Beginning of this list is for learners, and roughly gets harder as you go down, the last few podcasts are not made for learners.
Tea Time Chinese (easiest one for me)
Talk to Me in Chinese (I am almost able to follow)
Maomi Chinese (english is in this one)
Chill and Learn Chinese (a lot of english in this one)
Nidiamedia 霓达故事 (chinese paranormal stories, I am almost able to follow)
Fu Yi Lou (another true crime podcast)
After Sunset (another true crime podcast)
a ‘hot minute’ can be both a very short period of time, and a very long one. however, a hot minute in the past (“It's been a hot minute since I've seen you!”) is most often a long duration, while a hot minute in the future (“I'll be with you in a hot minute!”) is most often a short duration. this suggests some very strange things about the temperature of time.
You ever think about how unified humanity is by just everyday experiences? Tudor peasants had hangnails, nobles in the Qin dynasty had favorite foods, workers in the 1700s liked seeing flowers growing in pavement cracks, a cook in medieval Iran teared up cutting onions, a mom in 1300 told her son not to get grass stains on his clothes, some girl in the past loved staying up late to see the sun rise.
there are scriptures all over the world painstakingly crafted hundreds of years ago with paw prints and spelling mistakes or drawings covering up mistakes. a bunch of teenage girls 2000 years ago gathered to walk around their hometown, getting fast food and laughing with their friends. two friends shared blankets before people lived in houses. a mother ran a fine comb through her child’s hair and told it to stop squirming sometime in the 1000s. there are covered up sewing mistakes in couture dresses from the 1800s, some poor roman burnt their food so well past recognition that they just buried the entire pot. there are broken dishes hidden in gardens of people no one even remembers anymore
children eleven thousand years ago enjoyed jumping around in puddles made from the footprints of a giant sloth. children loved muddy puddles so long ago there were still megafauna alive
There’s a record of an emperor of Japan in the 9th century talking about his cat - how pretty it is, and how it stalks birds and curls up in a circle and meows mournfully for company and escaped its collar. All completely normal ordinary cat things. And then it ends with him saying “it is superior to all other cats”. I am delighted to be united across 1200 years with this fellow cat owner with exactly the same feelings about his cat that I have about mine.
I first heard this years ago, and it was life-changing. I think of it every time I take up a new hobby or skill. Like yeah, it will take me years to seriously become good at Mandarin, but the alternative is not doing it and having the years go by anyway without me gaining a skill I want, so I'll keep at it.
Nothing more embarrassing than accidentally using a big word wrong because now I'm simultaneously both stupid and pretentious, the worst combination of all time
Does anyone have any recommendations for interesting nonfiction history books about women in China? A focus on any time period is fine, although preferably pre-20th century, and most preferably Ming and Qing Dynasty. I've been reading history books that tangentially mention women, and I'd love to read something specifically focusing on them.
There's a book that we had in our house growing up that I was obsessed with as a kid. It was just called "PAKISTAN: PAINTINGS BY LIN YONG AND SU HUA" and it was an art book of 100+ paintings/sketches by two Chinese artists who travelled thru Pakistan in 1978 and 1981, a sort of travelogue of their trip, and to little-kid me, it was some of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. I have no idea why we had that book, but I would stare at it for hours, and it made me wish I could draw/paint/do whatever it was that these artists had managed to do.
Anyway, we've moved house a bunch of times and I lost track of the book and haven't seen it for probably two decades now. But I think about it now and again, and had struggled to find it over the years, but I finally, finally got my hands on a copy of my own and i want to cry haha
I was afraid that maybe the art isn't as good as I remembered, being just a kid and all, but I cracked it open and nope, it hits me just the way it used to. Maybe even more now. It's so fucking pretty. Have some random pages:
Since their origination in Tang Dynasty, these day beds were popular among aristocratic women of China. In costume dramas you often see scenes of noble ladies taking quite aesthetic naps on them, reading books, fanning themselves etc. There are several types.
I have an ongoing collection of such scenes from dramas lol something about them is quite alluring but ALSO funny to me at the same time 🤣 This post will be continuously updating till I reach the tumblr image limit (30), let's see how long that will take!
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Following my previous post about my trip to China, here are some useful phrases/vocab. I'm focusing on stuff I didn't learn in class or from textbooks—I learned most of these from experience.
过安检（過安檢）guò ānjiǎn mean to go through security.
In China, some museums require a reservation ahead of time.
我扫你（我掃你）wǒ sǎo nǐ - I scan you (your code)
你扫我（你掃我）nǐ sǎo wǒ - you scan me (my code)
刷 means brush/swipe, but I've also heard this used for tapping with your card.
I'm not 100% clear on what defines 提袋, but it seems like 1) has handles and 2) typically nicer than a standard plastic bag.
In Taiwan you'll probably hear 内用（內用）nèiyòng instead.
Definitions are adapted from MDBG.
