question from earlier in this thread (and from years ago apparently) about why Asians choose Western names they can't pronounce.
This is a vestige of colonial era, British ruled, Hong Kong where it was fashionable to give yourself an Anglophone name. Most professionals, entertainers, and people of younger generations and middle-class to higher wealth would have an English name and this is often what you would go by with your friends.
You won't really find this to be the case anymore as the overwhelming majority of Asian immigrants are from mainland China where this custom never existed and they often never take English names.
I don't know what was going on there, but 3 bows is what you do at a Chinese funeral and someone has probably passed away.
Well that may be sad then. The elderly lady I mentioned I have not seen out and about recently. She dresses/dressed quite distinctively and is a well known sight on our main street, where she walked daily.
Why do Chinese people turn into nutbar lunatics when you put a camera in their hands?
I can think of a million examples, that I have experienced personally... but the most recent one that sticks out, was while I was vacationing overseas earlier this year.
While waiting for the sun to set a bit more, so I could photograph a very small historic church, set on a lake with a stunning mountain backdrop... a bus full of chinese tourists pulls up. They run out, screaming and having a mental breakdown, similar to teenage Beiber fans (essentially killing the serenity of the remoteness of the location). They proceed to take over the site of the church. They CLIMBED the church, clung to the stone walls, clung to the windows and smeared their hands all over the stained glass... they stood in front of it giving peace signs and flexing their scrawny biceps.
I didn't really care, as the spectacle only lasted about 8 minutes before they packed themselves back onto the bus and on to another arena in which to act like headless chickens. But... how in the **** are any of their photos good? Given the setting the church was in, having 30+ people clinging to the stone walls and making stupid poses seems like a sad composition... even more confusing that they all seemed to have Canon 5D's with L lenses to shoot such lunacy.
What's up with that?
I'd ask one of my many chinese friends, but they are all jacked up juice pigs who don't really fit into any of the typical stereotypes, so they don't quite understand it.
I want to go back and answer a question from earlier in this thread (and from years ago apparently) about why Asians choose Western names they can't pronounce.
This is a vestige of colonial era, British ruled, Hong Kong where it was fashionable to give yourself an Anglophone name. Most professionals, entertainers, and people of younger generations and middle-class to higher wealth would have an English name and this is often what you would go by with your friends.
You won't really find this to be the case anymore as the overwhelming majority of Asian immigrants are from mainland China where this custom never existed and they often never take English names.
Nearly all the Chinese people I know who are working in professional positions have English names, and many actually use their English names when communicating with colleagues even though they're speaking Chinese. Also, pretty much all Chinese kids get English names when they start learning English. You'd have a hard time finding a high school student in a major urban centre of mainland China who has an economic/educational standing that might see them capable of emigrating and who doesn't have an English name. Really, you'd be hard to find any with an education that involved any English learning who doesn't have an English name.
The fact that the names are often kind of weird shouldn't really be that surprising though. What would you be called if you were allowed to choose your name when you were 10?
I got my Chinese name as an adult, and it's pretty weird in China.
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