Questions tagged [culture]
Questions about the Chinese language which are influenced by culture.
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Isn't it contradictory to say 违反本法规定，构成犯罪的，依法追究刑事责任?
违反本法规定，构成犯罪的，依法追究刑事责任is a sentence I read in a law stipulation. My paraphrasing is like that: if this is something against the criminal law, it shall be placed under the criminal investigation.
But ...
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What is the difference between 书面演讲 and 带稿发言?
Mainstream media report:当地时间11月16日上午，国家主席习近平向在旧金山举行的亚太经合组织工商领导人峰会发表题为《同心协力 共迎挑战 谱写亚太合作新篇章》的书面演讲。
As far as I know, almost all Chinese leaders are reading from a prepared script except the earlier ...
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Is the structure of 五虎上将 the same as 三好学生?
Today I read the Romance of Three Kingdoms and found that there is a title awarded to the five generals 五虎上将.
First I thought that 虎 was a measure word like 个, but there seems no other examples to ...
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On the Chinese translation of some words by 歌德
I am curious about the official Chinese translation of a few words by 歌德. The first occurs on this webpage advertised as an aphorism, namely
Man weicht der Welt nicht sicherer aus als durch die Kunst,...
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Is this the proper way using no punctuation marks between names?
As shown in the picture, there is not even a stop or a mark between the names of so many people. If it is in the title, it might be for space efficience, but in the body, why is it still so arranged? ...
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On the Chinese version of the movie "Braveheart"
I am pretty sure the movie "Braveheart" by Mel Gibson exists in a Chinese language version as there is a Chinese Wikipedia article about this movie.
I would like to know about the official ...
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关于一句鲁道夫·卡斯纳格言的中文翻译
According to a letter from Rilke to Magda von Hattingberg from the 16th-20th February 1914, Rudolf Kassner (his Chinese transliterations is 鲁道夫·卡斯纳 according to this Douban page) has coined a saying ...
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About a passage from a published Chinese translation of Kafka's "The Trial"
According to Bing-AI, Kafka's novel "The trial" (German: "Der Prozess") was translated many times into Chinese by different translators and in different times up to only recently ...
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What does 放生矿泉水 mean in this news report?
近日，有人在宁波永丰桥上念念有词，“放生”矿泉水，旁边还摆放着贡品，有关此事的视频和照片一经网络传播，立刻引发热议。
This is the news report.
What does 放生矿泉水 mean?
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About a chapter title from Adolf Wölfli's 简历
In the short 简历 (Lebensbeschreibung) of Adolf Wölfli (I don't know how the name of this artist is officially transliterated in Chinese publications - if you can help with this with a reference, it's a ...
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About the origin of the quote 所爱隔山海，山海亦可平
A 网友 drew my attention to a quote which I find recorded in different variations online, e.g. on Baike Baidu as 所爱隔山海，山海亦可平. It's attributed there to a collection of works called 山木诗词全集.
My question is:...
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About the Chinese translation of two passages in the notes of Laurids Brigge by Rilke
According to Bing-AI, the notes of Laurid Brigge by Rilke were translated two times into Chinese (1986 and 2007), cf. screenshot.
I am curious about the translation of two passages for my calligraphic ...
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How is it possible 坐 in 停车坐爱枫林晚 mean 因为?
Our teacher of Chinese language and culture said this word means 因为. I stop my cart because of the evening scene of maple trees I admire.
But friends of mine question this. They give examples in ...
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What does 学位 mean in this context?
合X县、鹿X县、北X市等8个县义务教育学位均出现了严重短缺，其中，北X市小学位缺口达到XXXXX人，目前在建城区小学4所，预计新增学位XXXX个
I know that 学位 is a degree for a college graduate but do not know it is now even available to boys and girls of elementary ...
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Why 姆 is widely used in the translated name of males?
According to 新华字典, 姆 means 保姆,负责照管儿童或料理家务的女工 （P353,新华字典第11版,商务印书馆,2011年6月）.
But in many names of males in translated works, either in literary works or news stories, this word is used, for example, 吉姆,...
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Is “文化” borrowed from Japanese?
Perusing the Wiktionary entry for 文化, I was not surprised to find the same character pair means “culture” in Japanese too. What did surprise me is that the entry for the Japanese word has this as its “...
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关于荷爾德林的希波淋的一本中文版本
I found out on Baike Baidu (cf. here) that the novel Hyperion by Hölderlin is translated to 希波淋 where the author has the transcription 荷爾德林.
On the other hand, many questions are left open and I don't ...
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西海 vs 东海 in literature
In Chinese literature, poetry, song, etc. 西海 is used more often than 东海. Is it because 西 in Chinese literature more romantic than 东?
For example if I compose a poem, would it be weird if I use 东海 ...
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About a potential Chinese version of the movie "Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe"
I have a question concerning the German movie "Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe" which appeared in 2005 in Germany's cinemas (cf. Wikipedia).
Did this movie also appear in China with a ...
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Is 民主党派 NGO in China?
I happened to see a road sign, on which it is marked 广西区各民主党派机关 and I kept wondering why the political parties which are eight or nine in numbers have to put their regional headquarters together?
It ...
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What is the story behind 逐日移山?
I read the following on social media which is provided in both Chinese and English, and it looks like the Chinese is the original and the English the translation:
热爱各有不同，青年本该如此，每一代逐日移山的青年都有自己奋不顾身的热爱，...
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How do written Chinese works, such as novels, handle dialogue from characters with accents?
For example, how does modern or translated Chinese fiction denote that a character is speaking in standard but heavily accented language, aside from appending an outside-dialogue note? English fiction ...
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What are the English equivalents for 民宿, 农家乐 and 网红打卡点？
Searching the info of travel, I have seen the above words many times and known roughly what they meant.
I saw a sign in both English and Chinese put on the wall of the information center of a tourist ...
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What does 讲好中国故事 really mean?
Reading the Chinese language mainstream media,I often encounter the words 讲好中国故事but do not really understand what that means.
Since when news media has begun to tell stories,that is, something unreal ...
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How do Chinese musicians count beats in Mandarin?
When counting beats in a song, in English we would say "1 and, 2 and, 3 and" etc. where 1, 2 and 3 are beats and "and"s are spaces between them. You can also split the rhythm into ...
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Why “to drink water” in Shanghainese is 吃茶?
While listening to two people speaking Shanghainese （沪语）I realized that they have two different ways to say “water”.
Based on the pronunciation I heard:
the first is /sɨ/ similar to 死 in Mandarin, ...
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How to determine the right pronunciation of names?
The recent news shows that the name of a high-ranking official 谌贻琴 is pronounced Shen4 Yi2 Qin2, but as far as I know, a famous writer 谌容 and a famous badminton player 谌龙 are called Chen2 Rong2 and ...
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What is the function of 国家副主席 in China?
If this is the counterpart of Vice President of the US, it doesn't have the same function as the head of the congress. And in the similar case, there is no vice secretary general of the ruling ...
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What exactly is a 祝版, and how is it used in ceremonies?
In the chengyu story behind 入木三分 (rù mù sān fēn), the emperor has a 祝版 created for a ceremony in which he makes sacrifices to his ancestors. I did some initial searches and found that a 祝版 is wooden ...
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Is the accent in the south that different?
I'm thinking of going to China for a year to finalize my chinese. Right now it's super basic, but I'm slowly getting through HSK4. I did a bit of research on costs and standard curriculum structure.
...
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What is the logic behind 《窦娥冤》?
This drama is also known as 感天动地窦娥冤,but there is nothing the heaven and earth do to save the life of this girl. She yells at them 叫声屈动地惊天。我将天地合埋怨，天也，做得个怕硬欺软，地也，你不分好歹难为地...
Another point that doesn't ...
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Is there any rule for the abbreviation of the name of provinces or cities?
As I find out, there is an abbreviation for each province in China, for example, 北京 is 京, 广东is 粤, 上海 is 沪, 广州 is 穗 and so on, but in many cases these three cities are also known as 北上广 rather than 京沪穗。...
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Term for cultural idiom: restaurant payment calculation based on counting plates (e.g. Dim Sum)
sorry if this is the wrong forum for non-linguistic questions
In traditional Dim Sum restaurants (and some sushi-boat restaurants), a diner's bill (check) is calculated from the number of plates in ...
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Origin of the story of Suiren on Mount Buzhou?
I don't recommend trying to read through the original—the rushed-Scottish-typographer take on Goguet's 18th-century French transcriptions of the Chinese characters might cause an aneurysm—but going ...
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What are the usages of 甫 and 氏 after names for a single person?
I am reading some county document from Qing Dynasty. Most of the prefaces were signed by 年號+（年）+干支紀年+（月）+籍貫+姓+名+（字）. For example, 康熙(年號)丙寅(干支紀年)會稽(籍貫)徐(姓)世法(名)序, 道光(年號)二十九年（年）歲次巳酉(干支紀年)十月上浣（月）皖江(籍貫)劉(...
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What is the best expression of a particular nickname?
I am wondering what the best way to express a particular nickname might be. Because my name in real life is very common, I sometimes use various permutation of 'Shewolf' instead for various internet ...
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"Kids these days"
This is a question more about culture than language specifically but I hope it is still appropriate here.
It's a common topic in current media commentary (in English) to complain about the problems ...
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Popular Chinese language science / engineering video content for children
What are the most popular Chinese language video programs / online video channels that pertain to science, chemistry, math, robotics, etc. with a focus on kids as the audience?
Equivalent to English-...
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How is 你是哪里人 properly answered?
Perhaps this question can be roughly translated into English as "Where is your home town?" or "Where are you from?" But now with the fast and more people movement within China, the ...
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I am perplexed by this script. I believe it is Chinese, be appreciative if it could translate into English and/or give further meaning. att image [closed]
Old ink painting with characters that I would like to understand and be translated. I have various ink paintings with plants, animals and humans but have never understood the meaning of the characters....
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Context-based classifier usage
I've noticed that many Chinese people would use 个（個）instead of the proper classifier for many situations in daily conversations (e.g. 一个歌, rather than 一首歌).
Based on my current knowledge, 个（個）may be ...
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What is the counterpart of self-respect in Chinese?
I think "self-confidence" and "self-esteem" are universal concepts. For example "self-confidence" is 自信 and they basically have the same meaning, the same goes to "...
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汉长安城的未央宫中的“前殿”是一幢房屋，还是几幢建筑在面积宽大的布局里？
首先得说，我明白现代人对古代的殿、殿堂、皇宫等建筑的样子只不过是考古上的推测。那么，根据某几个词典（现代汉语规范词典、汉语大词典、萌典、两岸通用词典），一个“殿”绝对是单独的房屋；“前殿”是“正殿”，而“正殿”就是一种殿（皇宫中的主殿）。
我在网上看到的一些对未央宫的前殿的复原设想图就大不一致。且看下面的图一和图二。
图一：陕西西安汉长安未央宫遗址前殿复原设想鸟瞰图（来源：https://...
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Slogan 社会……方何 on a Maoist poster
What is the slogan, mostly obscured by the typist, on the poster that hangs behind him, on this poster from 1956?
Since the artist chose to obscure the poster, it must have been easily recognizable at ...
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what's the meaning/origin of 呲东西停不下来桑?
I came across this sentence that is puzzling me, especially the last characters:
呲东西停不下来桑
Its meaning should be "I can't stop eating" but I cannot really understand where is coming from.
...
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Why foreign movies have multiple Chinese dubs?
I wanted to re-watch some movies I like in Chinese so I got Toy Story 1 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The thing is both of them have 3 audio tracks, 1 Cantonese and 2 Mandarin. I don'...
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警察 vs 武警 difference
So I'm trying to understand the first sentence from the book 三体.
The original:
汪淼觉得，来找他的这四个人是一个奇怪的组合：两名警察和两名军人，如果那两个军人是武警还算正常，但这是两名陆军军官。
My translation:
Wang Miao thought the 4 men coming to him ...
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How to properly translate "to deserve" while preserving its moral implication?
Over the course of my studies and practice in Chinese, there's one particular type of sentence that I always get wrong: the one with the verb to deserve.
In English — and several other neo-latin ...
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Is "华彧" an acceptable name for males? Any other boy names with "华"? [closed]
I have been learning Chinese for several months now, and I would love to have a Chinese name to facilitate conversing and learning, mainly for my own enjoyment.
I feel that whatever my name will be, ...
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