If you have not heard about it, well it is time you do - though you should have had some echoes of it given how viral it was. The famous star-dog of an Internet personality of China (Guois the name of the guy, who with his dog notably did a lot of travel vlogs and journeys-documented-by-videos) got stolen and sold to a restaurant at a cheap price, officially because the "collectors" (thieves) thought it was a "stray".
Now Guo is in a judiciary battle against the ones who stole his dog and the restaurant that killed it. And he can make it of a case but just barely - because dogs in China are still under the law as "goods" or "belongings", not actual living beings, meaning usually things like dog-stealing or dog-murder are not treated as "serious" business. Guo can only go that far because, listen to this, the authorities deemed that the monetary worth of his dog is enough to take more serious legal actions. Had his dog not been "worth" much he couldn't have done anything...
Anyway, this case which has moved the Chinese Internet is also sparking again the debate about the consumption of dog meat in various countries, and it is definitively a big debate that needs to be there again. But it is one of those subjects a lot of culture and governments just want to sweep under a rug, or put a lid of silence onto.
Was in the middle of reading a fic when I was completely blindsided by “Mandarin people”. Referring to Chinese people who speak Mandarin. I was absolutely flabbergasted like what? I already die inside when people refer to the written aspect of Cantonese as that instead of Traditional Chinese (please, Cantonese is the dialect, not the characters. And on that vein, Mandarin is also a spoken language and its written form is Simplified Chinese because Canto is the OG) but this just took the cake. Mandarin is a language (technically a dialect too but who’s nitpicking) not a nationality?
Also there are different terms for paternal and maternal sides of the family and it is driving me absolutely crazy to see “Yéye” (爷爷: paternal grandfather) and “Năinai” (奶奶: paternal grandmother) used for mother’s parents. “Wàigōng” (外公) and “Wàipó” (外婆) are for maternal grandfather and grandmother. Literally translated, it means “outside grandfather/mother”, but the 外 (wài: outside) is often omitted and the last character is repeated to just “Gōng Gōng” and “Por Por”.
MDZS fic writers, please stop changing Jiang YanLi's name to "Jin YanLi" just cuz she got married to peacock golden boy. Even back in Old China, if you and your partner were (essentially) of equal status, you never change your family name to that of your spouse's, even as a woman. The concept of "maiden names that are automatically changed upon marriage" isn't really a thing. If a name change happens, it's because an individual specifically chooses to take on the name formally (or forced to cuz of whatever nonsense reason). Still, it's more common for name changes to happen by adoption rather than marriage.
In the case of Jiang YanLi marrying into the Jin Sect, her title is now (Young) Madam Jin, but her name is still Jiang YanLi. In her mother's case, her name being Yu ZiYuan isn't a big deal, it's normal. It was the fact that she was referred to, as a title, as Madam Yu, despite being the Madam of the Jiang Sect, which suggested she took pride in her birth family roots over her marriage into the Jiang Sect. So, please, if you want to call her Jin YanLi please at least put in like one line of her wanting to take on the married name instead of her family name.
Anyways I just needed to get this off my chest 'kay thanks bye
hello, can you explain cwn's titles? how did he get them and what are the implications?
Ooooh! I have been meaning to look into this so thank you for asking and making me get off my lazy butt.
So CWN, according to baidu, has also been called: 楚宗师 (Chu Zongshi)、玉衡长老 (Elder Yuheng)、玉衡 (Yuheng)、师尊 (Shizun)、神仙哥哥 (Fairy/Immortal- gege)、恩公哥哥 (Savior-gege)、仙君 (Xianjun/Immortal [a formal way to refer to a cultivator, very polite])、夏司逆 (Xia Sini)、夏师弟 (Xia-Shidi)、晚宁 (Wanning [wtf baidu, this is obvious])、宝贝 (baobei [mo ran is a dog, no class, barf... maybe bark?])、小白菜 (little cabbage)、楚仙君 (Chu Xianjun)、西子芙蕖 (Lotus Xishi [1], referring to his beauty and his red lotus home)，临安楚郎 (Young Chu of Linan [young indicates a male youth... but that’s not an easy thing to translate])，and ‘晚夜玉衡，北斗仙尊’ (Yuheng of the night sky, the Beidou Immortal). [Note: i translated all of these without having read the rynn/suika translation so if i’m misaligned, oh, well. It’ll be good enough.]
Since most things cwn is called are self explanatory (feel free to send a followup if you disagree), I’ll focus on ‘晚夜玉衡，北斗仙尊’. So 玉衡 (marked blue in the figure below) is one of the Chinese names for Alioth (aka Epsilon Ursae Majoris), the brightest star in constellation Ursa Major (aka the big dipper, as shown in the figure). 北斗 is the Chinese name for Ursa Major. 北 meaning north and 斗 meaning some sort of funnel/dipper thing. Sometimes the constellation is referred to as 北斗七星 or the seven stars of beidou.
From a story perspective, the title 玉衡 was given to CWN when he became an ender at Sisheng Peak. (The big dipper is often traced in daoist ritual walks. Since cultivation and wuxian/xianxia is somewhat rooted in daoism, the nod to the constellation makes sense narratively.) His work in protecting the people made him stand out from everyone else in the cultivation world. Imagery-wise, remember that (according to wiki) Epsilon Ursae Majoris is the 32nd brightest star in the sky and definitely stands out in the constellation. And since 玉衡 is in the big dipper, calling him the Beidou immortal makes perfect sense.
In my searching, I also learned that the other elders (other than 戒律 Jièlǜ which means discipline and probably refers to that elder’s role in the sect) that came to mind for me and @wanning-of-the-night-sky / @merelhyn were all stars of the big dipper or related to the constellation in some way. In the figure above, Pojun, Lucun, and Tanlang are marked in red and Xuanji is marked in yellow. Xuanji shows up as parts of the name of two different stars and also as an old chinese term for the group of four stars marked by yellow circles. (IMO, from a deranged (affectionate) Meatbun perspective, I think she picked a pretty name for CWN and thematically matched the rest of the Sisheng elders to his name.)
Another thing found interesting is that 琁玑玉衡 is the name of an instrument/tool related to ancient Chinese astronomical/astrological observation. Googling it yielded images of disks with a hole in the middle and notches on the outside.
[1] Xishi is a famed chinese beauty. One of the 4 greats in chinese history. there is an idiom that Mo Ran used at CWN when CWN was making wontons for him after Shi Mei’s death -- 东施效颦 which means mimicking someone’s actions but making a fool of themselves. The idiom comes from a story where Dongshi, who is unattractive, mimics Xishi’s actions. Dongshi ends up seeming less attractive and makes a fool of herself.
Jièlǜ: T.T I wish I had a big dipper name!
Xue Zhengyong:Uh... sorry. Discipline is important. Take one for the team.
JL: But why. I’m an elder too!
XZY: look at it this way: you having a dipper name will make it so we no longer represent every other star. You would throw things off balance! Would you be Wuqu? Wenqu? Jumen? You can’t really be Lianzhen because that would conflict with Yuheng. You’re out of luck friend.
JL: ...
Then again, I’d like to think Jièlǜ actually has a big dipper related name but no one knows it or remembers it.
This is niche but I think the westerner version of 羊肉泡馍 is soup and French baguette.
*羊肉泡馍 (yang rou pao mo) literately is bread soaked in lamb soup. I believe it’s a dish mostly found in middle of China. We have it a lot in 平凉(Ping Liang), my hometown.
Chinese herbal baths are generally indicated for conditions like fever, fungus infections, skin sores, wounds, pain, arthritis, and itchiness, as well as a beauty treatment. The effective components of the herbal bath are mainly absorbed through the patient's skin and respiratory system and work by activating the potential life functions in the patient
the “I DIDN’T GET NO FUCKING SLEEP ‘CAUSE OF Y’ALL! YA’LL NOT GONNA GET NO SLEEP ’CAUSE OF ME!” video but instead I’m banging two rice cooker pots together, screaming “LEI MM BEY GNOR FEN GOW GNOR MM BEY LEI FEN GOW”
