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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.

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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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  • José Balido August 27, 2009 at 11:32pm
    Hey Bernie,

    Thanks for the song, it's beautiful as music and as poetry. You can embed the YouTube video right on the comment here, you know: just copy the code where it says "Embed" to the right of the video on YouTube, and paste it here in the comment. The result:

  • Bernard Cleary August 27, 2009 at 11:29pm
    And here is the music video of S.H.E.'s version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKjTyAt-zRU&feature=related

    Not bad, but I'm a purist. I still prefer the original!
    - YouTube
    Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
  • Bernard Cleary August 27, 2009 at 11:00pm
    So yesterday, I was idly browsing YouTube (what did we DO before YouTube?) and found one of my favorite songs from my time in Taiwan in the 1980s. The title is 夢田 (Dream Field, or Field of Dreams), and it comes from an album titled 回聲 (Echo), a collaboration that set poems by Echo Chan (pen-name 三毛, who died tragically in the early 1990s) to music, and joined the pop/folk vocal talents of 齊豫 and 潘越雲. It was a huge hit at the time, and I still enjoy both the lyrics and the music to this day. I understand that the song has been recorded again recently by a new pop trio called "S.H.E." Here is the original version with the best quality audio I could find on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUIMsMifbTc

    The Chinese lyrics follow. When I have time, I'll attempt a translation, but it's poetry--REALLY difficult!

    夢田

    每個人心裡一畝 一畝田
    每個人心裡一個一個夢
    一顆啊一顆種子
    是我心裡的一畝田

    用它來種什麼
    用它來種什麼
    種桃種李種春風
    開盡梨花春又來
    那是我心裡一畝一畝田
    那是我心裡一個 不醒的夢
  • José Balido August 27, 2009 at 10:42pm
    The only way to edit your past comment, I believe, is to copy it, paste it into a new comment, modify it, then go back and delete the old comment........... so the answer is: not too easily!!
  • Bernard Cleary August 27, 2009 at 10:38pm
    Hehehe--time zones never occurred to me!
  • Michelle Lin August 27, 2009 at 10:35pm
    4 times - Eastern Time, Mountian Time, Pacific Standard Time and Central Time... hahah..

    3 times needs to be fixed somehow. Or it will become one time yesterday, or one time in the past, but that doesn't reflect it..

    But you guys are great..
  • Bernard Cleary August 27, 2009 at 10:29pm
    Actually, to play up the word play on "time in English", mimicking--though not entirely replicating--the word play on 天in Chinese, I'd probably change "yesterday, today and tomorrow" to "the past, the present and the future." What do you think?
    José: Is there a way for users to edit their previous comments?
  • Bernard Cleary August 27, 2009 at 10:14pm
    So here's a stab at it, using time﹔
    我對佛說...

    我對佛說:讓我所有朋友永遠健康快樂~!
    佛說:只能四天~!
    我說:好,春天、夏天、秋天、冬天。
    佛說:三天。
    我說:好,昨天、今天、明天。
    佛說:不行,兩天。!
    我說:好,白天、黑天。
    佛說:不行,就一天~!
    我說:好~!

    佛茫然問到:哪一天？
    我說:在我所有朋友活著的每一天 ~! ?

    佛....笑了.

    To Buddha, I said…

    To Buddha, I said, “Let all of my friends be healthy and happy forever!”
    Buddha said, “They can only have four times!”
    I said, “All right. Springtime, summertime, autumn time, and wintertime.”
    Buddha said, “Three times.”
    I said, “OK. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
    Buddha said, “No. Two times.”
    I said, “Fine. Daytime and nighttime.”
    Buddha said, “No. Just one time!”
    I said, “All right!
    Puzzled, Buddha said, “Which time?”

    I said, “All of the time that my friends are alive!”

    Buddha…laughed.
  • Michelle Lin August 27, 2009 at 10:09pm
    Maybe just to interpretate the sublety, and recreate an English versions - Buddha said 7 days, Little Monk says: Sunday..Monday, Tuesday... Saturday..

    If you guys can come up more... Wow, you 2 really love Chinese :) Have fun!
  • Bernard Cleary August 27, 2009 at 10:02pm
    Very tricky. I thought of that, too, but it still seems problematic to me."Springtime," summertime" and "wintertime" are all fine, but is "autumn time"? "Fall time"? And how about "yesterday time," "today time" and "tomorrow time"? "Daytime" and "nighttime" are okay, but in the final sentence, "every time" doesn't work, so it would have to be "all the time." Overall, though the gist of the story could be preserved, the playfulness of the word play would be lost if you wanted the piece to read naturally in English.
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