– from a Norwegian! A glimpse behind the scenes of Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau:
I’ve just come back from a weekend in inner Guangdong province, cradle of Cantonese language and culture, with the above delightful couple, Ah Laan and Ah Gei. I knew they would like the funky and →
Wei, students and others: I work day and night to make Cantonese a world language. You are my tools for accomplishing this. I would like to hear about your experiences using Cantonese in your daily →
A terrible happening from ah-Mok’s past comes back to haunt him. See episode 22 first!
Sometimes, almost always, the below kind of conversation is funny, yes surreal. But not when I’ve spent all day on a bus full of people with, shall we say a relaxed relationship with personal hygiene →
After a quick stopover at my (visually) favourite spot in all of China, Jiayuguan Fort in Gansu province, I speeded into Xinjiang province where the language was: Nothing. The whole province has been completely shut →
At last! I’m almost on the train which will bring me to Lanzhou, transport hub of the northern provinces of China, and thence to the innermost reaches of inner inner everything, as far from the →
Is it racist to say that Chinese people in China aren’t great at making Western food? That is my experience anyway. And that experience is now almost 28 years. Wow! Not that I have eaten much Western food in China. But sometimes I’m with people who insist on eating in hotel restaurants and, as on one terrifying occasion, i was forced to have western breakfasts every morning for days because I was on a I can barely bring myself to say it tour. (I’ll tell you about it one day. Or you can read all about it in my book Don’t Joke On The Stairs.)
I’ll keep going to Chinese breakfast buffets maybe once a year for the stories and to keep the repulsion alive, but other than that I’m too fond of meals to sacrifice myself further.
種族主義 （Jung jok jyu yi – racism)
中餐 (Jung chan – Chinese food)
西餐 (Sai chan – western food）
犧牲自己 (Hei saang ji gei – sacrifice oneself)
Next Sunday I have a feature in the South China Morning Post (Post Magazine) about Cantonese. I probably won’t say much that I haven’t already said here, but please read the thing anyway?
The photo session was quite good fun with me and a photographer walking around Central asking people to write down some new Cantonese slang. Oh, how they struggled to think of something! Which rather contradicted my article which was partly about how proud HK people are about Cantonese slang (while at the same time saying it’s rubbish and too difficult for white people… anyway, please read it.)
CORRECTION! It will be published Sunday April 14th.
