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C-pop or Chinese popular music has two variants: Cantopop which is performed in Cantonese and originates from Hong Kong and Mandopop which is performed in Mandarin and comes from Taiwan but also China and Hong Kong too. Since returning from our trip to China last December, I’ve been really getting in to Mandopop. I was already listening to singers like Faye Wong, Teresa Teng, Gigi Leung, Vicki Zhao Wei, and Zhou Xun. Coming back from China with CDs by S.H.E and Jasmine Fish Leong whetted my appetite and we’ve been listening to a lot of Mandopop. The kids love S.H.E and we listen to them in the house and car. Hua Mei sings their songs around the house and she likes to watch their concert dvds.
I think that it actually is helping her Chinese a little. Singers and bands that I’ve really liked lately are:
male singers:
Jay Chou
Wang Lee Hom
Dao Lang
Stanley Huang
bands:
F.I.R.
Da Mouth
dance music:
Jolin Tsai
Elva Hsiao
Cyndi Wang
female singers:
Fish Leong
Cheer Chen
Evonne Hsu
Stefanie Sun
A-Mei
Joanna Wang
Jane Zhang
Yodai
Ding Dang
Cantopop stars singing in Mandarin
Jacky Cheung
Sammi Cheng
Gigi Leung
Twins
Karen Mok
Joey Yung
A few singers are actually American or Canadian born Taiwanese who return to Taiwan to become recording stars. There are also quite a few singers from Singapore or Malaysia. Chinese actresses like Vicki Zhao Wei,
Zhou Xun
and Li Bing Bing have made some hit records.
Hip hop and rap have influenced the music.
I’ve been listening to the Internet radio station Mandarin Live. The Chinese Music Community website is a great way to keep up on the latest releases. Youtube is also a great way to discover new bands and singers. Yesasia is a good place to buy cds. I have to confess that I’d rather the kids listen to S.H.E or Cyndi Wang than High School Musical, Hannah Montana or whoever else is popular these days. I suppose it’s a guilty pleasure but I do like the music and it helps my Chinese too.
Today is the first day of the New Year, year 4076 in the Chinese calendar. It is the Year of the Ox (niu). The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work.
People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to be eccentric, and bigoted, and they anger easily. They have fierce tempers and although they speak little, when they do they are quite eloquent. Ox people are mentally and physically alert. Generally easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed. They are most compatible with Snake, Rooster, and Rat people.
In celebration of the New year, here’s a recipe for oxtail soup from The New Doubleday Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna (Doubleday):
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 pounds oxtail, cut in 1 to 1-1/2-inch chunks and trimmed of excess fat
1/2 cup unsifted flour plus 2 tablespoons
2 Tablespoons beef drippings or cooking oil
2 medium-size yellow onions, peeled and minced
2 quarts water, or 6 cups water and 1 pint beef broth or bouillon
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3 cloves
2 sprigs parsley
2 medium-size carrots, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/3 cup dry sherry or port wine (optional)
Preparation:
Dredge oxtails in 1/2 cup flour, then brown in drippings in a large, heavy kettle over high heat; drain on paper toweling.
Turn heat to moderate and stir-fry onions 8 to 10 minutes until golden; sprinkle in remaining flour, mix well, and brown lightly.
Slowly add water, stir in tomato paste, salt, and pepper, also bay leaf tied in cheesecloth with thyme, cloves, and parsley. Return oxtail to kettle, cover, and simmer 3 hours until meat is fork tender; cool and skim off fat; remove cheesecloth bag.
Separate meat from bones, cut in bite-size pieces, and return to kettle along with carrots and celery. Cover and simmer 10 to 15 minutes until carrots are tender. If you like, mix in sherry or port wine.
Serve as is or strain kettle liquid, serve as a first course, and follow with oxtail and vegetables.
Yield: 6 servings
This is similar to the oxtail soup that my dad would make. It is a family favorite. Whenever I came home from college, my dad always had a pot of soup cooking on the stove. It was a soup that he learned to love living in Shanghai, which had a large Russian population in the 30s. He added cabbage to it, didn’t use cloves and added the carrots and celery at the same time as the onions. It is a non-beet borscht. We typically eat it over rice or noodles. It’s great for cold winter days.
When we were in China, we all got jade circle pendants. Each come with a red cord and to adjust the length of the necklace, the ends of the cord typically are tied by slip knots. This is a pretty typical way that Chinese bracelets and necklaces are tied. It’s a pretty cool way of doing it. I needed to create these slip knots for the kids’ necklaces. Here’s a video I found showing how it’s done:
I’ve been getting into Chinese pop music lately and have been searching out names on the Internet, watching YouTube videos and happily found that iTunes actually has some mp3s that can be downloaded such as Jane Zhang, Sun Yanzi and Wang Leehom.
Wang Leehom is a recent favorite that I’ve been listening to on my way to work. He is a Chinese American born in New York and graduated from Williams College. He signed a recording contract in Taiwan when he was visting his grandparents. I downloaded his album “Heroes of Earth” from iTunes. It was recorded during his “chinked-out” phase and the music incorporates Beijing Opera elements along with rap, hip hop and pop music. I’ve not been much of a fan of rap but I really like the way that Chinese sounds with it. Here are some music videos from the album:
btw Wang Leehom starred in the movie “Lust Caution” and also sang at the Beijing Olympics closing ceremonies.
For the past few years I’ve been getting into Chinese popular music. One of my favorite artists is Faye Wong (Wong Fei). She’s been a big star in China for the past fifteen years although she has been in semi-retirement for the past few years. She also has appeared in some movies, probably best known for her role in Wang Kar Wai’s Chungking Express, a great movie. Here’s probably my favorite song by her called “No Regrets (Zhi mi bu hui).”
She also does a really good cover of the Cranberries hit “Dreams” for the Chungking Express soundtrack:
This Fall, Karen and I went out to dinner with her godmother’s daughter and her family. They were hosting a couple of exchange students from China. We were talking about music and I mentioned that I liked Wong Fei. One student replied, “Yeah, my mom likes her too.” Oh, well.
Cold Fairyland is another Chinese band that I really like. They are from Shanghai. I guess you could classify their music as New Age but they use traditional Chinese instruments (pipa) in their music. They’re excellent.
Both of the kids love music. We found in China that whenever we heard music, Xia Mei would start to shake and shimmy. Since we’ve been back I’ve been playing a lot of music on the stereo. Hua Mei likes to jump around and dance for Xia Mei and make her laugh. One of our favorites is S.H.E, a Taiwanese girl group that is very popular in China. In Guangzhou, Molly, our CHSFS rep, recommended them to me. I have to admit that I like it (and I plead guilty to any cultural bias since I definitely would not listen to the English language equivalent). It’s fun to hear Chinese used in rap music.
In the early mornings when the kids can’t sleep, I’ve been entertaining them with a Puffy concert dvd I got for them. I can turn down the lights, they’ll watch it and often fall back to sleep.
I know in a few years that their musical preferences will be out of my control but at least for the time being I can play some music that is palatable for all of us.
When my father saw the photo of Xia Mei, the first thing he said was, “xiao pang pang”
which means little fatty. Later he called her, “xiao ber tou”
which means small forehead. These are pretty typical Chinese nicknames. If you watch kung fu or Hong Kong movies, often the fat character is called “pangzi”
which will be translated as fatty or fatso. You use pang pang for girls and pangzi for boys.
I typically call Hua Mei, “Hua er.”
where er is from the word “erzi”
meaning son but in this context is more like the diminutive form or a term of endearment. Interestingly, the Chinese word for daughter is “nu er”
where nu means woman so nu er literally means female son. It’s pretty obvious that the cultural preference for sons is manifested in the language.
I also call Hua Mei, “xiao houzi”
meaning little monkey.
When we get Xia Mei, I expect that I will probably call her “Xia er.”
Huaren is a term usually meant for a foreign citizen of Chinese descent. The term zhongguoren is used for someone who is Chinese but often is used for someone born in China, rather than a huaren who may not be a native. For instance my parents would probably be considered zhongguoren more than huaren. I’m not sure that there is a similar distinction for, say, Italian-Americans or Swedish-Americans.
Most often, someone like me is called an “ABC” or American-born Chinese. Other terms I’ve heard are “banana” and “twinkie,” as in yellow on the outside and white on the inside. This differentiation is a very charming feature of the Chinese culture.
Often when I meet native Chinese or Taiwanese here in the States, they are often surprised that I like Chinese food or even can understand some Chinese. In many ways we are looked down upon as being somewhat inferior. This is particularly interesting since we were raised by our parents to be proud of our Chinese heritage and our family history.
I really enjoyed visiting China. When I first got there, it was obvious to most that I was a foreigner. Most people thought that I was either part Chinese or that I was Japanese. No doubt my clothing and the way I carry myself made it clear that I was foreign to China. When I spoke some Chinese or when I told them that my parents were both from China, I was quickly accepted as a zhongguoren. I’m kind of surprised how important that level of acceptance is to me.
I think that this might be a big reason why I call Hua Mei by her Chinese name at home and try to speak as much Chinese as I can to her. I really want both her and Xia Mei to maintain their cultural identity. I hope that they will be fluent in Chinese. When I ask Hua Mei where she is from, she says, “I’m from China.” I’m glad for that. She is an American but she is also from China. I’ll let others decide if she is a huaren or a zhongguoren but she’ll enjoy the benefits of being a Chinese American.
We’ve had Hua Mei use Chinese names to call us at home. I’m “baba” and Karen is “mama” (okay, maybe I shouldn’t claim that mama is Chinese though the term is used in China too). When Xia Mei arrives, Hua Mei will be “jiejie,” older sister, while Xia Mei will be “meimei” or younger sister. An older brother would be called “gege” and a younger brother would be “didi.” For instance, I am Grace’s didi but Emily’s gege.
The word for paternal aunt is “guma” so the kids call my older sister “daguma,” big aunt and they call my mei mei “sanguma,” third aunt since she is the third sibling. “Da” means big and “san” means three. Here are other names for aunts:
bomu: father’s older brother’s wife
shenmu: father’s younger brother’s wife
yimu: mother’s sister
jiumu: sister’s brother’s wife
These are the names for uncles:
bofu: father’s older brother
shufu: father’s younger brother
gufu: father’s sister’s husband
jiufu: mother’s brother
jifu: mother’s sister’s husband
jiuma: mother’s brother’s wife
Obviously, extended families are a big part of the Chinese culture. When we were growing up, we called all adults either uncle or aunt. The Chinese words for an unrelated uncle is shushu and for an unrelated aunt, ayi.
Hua Mei calls my father yeye for grandfather. My mother would have been called nainai. The word for maternal grandfather is waigong and for maternal grandmother it’s waipo.
btw Hua Mei calls Karen’s mom “mormor” which is the Danish word for maternal grandmother (mother’s mother) while she calls Karen’s dad “Bumpa” which is how she used to pronounce grandpa.
The Chinese name for China is Zhongguo.
Zhong means “center, middle” and guo means “country.” Literally Zhongguo means “middle kingdom” or “central country.” No self-esteem problems there. But the real question is, why is the country called China by the rest of the world?
One explanation is that it comes from Jingdezhen, originally known as Changnan. Since Changnan was the source of the porcelain that was exported to Europe in the 16th century, the type of porcelain and hence the country of its origin came to be known by a mispronunciation of the name of the town Changnan or “China.”
It is a good story. However, more likely the name China comes from the word Qin from the Qin dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC). Then again, it is also posited that it comes from the Indian word “sina” which means silk. Or perhaps it is the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) which also coincides with the major porcelain trade with Europe. I’m glad that I was able to clarify that.
