Making news

You may not really believe this, but I made the news in Taiwan. Someone who has been helping me find people for interviews in Tainan (for my dissertation data) called a reporter-friend. The reporter interviewed YT & I for about an hour, though actually it seemed he did most of the talking. The article was in the paper, the 聯合報 (or United Daily News) the next day (Saturday 3/1). It turns out that it was originally intended to be in a local insert for the Tainan city area (longer, and with a photo), but then the editor cut it down to a few inches but pushed it up to island-wide distribution. It's not quite as accurate as I would wish it could be, on a number of levels, but what can you do. The reporter was very nice, and I enjoyed meeting him, and most of all, it's refreshing to feel that others may be interested in what I'm working on as well.

The link (in Chinese) is here, and my quick translation (as requested) is below. Before you ask, Taiwan-guoyu refers to a mixed variety of Mandarin heavily influenced by local dialects, and is traditionally associated with speakers with little education or low social status. Just to be clear, I'm still in the process of examining my data, and I never said that these attitudes have necessarily changed; however most of the people I've interviewed are not quick to admit (if they do at all) that they have low conceptions of speakers of this variety, as they may have in the past. There are other things worth clarifying, but I'll spare you the details. Anyway, if you're interested, here you go.

American [BB] has found that Chinese pronunciation is very interesting, lately he is in Tainan looking for people to interview, he is studying the Taiwan-area standard of Mandarin for his doctoral research; in the process he has found that Taiwan-guoyu is gradually rising, and is influencing standard Mandarin pronunciation.
34-year old [BB] was sent in 1997 by the church to Chongqing and Henan in mainland China for three years to teach English. He studied Mandarin just prior to this, but when he encountered the Sichuan accent he was totally lost, the standard "{bai2}" is pronounced in Sichuan as "{bai4}". [BB]'s doctoral research topic is "Research on the standardization of Mandarin in Taiwan". [BB] said that as local identity is rising, speaking Taiwan-guoyu is no longer shameful, and the Beijing accent of Mandarin is no longer strictly held as the standard.
What is Taiwan-guoyu like? [BB] has finished more than one hundred interviews, but everyone's answer is not completely identical, the most common example given is "wo3" is pronounced as "o3" -- and that is Taiwan-guoyu.

I guess that's it for now. The next quarter starts tomorrow, which means getting up early again for class. Time for bed. BB

Chinese New Year

So, after a week or so of seeing in the New Year of '08, this time based on the Chinese lunar calendar, I can say I'm all rested up and ready for, well, life outside of the house again. All I can say is that the days have been rather a blur. The weather continues to be as overcast, rainy, and humid as it has been for the past few weeks, so there hasn't been much else to do other than eat, sleep, and play Mahjong. I'm not kidding. When we weren't eating or playing Mahjong, we were either eating or playing Mahjong. As I understand it, those are basically the traditional activities of Chinese New Year, so I guess I got the appropriate dose of activities in my cultural immersion. We had a big dinner with the family (here), then another big dinner with Mom's side of the family (at an uncle's), then another big catered dinner with Dad's side of the family (here, in the garage). During the interim of shuttling back and forth and eating, we were here at home eating snacks or leftovers, or, you guessed it, sleeping. Ok, we also played Mahjong. I must say, though, it was a lot of fun.

I should also say that there was one other diversion filling our time that wasn't as traditional, and that would be the Wii and Super Mario Galaxy. It seems that those hours spent hanging out in Weldy's room next door in college honing my Nintendo skills on Super Mario World have finally payed off. I've apparently garnered a reputation as being skilled at the Wii, enough so that YT's cousin's son, who was here for a big dinner, wanted to watch me play Super Mario. Yeah. I successfully entertained the kids, sometimes by request, for hours.

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I should also not forget to mention the most traditional of activities (I think) -- the giving of the red envelopes. On New Year's Eve, we all gathered together and gave red envelopes, which were prepared with some amount of money inside. The recipient of the red envelope has to offer in response a wish or good thought for the deliverer in the new year, such as (I'm summarizing here) may you be either happy, healthy, wealthy, or well-nourished in the next year. The kids definitely made out pretty well in the end, but it's mostly to be saved for the future. We gave red envelopes to the kids, and to mom and dad as well. We also received red envelopes from mom and dad, and Karrie (YT's oldest sister). It was a nice time, and even better (needless to say) with YT back. It was the first time she has been able to celebrate Chinese New Year with her family in seven years. I'm glad I could be a part of it, too.

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One day, we took advantage of a slight break in the weather to get out of the house and went to soak in one of the many hot springs (basically, geo-thermally heated pools of groundwater) in the area. I've never done it before, but it's a pretty popular thing to do. It's supposed to have healing qualities, but that's about all I know. I can tell you that it involved everyone being in their birthday suits at this place, independent sections for each gender of course, which is just how it's often done here. I can also admit that I'm not that accustomed to public nudity, and though it wasn't really that big a deal, it did take some getting used to. The scratchy throat I'd felt in the morning did seem to go away afterwards, by the way, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, lunch afterwards was sponsored by the all-around winner of Mahjong during the previous days. The 'winnings' went towards the dinner out, so I guess we all sort of contributed to it, but some more than others (such as myself and YT, unfortunately).

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So, that was basically it, my Chinese New Year of '08. It was a very nice time, though I literally lost track of which day it was, they were so much a blur. Now it's back to class and into the general swing of things again. I've been told that it all starts tomorrow, but I can still swear I have a couple of days yet. At least, I think. Definitely looking forward to the next time Spring Festival rolls around. Happy Chinese New Year to you all, and 祝你們恭喜發財.

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Till next time, BB

Catching Up (again)

Well, it's now Spring Festival in Taiwan, so I have a few days off from class and a little extra time to catch up with the goings-on of the last few weeks (or couple of months?). That means, I'll be adding a few more entries over the next few days (or so) in no particular order, so keep your eyes open for new material. That is, at least, if you're among those who might be pre-disposed for that. I think you know who you are : )

BB