If anyone has registered for an account at either Yōukù 优酷 or Tǔdòuwǎng 土豆网, could you make a recommendation? Is there some other service I should be considering? I’m most afraid of massive spam on the email address I give them when I register.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

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• Maybe Someday (easiest Chinese pop song I know)

rù xiāng suí sú 入乡随俗 = When in Rome, do as the Romans do

For me that means embracing piracy and actually encouraging downloading and file sharing of my music. I’m sure I’ll never make a penny off of any of it (which would be more than some of it’s worth actually). I’m letting people zìjǐ dòngshǒu 自己动手 to my songs for free! Why so generous realistic?

Here’s exactly how it happened:

1. My friend Jason and I wrote a Chinese pop song called “Wǒ Bú Shì Dōngxī 我不是东西” during the October holiday in 2007. We didn’t think anyone would care, but the students loved it.
2. I played the song at various shows and events around campus and even recorded a little demo mp3 in my amateur home recording studio.
3. On March 15, 2009 I was interviewed on a Radio Guangdong show called “Voice of the City” during which they asked me about the song and ended up playing the demo mp3 on the radio.
4. The students here at the campus radio station didn’t see any reason why a real radio station should play the song and not them, so they played my demo on the campus loudspeakers a few weeks ago.
5. Since then, I’ve had several students from each class ask if they can please have the song.
6. Some of the readers of my book have expressed disappointment that the “About the Author” section says I’ve “written a few Chinese pop songs,” but they aren’t available for download with the audio files.

So to answer these demands, I’m pleased to announce my new music website:

http://music.laowaichinese.net

(also available by clicking “Music” in the menu tabs at the top)

As a bonus (some would say punishment), there are other songs besides “Wǒ Bú Shì Dōngxī 我不是东西” on the site. There are, in fact, three separate albums in process.

About half a dozen other songs for the various albums have already been written and will be released in the months ahead.

If you’d like to stay up to date on any new music as it gets recorded and released, you can subscribe to the music site in the side bar or by clicking here.

Enjoy!

• 2 New Songs: Rich Girl, Tuífèi 颓废
• New Song: Kuàilè 快乐
• A Simple Song
• Stump the Laowai: wúnài 无奈
• We Are Ready: Beijing Olympics Song

In the mean time, if you’d like to contact me for some reason, leave a brief comment here and you’re email address (while remaining a secret to the world) will show up in my inbox. I’ll then reply directly to your email address and we can talk secretly.

Sorry for any unintentional snubbing this has caused.

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Special thanks to our Top 5, and all the rest of you who leave helpful and instructive comments here. With all of you telling me what’s what, I may just learn Chinese one of these days.

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Sorry to bore everyone with blog updates like this, but I have a feeling some of my readers also use WordPress and this info might be important for them.

For you email subscribers: this post SHOULD come in an email with the previous post about finding out the geneder of a Chinese person from ta‘s name. If the emails don’t go out today, something else is broken (thanks for your nàixīn 耐心)

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1. Added some themed pages such as Where to Start, Most Discussed, and Top Picks.
2. Changed color scheme and put side bar on the right (both were automatic with the new theme).
3. Shortened the Home page to only the most recent 2 posts (easier for slower connections to load) and added recent posts to the sidebar so you can see the titles of the most recent 5 posts.
4. Cleaned up the sidebar so the categories, recent posts, and recent comments are easier to see.
5. Threw the search box into the header of every page.
6. Fixed the comments RSS feed for each post so you can follow the discussion of a single post in your favorite RSS reader.

Please let me know if any parts of this site are broken now as a result of the new theme. Or, if you think a post deserves to be included in one of those themed pages, feel free to leave a comment here (I don’t think you can leave comments on the themed pages themselves).

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Since there is currently no option to subscribe without leaving a comment, you can just leave a comment that says “delete me” and I’ll go in and take it out. But you’ll still be subscribed to that article’s comments feed.

Again, sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

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For example, the English word “cousin” has 8 different Chinese translations depending on mother’s side or father’s side, older or younger, boy or girl. By the way, don’t be fooled when your Chinese friends appear to defy the One Child Policy and tell you about their 5 brothers and sisters. They frequently leave off the cousin-indicating prefix and just call their cousins “older brother” or “younger sister.”

To simplify the task of wading through the myriad of family terms, I’ve made a visual representation of the relationships and terms, which is available for download below (click on the picture).

Chinese Family Tree.pdf
(requires Adobe Reader, which is available here).

NOTE: To download the document directly to your computer without viewing it in your internet browser, right-click on the link and select “Save link/target as…”

You’ll notice it doesn’t include the great grandparents’ generation. This is because many Chinese don’t know the technical terms for great grandparents, such as “zēngzǔfù 曾祖父” (“great grandfather on father’s side”), and it would be easier just to say, “Grandfather’s father” in Chinese to get your meaning across.

In addition to the terms and tips on the Chinese Family Tree.pdf, here is some vocabulary I’ve found useful when talking about family members and relationships.

General Family Terms

qīnqi 亲戚 = relative
zǔzōng祖宗 / zǔxiān祖先 = ancestor

qīn gēge 亲哥哥 = real older brother (same parents)
qīn jiějie 亲姐姐 = real older sister(same parents)

xiōngdì 兄弟 = brothers
jiěmèi 姐妹 = sisters
xiōngdì jiěmèi 兄弟姐妹 = siblings

fùmǔ父母 = parents
zhàngfu hé qīzi 丈夫和妻子 = husband and wife
àiren爱人/ pèi’ǒu 配偶= spouse / lover
nǚpéngyou女朋友 = girlfriend
nánpéngyou男朋友 = boyfriend

yīng’ér婴儿 = infant / baby
xiǎoháir小孩儿 / háizi孩子 = child

Oh, by the way, I’ve left out the arsenal of in-law terms. If you’ve got a reason to learn those, well, you’re on your own.

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Well, for whatever reason, the blog is back up in China. So please destroy any links to the pirated pkblogs.com version (as I have done).

Here’s some appropriate vocabulary to celebrate with:

hǎo xiāoxi 好消息= good news

huài xiāoxi 坏消息= bad news

I actually think of that “xiāoxi 消息” should as “information” or “message.” If you want to say “read the news” it’s a different word:

kàn 看xīn 新wén 文 = read the news [look new + smell/hear]

Weird that “to smell” can also mean “to hear.” And, even though it’s not SUPER important, the correct measure word for both kinds of news seems to be “tiáo 条” {measure word for long, narrow things} according to Chubby. Doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but I always imagine ancient Chinese messengers reading decrees from the emperor on long scrolls (remember ancient Chinese was written top to bottom, right to left). But thankfully, they actually seem to prefer the old “ge 个” measure word in this case:

wǒ yǒu yí gè hǎo xiāoxi 我有一个好消息= I’ve got good news [I have one {m.} good message] **better**

wǒ yǒu yì tiáo hǎo xiāoxi 我有一条好消息= I’ve got good news [I have one {m.} good message]

Don’t be alarmed that the tone for “yi” changed. That’s what it does. There’s a post in the works about the tone changes.

It’s apparently also ok to say

wǒ yǒu hǎo xiāoxi 我有好消息= I’ve got good news [I have good message]

But omitting the “one” part of it seems to imply that you have a whole bunch of news to share. And, more importantly, the Chinese usually have that measure word in there when they say it and hey…they’re the boss.

And now that final step of integrating the vocab into my daily life:

wǒ yǒu yí gè hǎo xiāoxi 我有一个好消息: wǒ de bókè huílái le 我的博客回来了= I’ve got good news: my blog came back

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zěnme bàn 怎么办? = what’s to be done? / what should we do?

I used that the other day when my water dispenser sprung a leak. The guy delivered a new bottle and I showed him the puddle. He then waxed eloquent, totally losing me, saying things I’m sure boiled down to stuff like:

“Well this particular model, when inundated with an influx of new water after a freshly replenished container is installed, seems to have a tendency to backwash ever so slightly, while, I shouldn’t fail to mention that, a simple preemptive strike–viz. draining the surplus water before installing the new jug–may very well serve to nip this problem in the bud.”

I blinked at him loudly and said simply, “zěnme bàn 怎么办?”

He then sprung into action demonstrating and implementing what he had (I’m sure) just explained and all was made clear. Never mind that it didn’t solve the problem. I called him the next day saying:

hái yǒu yíyàng de wèntí 还有一样的问题. zěnme bàn 怎么办? = (it) still has the same problem. What should we do?

The point is, this is a useful little phrase that, even if it doesn’t lead to a real solution, might at least lead to action.

Which brings me back to the problem of this blog. Here’s what I suggest:

1. If you’re in China: depend on the email updates. To subcribe (or refer someone to subscribe) click here. Amzingly, you still seem to be able to leave comments (see “comments” link at bottom of the email).
2. If you’re not in China: enjoy your free access and let me know if there are any strange layout problems.

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