Posts by Chris Waugh
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Legal Beagle: A little known story of…, in reply to BenWilson,
It is a little frustrating, but if people take offense at a word, then using the word for them is offensive. There’s no way around that, other than letting people label themselves.
True, but in the case of Pakeha people are taking offense because they heard and believed a bunch of stories about the word's original meanings that simply have no basis in reality. Language change is inevitable and fascinating, but this is a silly reason for change.
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to ChrisW,
there seems a certain Chinese style to it, perhaps in something like Chinese character(s) shall we say literally? Chris W in Beijing – is this too fanciful?
It's a little bit of a stretch, but that pile of leaflets in the middle does seem to fit into the box that characters are drawn within, and I can see possibly a couple of radicals in there, like the two dots to the left, same as the two dots on the left of 冰, and in the body of the character there'd seem to be a 世. Can't see a character in my dictionary combining those two, but that's not to say one doesn't exist, nor does it mean it couldn't be invented. And those leaflets do have something of the shape of brush-drawn characters.
Not surprised your tree is endangered in central China. Deforestation has been a major problem around these parts for thousands of years, and poplars are all the rage amongst those officials in charge of planning roads and communities and planting things.
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Legal Beagle: A little known story of…, in reply to Sacha,
not comfortable with the term Pakeha. Do wish StatsNZ would show some leadership.
Agreed. It frustrates me that one of the persistant Pakeha myths is that Pakeha is a dirty word. It never was, is not, and will only be if us Pakeha buy into the myth. Me, I'm Pakeha and proud. The word Pakeha describes where I come from far more precisely than any other and so I ain't giving it up.
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Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Gudrun Gisela,
It is with many languages the same they do get changed over time in other peoples cultures and become the norm.
Well, yes.
For one thing, the history of attempts to romanise Chinese is pretty fascinating, involving both Western scholars of Chinese and Chinese reformers and a variety of competing systems. One system, invented by Chinese (Y.R Chao/Zhao Yuanren leading, several including Lin Yutang helping develop the system), Gyoyeu Romatzyh, encoded the tones in the spelling rather than using numbers or diacriticals or just ignoring them. And the characters have undergone their own evolution within Chinese and then again into Japanese kanji (and perhaps historically in Vietnamese and Korean, but I don't know).
And one interesting point is looking at the words for tea in various Eurasian languages. Some, like Russian and Hindi, call 'tea' 'cha' or 'chai' or something similar. They learned about tea via the Silk Road, linguistically via the ancestor of the modern Mandarin dialects (chá,茶). Others learned about tea via the coastal trade route from modern Fujian down through Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, then west around India to the Middle East, Africa then Europe, and so have words like 'tea', 'Tee' or 'thé'. Or so I've heard.
Ummm, sorry, don't know how my brain flew off on that tangent.
I must say, though, that I've been loving the photos of Christchurch you've posted. My experience of your city is limited, and I didn't have a particularly good impression of the place until I saw your photos. Now I'm thinking I could move my family there.
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Nora Leggs,
Flags flying
Daoist pirates at Milford?
If anybody’s lost a sandal, you might be able to find it in roughly the middle of the intersection of 广渠路/Guǎngqú Lù and 高碑店路/Gāobēidiàn Lù. Good luck dodging the trucks to pick it up though…
Left overs from Lantern Festival? Dunno, and I’m confused because today wasn’t the first time I’d walked through that area since Lantern Festival. Oh well.
Local park. Nice day for it, and a few more signs of spring.
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Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Gudrun Gisela,
Interesting blend of romanisations in the name of the school.
Hànzì: 功夫
Wade Giles: Kung fu
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn: gōngfu -
Somebody was inspired by Christchurch? Sometime last night or this morning somebody decided to add this little windmill to the sign directly opposite my front door.
For those who may be interested, the sign says:
爱护绿地内的花草树木人人有责
Àihù lǜdì nèi de huācǎo shùmù rénrén yǒu zé
Everybody is responbsible for taking care of the flowers, plants and trees in the green land.I liked the addition of the windmill though, a nice touch of early colour.
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This thread is in danger of sparking a serious case of gustatory homesickness. Quick, think happy thoughts.... "Gung Ho Pizza...." Run be a Kiwi and a fellow Scarfie, so the best of both countries in one happy meal.
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Jos,
Afternoon light
Afternoon magic.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to Sacha,
pretty sure they don’t
[sigh of hopeful relief]
