STANDARD CHINESE A Modular Approach

OPTIONAL MODULE:

Customs Surrounding

Marriage, Birth and Death

SPONSORED BY AGENCIES OF

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN GOVERNMENTS

This publication is to be used primarily in support of training military personnel as part of the Defense Language Program (resident and nonresident). Inquiries concerning the use of materials, including requests for copies, should be addressed to:

Defense Language Institute

Foreign Language Center Nonresident Instruction Division Presidio of Monterey. CA 93940

Topics in the areas of politics, international relations, mores, etc., which may be considered as controversial from some points of view are sometimes included in language training for DLIFLC students, since military personnel may find themselves in positions where clear understanding of conversations or written material of this nature will be essential to their mission. The presence of controversial statements—whether real or apparent—in DLIFLC materials should not be construed as representing the opinions of the writers, of the Defense Language Institute, or of the Department of Defense.

In DLIFLC publications, the words “he," “him," and “his” denote both masculine and feminine genders. This statement does not apply to translations of foreign language texts.

STANDARD CHINESE: A MODULAR APPROACH

OPTIONAL MODULE: CUSTOMS SURROUNDING MARRIAGE, BIRTH AND DEATH

Before starting the MBD Module, you should have at least completed the Arranging a Meeting Module.

August 1979

PREFACE

Standard. Chinese: A Modular Approach originated in an interagency-conference held at the Foreign Service Institute in August 1973 to address the need generally felt in the U.S. Government language training community for improving and updating Chinese materials to reflect current usage in Taipei and in Peking.

The conference resolved to develop materials which were flexible enough in form and content to meet the requirements of a wide range of government agencies and academic institutions.

A Project Board was established consisting of representatives of the Central Intelligence Agency Language Learning Center, the Defense Language Institute, the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, the Cryptologic School of the National Security Agency, and the U.S. Office of Education, later joined by the Canadian Forces Foreign Language School. The representatives have included Arthur T. McNeill, John Hopkins, and John Boag (CIA); Colonel John F. Elder, III, Joseph C. Hutchinson, Ivy Gibian, and Major Bernard Muller-Thym (DLl); James R. Frith and John B. Ratliff, III (FSl); Kazuo Shitama (NSA); Richard T. Thompson and Julia Petrov (OE); and Lieutenant Colonel George Kozoriz (CFFLS).

The Project Board set up the Chinese Core Curriculum Project in 197^+ in space provided at the Foreign Service Institute. Each of the six U.S. and Canadian government agencies provided funds and other assistance.

Gerard P. Kok was appointed project coordinator, and a planning council was formed consisting of Mr. Kok, Frances Li of the Defense Language Institute, Patricia O’Connor of the University of Texas, Earl M. Hickerson of the Language Learning Center, and James Wrenn of Brown University. In the Fall of 1977» Lucille A. Barale was appointed deputy project coordinator. David W. Dellinger of the Language Learning Center and Charles R. Sheehan of the Foreign Service Institute also served on the planning council and contributed material to the project. The planning council drew up the original overall design for the materials and met regularly to review their development.

Writers for the first half of the materials were John H. T. Harvey, Lucille A. Barale and Roberta S. Barry, who worked in close cooperation with the planning council and with the Chinese staff of the Foreign Service Institute. Mr. Harvey developed the instructional formats of the comprehension and production self-study materials, and also designed the communicationbased classroom activities and wrote the teacher’s guides. Lucille A. Barale and Roberta S. Barry wrote the tape scripts and the student text. By 1978 Thomas E. Madden and Susan C. Pola had joined the staff. Led by Ms. Barale they have worked as a team to produce the materials subsequent to Module 6.

All Chinese language material was prepared, or selected by Chuan 0. Chao, Ying-chi Chen, Hsiao-jung Chi, Eva Diao, Jan Hu, Tsung-mi Li, and. Yunhui C. Yang, assisted, for part of the time by Chieh-fang Ou Lee, Ying-ming Chen, and Joseph Yu Hsu Wang. Anna Affholder, Mei-li Chen, and. Henry Khuo helped in the preparation of a preliminary corpus of dialogues.

Administrative assistance was provided at various times by Vincent Basciano, Lisa A. Bowden, Beth Broomell, Jill W. Ellis, Donna Fong, Judith J. Kieda, Renee T. C. Liang, Thomas Madden, Susan C. Pola, and Kathleen Strype.

The production of tape recordings was directed by Jose M. Rann't-p?. of the Foreign Service Institute Recording Studio. The Chinese script was voiced by Ms. Chao, Ms. Chen, Mr. Chen, Ms. Diao, Ms. Hu, Mr. Khuo, Mr. Li, and Ms. Yang. The English script was read by Ms. Barale, Ms. Barry, Mr. Basciano, Ms. Ellis, Ms. Pola, and Ms. Strype.

The graphics were produced by John McClelland of the Foreign Service Institute Audio-Visual staff, under the general supervision of Joseph A. Sadote, Chief of Audio-Visual.

Standard Chinese: A Modular Approach was field-tested with the cooperation of Brown University, the Defense Language Institute, the Foreign Service Institute, the Language Learning Center, the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Illinois, and the University of Virginia.

The Defense Language Institute printed the preliminary materials used for field testing and has likewise printed this edition.

Carnes R. Frith, Chairman

Chinese Core Curriculum Project Board

CONTENTS

OBJECTIVES

UNIT 1 Part I

Part II

Part III

Vocabulary

UNIT 2 Part I

Part II

Vocabulary

UNIT 3 Part I

Part II

Vocabulary

UNIT 1+ Part I

Part II

Vocabulary

UNIT 5 Part I

Part II

Vocabulary

UNIT 6 Part I

• Part II

Vocabulary

APPENDIX Unit Vocabulary Characters

OBJECTIVES

General

The purpose of the Module on Customs Surrounding Marriage, Birth and Death is to furnish you with the linguistic skills and cultural Background information you need to take part in conversations about changing attitudes and practices with regard to courtship, marriage, birth, divorce, death and funerals in China, and to conduct yourself in a culturally appropriate manner when you come in contact with Chinese people at the time of one of these significant events in their lives.

Before starting the MBD module, you should have at least completed the Arranging a Meeting Module. You may, of course, use this module at any later point in the course.

Specific

When you have finished this module, you should be able to:

• 1. Ask about the age when most people get married.

• 2. Ask about how a wedding is celebrated and what differences there are

in marriage practices between the city and the country.

• 3. Ask about the current local customs regarding gifts for weddings, births, and funerals.

U. Ask about the frequency of divorce.

• 5. Talk about the functions and statuses of the people who play a role in arranging a present-day traditional marriage.

• 6. Ask questions about the bride, the groom, and the ceremony in a modern-day wedding.

• 7. Ask about population control efforts, changes in population control policy, restrictions on young people having children, what factors are taken into consideration in family planning, and how old most couples are when they have children.

• 8. Congratulate a new mother. Ask about a new-born infant’s health, appetite, and weight, and describe the baby in terms of traditional values.

• 9. Talk about the traditional beliefs and practices with regard to the mother's health before and after giving birth.

• 10. Present condolences to someone whose relative has died, comfort and

express concern for that person.

• 11. Ask, after deciding if appropriate, about the circumstances of the death and the funeral.

• 12. Apologize for not being able to attend a funeral.

• 13. Ask what attire and behavior are appropriate when attending a funeral.

Customs Surrounding

Marriage, Birth, and Death: Unit 1

PART I

NOTES ON PART I

Notes on No. 1

tíchàng: ’to advocate, to promote, to initiate, to recommend, to encourage’

Zhè shi shéi tíchàngde?            Who advocates this?

Zhèixiē niǎnqīng rén dōu ài        These young people all love to go

kàn diànyǐng.                       to the movies.

Nèige niánqǐngde Zhōngguo          That young Chinese person speaks

rén, Yīngwén shuōde bú cuò.        pretty good English.

jiéhūn: ’to get married’, also pronounced jiehūn. Notice that in Chinese you talk of ’getting married’, while in English we talk of ’being married’. And it follows grammatically that jiéhūn is a process verb, not a state verb. Jiéhūn will always be seen with an aspect marker such as le or will be negated with méi.

Tāmen jiéhūnle méiyou?             Have they gotten married yet? (This

is the equivalent of ’Are they married?)

Nǐ jiéhūn duo jiǔ le?              How long have you been married?

Jiéhūn is a verb-object compound, literally meaning ’to knot marriage’. Jié and hūn can be separated by aspect markers, such as de or guo.

Note on No. 2

wǎnliàn wǎnhūn: ’late involvement and late marriage’. Wǎnliàn is an abbreviation for wan liàn’ài, ’mature love’, (liàn’ài means ’romantic love, courtship’), and wǎnhūn is an abbreviation for wǎn jiéhūn, ’late marriage’. This policy has been promoted since the 1960s, but only actively enforced since the 1970s. It is difficult to generalize about the required minimum marriage ages, as they differ from city to city and might be nonexistant in certain rural and national minority areas, where the government is trying to increase the population. The minimum age has been progressively raised over the years, until 1978 when the rules were eased a bit. In general, if the combined ages of the couple exceeds fifty years (or the female’s age exceeds the male’s), then the marriage is allowable.

Note on No. 3

Notes on No. U

nongcūn: ’rural areas, countryside, village’.

Nóngcūnde kōngqì bǐ chéngli        The air in the country is much

hǎoduō le.                           better than in the city.

Notes on No. 6

he: ’with’. You have seen he used between two nouns or pronouns as a conjunction meaning ’and’. Here you see it used as a prepositional verb meaning ’with’. The word gēn, which you have seen, also has both meanings, ’and’ and ’with’.

Formerly, gēn was the most frequently used word for ’with’ or ’and’ in the Mandarin spoken in North China, and he was more often written. But he has come into wide conversational use in pùtōnghuà. In addition to this variation, school children in Taiwan are sometimes taught to say hàn instead of he, which is the same character with another pronunciation.

Generally speaking, if you use he or gēn you should not have any problem being understood by any speaker of Standard Chinese.

liàn*ài: ’to fall in love, to be in love; romantic love, courtship’. This is the socially acceptable way to describe a romantic relationship between two people. Notice that liàn*ài can be used both as noun and as a verb. (Liàn’ài is written with an apostrophe to show where the syllable division is: liàn ài, not lià nài.)

Tǎmen liàn’àile hǎojinián le. They’ve been in love for quite a few years now.

Tǎmen xiànzài kǎishǐ liàn’ài le. They’ve just started to fall in love.

Womende liàn’ài zhī you sāntiǎn, Our love is only three days old and jiù bù xíng le.                     already it’s over.

The noun liàn’ài is often used in the phrase tan liàn’ài, ’to be romantically involved’ or more literally ’to talk of love’.

Tāmen liāngge tan liàn’ài yǐjīng The two of them have been in love for tánle hen jiǔ le.                   quite a while now.

Wo méiyou he tā tan liàn’ài.       I’m not in love with her.

In China young people tend to go out in groups. When two people are seen going out alone, then it is assumed that they have serious intentions for the future.

Notes on No. 7

kě: ’really, certainly*. This is an adverb which intensifies state verbs. Kě can be used before a negative.

Although some Chinese are fond of using the word kě, to other Chinese it may sound too full of local color with which they do not identify.

Peking:

An American exchange student talks with her language teacher. They are both in their late twenties.

NOTE ON THE DIALOGUE

...zài èrshiwǔliǔsuì yǐhòu cái jiéhūn: This is quite a change from Imperial times, when females might be married off at age thirteen and males at age six so as to insure the family fortunes or fend off economic difficulties later. Nontheless, regulations are less strict in the countryside today, where one can marry perhaps at age twenty.

PART II

NOTES ON PART II

Notes on No. 8

yíshì: ’ceremony, function’ This can be used to refer to a range of different ceremonies, from the signing of a treaty or agreement to the taking of marital vows.

In old China, marriages were celebrated extravagantly. It was not uncommon to find families going into debt because of the joyous occasion, which marked a new generation added to the family line. This elaborate ritual served to strengthen familial bonds and the newlyweds’ feeling of obligation owed to the family.

In PRC cities of today, lack of extra money and coupons to purchase food for guests, celebration space, and free time for preparation limit the celebration often to procedural formality alone—registration with the local police bureau. Wedding dinners may still be enjoyed in the countryside, where there are fewer restrictions on time and food.

Notes on No. 9

qǐnqi: ’relatives* Qǐnqi is slightly different from the English word ’relatives’ in that it does not include one’s immediate family, that is parents or children, but is used to refer to all other relatives. (One’s immediate family are called Jiāli rén.)

Nǐmen Jiā qīnqi duō ma?            Do you have a lot of relatives

in your family?

Women Jiā qinqi kě duō le!         We have lots of relatives in

our family.

sǒnggei: ’give (a gift) to ...’ The verb song has several meanings. One is ’to send’, as in Wǒ bā nǐde xíngli sòngshangqu le, ’I sent your luggage upstairs.’ Another is to give someone something as a present.

Here you see song with the prepositional verb gěi ’for, to’ after it. You have also seen Jiāogei, ’to hand over to ..., to submit to...’. When gěi is used after the main verb as a prepositional verb, it must be followed by the indirect object, that is, the person or thing to whom something is given. Gěi can also be used this way with jì ’to send’, and mǎi ’to sell’.

Wǒ bǎ zhèijiǎn yīfu Jìgei wǒ       I sent this piece of clothing to my

mèimei le.                          younger sister.

/

Tā bǎ fángzi màigei wǒ le.         He sold his house to me.

In these examples the direct object, clothing or house, is up front in the sentence, making it necessary to use gěi to put the indirect object after the main verb. This usually happens in sentences where the object is specific and the bǎ construction is preferred. When song is followed by an indirect object, however, the gěi is usually optional.

Wǒ yǎo song ta yíge xiǎo lǐwù.     I am going to give him a small present.

Wǒ yǎo sǒnggei ta yíge xiǎo        I am going to give him a small present.

lǐwù.

...sǒnggei ni shénme lǐwù?: Wedding gifts for friends and relatives in the PRC are generally ’’useful’’ items. Common among these are nuǎnpíng, hot water Jugs; huāpíng, vases; tǎidēng, table lamps; bǐ, pens; liánpěn, wash basins; or cānjù, kitchen items.

zuǒ: ’to act as, to serve as’. Tǎmen sǒnggei wo yìxiē xiǎo lǐwù zuǒ Jìniǎn. is literally ’They gave me a few small presents to serve as mementos.’

Zhèige xuéxiǎo bìyède xuésheng, A lot of students who graduated from hěn duō dōu zuǒ lǎoshī le.         this school have become teachers.

Yǒng zhèiběn xǐn shū zuò lǐwù, Would it be okay to use this new hǎo bu hǎo?                         book as a present?

Zuò, ’to act as, to serve as’ is often seen used with yòng, ’to use’ as in the example above, yòng ... zuò ..., ’to use (something) as (something) else’.

jìniàn: ’memento, remembrance; to commemorate’.

Wǒ gěi ta yìzhang zhàopiàn zuò I’ll give him a photo as a memento, jìniàn.

Notes on No. 10

xǔduō: ’many; a great deal (of), lots (of)’. Xǔduō is used as a number (it can be followed by a counter) to modify other nouns.

Xǔduō has several things in common with hen duō, in addition to similarity of meaning. Used as modifiers in front of nouns, both xǔduō and hen duō can (1) be used alone, (2) be used with de, and (3) be followed by a counter, but not usually -ge.

Hen duō is probably more common than xǔduō. Some speakers feel that they do not use xǔduō in conversation; many speakers, however, do not feel any restriction about using it in conversation.

...zhùdao nǔjiār qu: ’to go live with the wife's family' You've seen the prepositional verb dào used after main verbs, as in nádao loushàng qu, 'take it upstairs'. Following verbs expressing some kind of motion, the use of dào is fairly straightforward. But in the above example from the Reference List, dào is used with a verb which is not usually thought of as expressing motion, zhù, 'to live, to inhabit'. Here is another example of zhù used in a phrase expressing motion:

Tā shi zuotiān zhùjinlaide.        He moved in yesterday.

The verbs zhàn ’to stand’ and zuò ’to sit’ can also be used in phrases expressing motion.

Qǐng ni zhàndao nèibianr qu,       Would you please go stand over

hao bu hǎo?                         there.

Qǐng ni zuòdao qiǎnbianr qu,       Would you please go sit up

hǎo bu hǎo?                         front.

Due to the lack of housing, which might involve a wait of from one to three years for newlyweds, it is not infrequent now to find the groom join the household of his new bride. This is in contrast to former tradition, which stated that the woman became part of the man’s family, and of course, moved into his family’s house.

In the past, for the groom to join the household of his new bride carried special significance. It was called rù zhuì and might take place when a family had only female children and the father wanted his daughter’s husband to take his last name in order to carry on the family line.

Kě bú shi ma*. : ’Yes, indeed’., I’ll say!’, or more literally, ’Isn’t it so’. ’ Kě bú shi ma! is often used in northern China to indicate hearty agreement, or to indicate that something makes perfect sense to the speaker, something like English ’Well, of course!’ or ’Really!’.

bù shǎo: Literally ’not a little’, in other words, ’quite a lot’.

Tā you bù shǎo huà yào gēn ni shuō.

Zài Měiguo bù shǎo rén you qìchē.

érqiě: ’furthermore, moreover’

Jīntiǎn tiānqi bù hǎo, érqiě hǎoxiàng yào xià xuě.

He has a lot he wants to say to you.

In America a lot of people have cars.

The weather is bad today, and furthermore it looks as if it’s going to snow.

Peking:

The American exchange student and her language teacher continue their conversation:

PART III

NOTES ON PART III

Notes on No. 12

shuāngfāng: ’both sides, both parties’

Note on No. 13

..■ líhūnde bú tài duo: ’There aren’t many people getting divorced ... Líhūnde, ’those (people) who get divorced’, is a noun phrase in which líhūn is nominalized by -de■

Notes on No. 1U

fūfù: ’husband and wife, married couple’.

bú zài yíge dìqū gōngzuò: ’do not work in the same region’. Yíge, ’one’, is frequently used to mean ’one and the same’. Here are some more examples:

Women dōu zài yíge xuéxiào niàn shū.

Note on No. 15

tànqǐnjià: ’leave for visiting family’. Tàn qīn means to visit one’s closest relatives, usually parents, a spouse, or children.

Míngtiān tā jiù qù Shanghai        Tomorrow he’s going to Shanghai to

tan qīn le.                         visit his family.

Note on No. 16

zǒngshi: ’always, all the time’. This adverb may also occur as zǒng.

Tā zǒngshi ài qù Huáměi            He always loves to go to the

kāfēitīng.                          Huáměi Coffeehouse.

nénggòu: ’can, to he able to’. This is a synonym of něng.

Notes on No. 17

jīngguo: ’to pass by or through, to go through’. Jīngguo can mean 1) to pass by or through something physically, or 2) to go through an experience.

Jīngguo zhèicì xuéxí yǐhòu wǒ kě qīngchu duō le.

Wǒ měitiān xià bān huí jiāde shíhou, dóu jīngguo Bǎihuò Dàlou                  ...dōu

jīngguo Baihuò Dàláu.)

Nǐ jīngguo zhèige wūzide shíhou, nǐ méiyou kànjian women zài lǐtou gōngzuò ma?

xiāngdāng: ’quite, pretty (good, degree of’.

Tāde shēntǐ xiāngdāng hāo.

\

kǎolū: ’to consider; consideration’

Wǒ yǐjīng kaoliiguo le, ta          I have already given it consideration

háishi yīnggāi shàng dàxué.        he should still go to college.

dànshi: ’but’, a synonym of kěshi.

Wǒ yǐjīng qùguo le, dànshi         I already went there, but I didn't

wǒ méiyou kàndao ta.                see her.

Notes on No. 18

nánnū: ’male and female’.

Nānnude shìqing zuì nan shuō. Matters "between men and women are the hardest to judge.

yīngdāng: ’should, ought to’. Yīngdāng is a less-frequently heard word for yīnggāi. These two words share in common the following meanings:

• (1) ’should’ in the sense of obligation or duty.

Zánmen shi tóngzhì, yīngdāng We two are comrades, we should help (or yīnggāi) bǐcǐ bāngmáng.        each other.

• (2) ’ought to’ in the sense of ’it would be suitable to’.

Wàitou lěng, nǐ yīnggāi (or        It’s cold out, you should put on

yīngdāng) duō chuān yìdiǎnr.       some more clothing.

• (3) ’should’ in the sense of ’it would be desirable to’.

  Nǐ yīnggāi (or yīngdāng) shìyishi, zhēn hǎo wánr.

  (U) ’should’ in the sense of ’it is

  Shídiǎn zhōng le, tā yīnggāi (or yīngdāng) kuài dào le.

  Tā xué Zhōngwén xuéle sānnián le, yīnggāi xuéde bú cuò le.

  bǐjiào:   ’r elat ively,

  
  

  comparatively, by

  
  

  Jīntiān bǐjiào rè.

  Zhèijiàn yīfu gǎile yǐhòu, bǐjiào hǎo yìdiǎnr.

  Zhèi liǎngtiān tā bǐjiào shūfu yìdiǎnr, bù zěnme fā shāo le.

  
  

  You should try this, it’s fun.

  expected’.

  It’s ten o’clock, he should be here soon.

  He’s been studying Chinese for three years, he should be pretty good by now.

  comparison’. Also pronounced

  It’s hotter today.

  After this article of clothing is altered, it will be better.

  The past couple of days he’s been feeling better, he doesn’t have such a high fever any more.

  
  

You may sometimes hear Chinese speakers use bǐj iào before other adverbial expressions like bú tài ’not too’, bù zěnme ’not so’, bú nàme ’not so’ or hen ’very’. Careful speakers, however, feel that bǐjiào should not be used in such cases.

Notes on No. 19

huì: ’will; might; be likely to*. The auxiliary verb huì is used to express likelihood here.

jiějué: ’to solve, to settle (a problem), to overcome (a difficulty)’.

Washington, D. C.

A graduate student in Chinese studies talks with an exchange student from Peking.

• A: Women rènshi zhǐ you liǎngge

duō xīngqī, kěshi yǐjīng shi lǎo péngyou le.

• B: Duì. Women tiǎntiǎn zài

yíkuàir, zhēn hǎoxiàng shi lǎo péngyou le.

• A: Wǒ yìzhí xiǎng wènwen ni nǐ

shi shénme shíhour jiéhūnde ne?

• B: 0! Wǒ shi qiǎnniǎn jiehūnde.

• A: Nǐ èrshibǎsuì le. Nǐ àiren

ne?

• B: Tā sānshièr le.

• A: Nīmen jiéhūnde shíhou kě bù

xiǎo le’. Zhōngguo nianqīng rén dōu shi zhèige yàngzi ma?

• B: Duì le. Zhèngfǔ tíchàng wǎn

liàn wǎnhūn. Nianqīng rén yě dōu yào nǔlì xuéxí, nǔlì gōng-zuò, bú yào zǎo jiehūn.

• A: Chéngshili nude duo da

jiéhūn?

• B: Chàbuduō èrshiwǔsuì zuǒyòu.

• A: Nǎnde ne?

• B: Dàgài èrshibǎsuì zuǒyòu.

• A: Jiéhūnde shíhour you shénme-

yàngde yíshì?

• B: Méiyou shénme yíshì. Būguò

jiehūn nèitiǎn qīng qīnqi péngyou lai hēhe chǎ, chī diǎnr tang, diǎnxin shenmede. Yě you rén song diǎnr xiǎo lǐwu zuò

We’ve only known each other for two weeks or so, but we’re old friends already.

Yes. We’re together every day; it really is as if we’re old friends.

I’ve been meaning to ask you all along when you were married.

Oh. I was married the year before last.

You’re twenty-eight years old. How about your spouse?

He’s thirty-two.

You certainly weren’t young when you were married! Is it this way for all Chinese young people?

Yes. The government promotes late involvement and late marriage. Also, all young people should study hard and work hard, and shouldn't get married early.

At what age do most women get married in the cities?

After about twenty-five.

And men?

After about twenty-eight.

What kind of ceremony is there when someone gets married?

There is no ceremony. But on the day of the marriage relatives and friends are invited to come and drink tea, eat a little candy, snacks and so forth. Some people also give a

jìniàn.

• A: Nōngcūnlǐde niánqīng rén yě

shíxíng wǎnhūn ma?

• B: Duì. Zài nóngcūnli wan

liàn’ài wan jiēhūn yě yǐjīng chéngle yìzhǒng fēngqì.

u

• A: Nongcūnli nūháizi jiéhūnde

shíhou nanjia hái yào song xǔduō lǐwù ma?

• B: Bú yào le. Érqiě xiànzài you.

xiē nan qīngnián jiēhūn yīhòu hái zhùdao nūjiār qu. Zhè gēn yǐqiánde fēngsú you hěn dàde qùbié.

• A: Kě bú shi ma! Zhēn shi

gǎibiànle bù shǎo.

Xiànzài Zhōngguo líhūnde duō bu duō?

• B: You, kěshi bǐjiǎo shǎo.^,

Yīnwei jiēhūn yǐqián nánnū shuāngfāng bǐcǐ bǐjiǎo liǎojiě, you jīngguo xiāngdāngde kǎolū, suōyi líhūnde bú tài duō.

• A: Wǒ t’ngshuō Zhōngguo you

yìxiē fūfù bú zài yíge dìqū gōngzuò, bú zhùzai yíge dìfang, zhè huì bu hui you wèntí ne?

• B: Fūfù bú zài yíge dìfang

gōngzuò, suīrán měinián you bànge yuède tànqīnjià, dànshi hái you hěn duō bù fāngbiàn. Suóyi wèile ràng tamen gèng hǎode gōngzuò he xuéxí, yīng-dāng bāng tamen jiějué zhèige wèntí.

A:   Duìjíle. Fūfù zǒngshi

nénggòu zài yìqī bǐjiào hǎo.

small gift as a memento.

Do the young people in rural areas also practice late marriage?

Yes. Late involvement and late marriage have already become a common practice in the rural areas.

In the farm villages does the family of the husband still have to give a lot of presents when a girl gets married?

Not any more. Furthermore now there are even young men who live with the wife’s family after they get married. This is very different 'from the customs of the past.

I’ll say! It’s really changed a lot.

Are there many people who get divorced in China now?

Yes, there are, but relatively few. The man and the woman know each other rather well before they get married, and they give the matter quite a bit of consideration, so not too many people get divorced.

I hear there are some couples in China who don’t work in the same place. Do problems ever come about because of this?

If the husband and wife don’t work in the same place, even though they get half a month’s leave every year to visit family members, it’s still very inconvenient. So in order to let them work and study even better, we should help them solve this problem.

You’re so right. It’s always better if the husband and wife can be together.

NOTES ON THE DIALOGUE

...nánjia hái yào song xǔduō lǐwù ma?: In traditional China, the groom’s family gave gifts to the bride’s family to compensate for the loss of their daughter. (For the loss of the daughter might also entail a substantial loss of property and servants.) In Taiwan, it is still the man’s family who in most cases pays for the wedding arrangements. In the PRC today, these customs no longer exist.

Xiànzài Zhōngguo líhūnde duō bu duō?: Although allowed by law with the mutual consent of both parties, it is not easy to obtain a divorce in the PRC. With the exceptions of one party being either politically questionable or terminally ill, the majority of couples are asked to resolve their differences via study and group criticism.

...you yìxiē fūfù bú zài yíge dìfang gōngzuò: Many couples still have to be split up in order for each to have work. (Jobs are arranged for and assigned by the local government.) This is, of course, a great hardship since it is improbable that either will be able to arrange a transfer of job to the other’s work-place. The splits are arranged in order to increase rural population and provide labor for rural jobs. The partner left in the city, usually the woman, can go to the countryside to join her spouse, but rural life is so difficult that this is not likely.

...suǐràn měinián you bànge yuède tànqǐnjià: There are two types of leave for visiting one’s family in the PRC. One is for unmarried children to return home to see their parents, the other is for couples who are assigned to different places for work. These trips are paid for by one’s work unit (but communes have no family leave provisions). If the person on leave is working relatively near his home, he is allowed a fifteen day visit once per year and a worker who is located relatively far from home can take a thirty day visit once every two years.

Vocabulary

PART I

NOTES ON PART I

Notes on No. 1

xiáojie: ’daughter’. You have seen xiáojie meanirfg ’Miss’ or ’young lady’. Here it is used to mean ’daughter'. Note, however, that it is used only in referring to someone else’s daughter, not in referring to one’s own daughter(s).

Tā you jǐwèi xiaojie?              How many daughters does he have?

Nǐmen xiáojie zhēn piàoliang. Your daughter is really pretty.

Xiáojie, meaning either ’Miss’ or ’daughter’, is not in current usage in the PRC.

dā xǐde rìzi: ’wedding day’, literally ’hig joyful day’. Xǐ ’to he glad, joyful’, is used in several expressions having to do with weddings. The character for xǐ is often used as a decoration. For weddings, two xǐ characters together are used as a decoration.

Notes on No. 2

ren hen lāoshi: ’he’s very honest’. Ren, ’person’, can he used to refer to a person’s character. It can he used with a noun or pronoun before it, for example Tā ren hen lāoshi, literally ’As for him, his person is very honest’. The wording Tā rén ... is often used to talk about the way someone truly is:

Ren also sometimes refers to a person’s physical self. This meaning is mostly used in situations where a contrast is implied, something like ’And

In the PRC jiāowǎng is not used this way; use rènshi, ’to know (a person)’ or jiāo péngyou, ’to make friends’ instead. In the PRC, you will hear jiāowǎng used in phrases such as ’’lǐangguo rénmínde jiāowǎng”, ’the contact (association) between the peoples of these two countries’.

Notes on No. U

nánfāng: ’’the bridegroom’s side”, a phrase which often refers to the bridegroom himself, and sometimes refers to the bridegroom’s family, relatives, and friends collectively. Nanfāng, ’’the bridegroom’s side”, happens to be a homonym of nanfāng, ’the South’.

Zhōngguo rén Jiéhūnde shíhou, When Chinese get married, the groom’s nǎnfāng dà qǐng kè.                 family hosts a big feast.

V __

Jiéhūn yǐqiǎn nǎnfāng nūfāng       Before a marriage, the groom’s side

bǐcǐ song lǐ.                       and the bride’s side give each

other gifts.

ENūfāng means ’’the bride’s side, referring either to ’’the bride” herself, or to ’the bride’s family, relatives, and friends collectively’.]

shou: ’to be familiar with ...’ Also pronounced shú. Shou is used with hé for people and with duì for places.

Wǒ hé tā hen shou.                  I know him very well.

She knows Taipei very well.

Shóu also means ’to be cooked sufficiently’ and ’to be ripe’.

zǎo: You've learned this as the verb 'to be early' , now you see it used to mean 'long ago'.

Wǒ zǎo zhǐdào nǐ bù huílai.        I knew long ago that you wouldn't

come back.

Wǒ zǎo tīngshuō le.                 I heard about it long ago.

Zǎo is usually followed by jiù to stress the idea of 'as early as that’.

Wǒ zǎo jiu gaosu tǎ neijian        I told him that long ago. (Said to

shi le.                             correct an impression that he

didn't actually know it so early. )

Wǒ zǎo jiù xiǎng lai kàn ni,       I've been meaning to come see you

yìzhí méi shíjiǎn.                  for a long time, but I never had

the time.

tíqǐn: 'to bring up a proposal of marriage' Traditionally, the man's parents would visit the parents of the woman they wished their son to marry in order to bring up the subject of marriage. The situation in Taiwan is changing rapidly today, but some marriages are still proposed in this way. More frequently, however, the children simply inform their parents of their own arrangement.

Notice that when you want to say ’I can’t decide whether (to do something)’ or ’I haven’t decided whether (to do something)’, the object of juedìng is a choice-type question.

I’m having a hard time deciding whether to let him to or not.

It’s hard to decide whether or not I should go back.

hòulái: ’afterwards, later’. You have already learned another word which can be translated as ’’afterwards” or ’’later”: yǐhòu. Yǐhòu and hòulái are both nouns which express time. Here is a brief comparison of them.

• (1) Yǐhòu can either follow another element ’in which case it is translated as ’’after ...”) or it can be used by itself.

Tā láile yǐhòu, women jiù zǒu After he came, we left.

le.

Hòulái can only be used by itself.

Afterwards, he went to sleep.

• (2) Both yǐhòu and hòulái may be used to refer to the past. (For example, in the reference list sentence, yǐhòu may be substituted for hòulái. But if you want to say "afterwards" or "later" referring to the future, you can only use yǐhòu. When it refers to the future time, yǐhòu can be translated in various ways, depending on the context:

  Yǐhòude shìqing, děng yǐhòu zài shuō.

  Yǐhòu nǐ you kòng, qǐng cháng lái wán.

  Wo yǐhòu zài gàosu ni.

  Tāde háizi shuōle, yǐhòu tā yào gēn yíge Rìběn ren Jiéhūn.

  
  

  Let’s wait until the future to see about future matters.

  In the future when you have the time, please come over more often.

  I’ll tell you later on.

  His child said that someday, he wants to marry a Japanese.

  
  

Usage Note: Yǐhòu has the meaning of "after that". It can imply that some past event functions as a dividing point in time, as a sort of time boundary, and yǐhòu refers to the period from the end of that time boundary up to another point of reference (usually the time of speaking). In this usage it is often translated as "since".

háishi: 'in the end, after all' You have seen háishi meaning 'still' that is, that something remains the same way as it was. Here háishi is used to mean that the speaker feels that, all things considered, something is the case after all.

Note on No. 6

jūxíng: 'to hold (a meeting, banquet, celebration, ceremony, etc.)' For this example you need to know that diānlǐ means 'ceremony'.

Notes on No, 8

hái: ’even, (to go) so far as to’ You have seen hái meaning ’still’*as in Nǐ hái zài zhèr!, ’You’re still here!’. You’ve also seen hái meaning ’also, additionally’, as in Wo hái yào mǎi yìpǐng qìshuǐ., ’I also want to buy a bottle of soda.’ Here you see hái meaning additionally in the sense of additional effort. The sentence Nǐmen hái song huār lai, hái expresses the speaker’s feeling that sending flowers went beyond what was expected or necessary.

zhēn shi tài xièxie le: ’I really thank you so much.’’ You have seen tài used to mean ’very, extremely’, as in Tài hǎo le!, ’Wonderful!’. Notice that here it is used with xièxie.

Taipei:

NOTES ON THE DIALOGUE

Guǒbǐn Dàfàndiàn bù zhǐ shi dìfang piàoliang, nàlide cài yě tèbiě hǎo. Traditional wedding foods included huāshēng, peanuts; liǎnzǐ, lotus seeds; and zǎozi, dates, all of which symbolize fertility in that shēng(zǐ) means "give birth to" (a son); liǎnzǐ sounds like part of the phrase liǎnshēng guìzǐ, "have sons consecutively"; and zǎozi sounds like part of zǎoshēng guì-zǐ, "have an early son." The wedding marked the beginning of that generation's carrying on of the family line. Today few adhere to these symbols and food is served according to family preference.

Bú shi mǎide, shi Xiùyún- zìjǐ zuòde: Wedding gowns in Taiwan these days are frequently hand-made or tailor-made, as tailoring is affordable and the quality of work surpasses that of ready-made items. Brides may wear two gowns: a white one for the ceremony (which may be in a church nowadays) and a traditional Chinese red one at the celebration.

• 9. Xīnláng Jiā xìn Jǐdūjiào, fùmǔ xīwàng tāmen zài Jiàotáng Jiéhūn.

• 10. Xīnniáng jiā xìn Fo, fùmǔ bú rang tamen zài Jiàotáng Jiéhūn.

• 11. Tāmen yào zài fǎyuàn gōngzhèng j iēhūn ma?

• 12. Hūnlǐ yǐhòu bādiān zhōng rù xí.

• 13. Zhège wèntí hen fùzá.

lk. Wǒde yìjian shi děng liāngge xīngqī women zài tantan.

• 15. Tāmen qǐng shéi zhènghūn?

• 16. A: Hūnlǐ yǐhòu tāmen māshàng Jiù qù dù mìyuè ma?

B: Bù, yào děng huí mén yǐhòu cái qù.

• 17. Hòutiān yídìng lai chī xǐjiǔ!

• 18. A: Nǐmen xiáojie hūnlǐshàng jièshaorén shi nāliāngwèi a?

B: Yíwèi shi lai zuò méide Lǐ Jiàoshòu.

• 19. Nàwěi youzhèngjú Juzhāng shi women Jiā duōniánde lāo péngyou.

• 20. Tāndao jiehūn, nǐ yě yīnggāi kuài diān qù zū Jiàn Jiéhūn lǐfú.

The family of the bridegroom are Christians and the parents hope they will be married in church.

The family of the bride are Buddhists and -her parents won’t let them be married in church.

Are they going to have a civil marriage in court?

After the wedding ceremony the banquet will start at eight.

This question is very complicated.

My opinion is that we should wait two weeks and talk about it again.

Whom did they ask to witness the marriage?

After the wedding are they going to leave right away to go on their honeymoon?

No, they’re going to wait until after the bride’s first visit to her family before they go.

Be sure to come to the wedding banquet the day after tomorrow.

Who are the two people who are going to be the introducers at your daughter’s wedding?

One is Professor Li who was the go-between.

That postmaster is a friend of our family from many years back.

Speaking of the wedding, you really ought to hurry up and go rent a wedding gown.

NOTES ON PART IT

Notes on No. 9

xìn Jǐdūjiào: ’to believe in (Protestant) Christianity' This is one way of saying 'to be a (Protestant) Christian'.

Notes on No. 10

xìn Fo: 'to believe in Buddha' This is one way of saying 'to be a Buddhist'.

Notes on No. 11

zài fǎyuàn: 'in court' Zài is the verb 'to be in, at, or on', in other words 'to be located (someplace). Zài must be followed by a place word or a place phrase. Just what is considered to be a place word or phrase may be difficult for the non-native speaker to figure out. Words which are not considered to be place words or phases must have a locational ending such as -li or -shang added to them. (Nǐ zài chēshang mǎi piào., 'You buy the ticket on the bus.')

The names of institutions in Chinese are considered to be place words. The phrase 'in court' does not need a locational ending, zài fǎyuàn. Here are some other words which can function as place words by themselves. Many of these end with syllables such as -shi (shǐ) 'house, apartment', -jú 'office, shop', -dian 'inn, shop', -chǎng 'field, open ground', -ting 'hall, room', -suǒ 'place, room', -jiān 'house, rooms', guǎn 'public office, hall'.

Zài běnshì you wǔge yóuzhèng- There are five post offices in this

gōngzhèng: ’notarization, government witness’. A gōngzhèng rén is a notary public.

Note on No. 12

rù xí: ’to take one’s seat at a banquet’, literally ’to enter the mat(ted area)’.

Women kuài diānr zhùnbèi,          Let’s get ready a little faster,

tǎmen liùdiǎn zhōng jiù            the banquet starts at b:00.

yào rù xí le.

Note on No. 13

fùzǎ: ’to be complicated, to be complex’. Questions, problems, or situations can be fùzǎ if there are many pieces or factors figuring into the problem. It is also possible to use fùzǎ to imply that the situation is messy, problem-ridden.

Fùzǎ can also be used in a complimentary way. (For this example you need to know that sìxiǎng means ’thinking, thought’.)

Tǎde sìxiǎng hěn fùzǎ.             His thinking is very complex.

This sentence might be said of an Einstein. The opposite of fùzǎ in this case would, be jiāndān ’to be simple’, as in ’simple-minded’.

Fùzá is also pronounced fǔzā.

Note on No. 14

yìj iàn: ’idea, view, opinion, suggestion’.

Note on No. 1J?

zhènghǔn: ’to witness a marriage’. Witnesses formerly were persons of good reputation and venerable old age. Today, familiarity is most important. The witness makes a brief speech during the ceremony and stamps the marriage certificate with his name seal. He receives no remuneration for this service, but is honored to have been asked.

Notes on No. 16

dù mìyuè: ’to spend one’s honeymoon’. Dù is the verb ’to spend, to pass (something which is an amount of time, like a holiday). Mìyuè is literally 'honey-moon'.

huímén: 'the bride's first visit to her own family on the third day after the wedding', literally 'return to the door'. When the newlyweds return home for this first visit, the family of the bride is given a chance to entertain the couple. More friends and relatives are invited and introduced to them. (It is the groom's family which arranges the marriage ceremony.)

Note on No. 17

xǐjiǔ: ’wedding banquet’ . Notice that in the Reference List sentence the phrase lai chǐ xǐjiǔ is translated as ’to come to the wedding banquet’. A more literal translation might be ’come to eat a wedding feast!. The verb chi could also be rendered into English by ’attend’ or ’take part’, as in ’Be sure to come take part in the wedding banquet the day after tomorrow’.

Notes on No. 18

hūnlǐshàng: ’at the wedding’. Notice that in English you say ’at the wedding’ while in Chinese you say hūnlǐshàng, literally ’on the wedding'. -Shang would also be the locative ending to use for ’at the meeting (huìshang).

jièshaorén: ’introducer’. This is one person in the cast of people who play a part in getting two people together in marriage. Originally, the ’’introducer" functioned in much the same way as match-makers - finding a good mate for a friend or relative. Today, most young people find their own mates. The "introducers", however, still have a ceremonial function. They accompany the bride and groom during the ceremony (one for the bride and one for the groom).

zuò méi: ’to act as the go-between for two families whose children are to be married’. This person arranged the details of the match. He acted as a go-between for the families of the bride and groom, settling points which were usually of a financial nature. Often the zuò meide was also the jièshaorén. Traditionally, the go-between was an older woman who made a profession of it. She was paid for her services in money if the family was wealthy or in the best pork legs if they were poor. Today any adult can act as the go-between, although the practice is becoming less and less common. During the wedding ceremony, the go-between places his stamp on the wedding certificate.

Wo gěi ni zuò méi, hǎo bu hǎo? I’ll act as go-between for you, all right?

Zhang Tàitai qǐng wo tī tāde       Mrs. Chang asked me to act as go-

nùér zuò méi.                       between for her daughter.

Notes on No. 19

júzhǎng: ’head of an office or bureau’. Júzhǎng is only used when the Chinese name of the office or bureau ends with the syllable -jú, as in youzhèngjú, ’post office’. You’ve also seen bùzhǎng, ’minister of a bureau’ and kēzhang, ’section chief’.

Notes on No. 20

tándao: ’to talk about, to speak of’. This is used to refer to something that was Just brought up in conversation. You have seen dào used as a main verb meaning ’to go to, to arrive at’, and as a prepositional verb meaning ’to towards’. Now you see that dào is also used as a verb ending. Literally, it means ’to, up to’, but its translation into English sometimes changes, depending on the meaning of the verb it is used with. When used with tan, ’to talk, to chat’, -dào can be translated as ’about’ or ’of’. Here are some other examples of -dào used with verbs you’ve already studied:

Notice that in the Reference List sentence, tándao is used at the beginning of the sentence to introduce a topic, like we use ’speaking of ...’ in English. Here are some other examples:

yě: ’really, after all’. You have seen yě meaning ’too, also’. Another common meaning of yě is ’(even though) ... nevertheless, still’. For example:

Wǒ suīrān méi dàoguo Tiān An      Although I’ve never been to Tian An

Men, yě zài diànshìshang           Men, I’ve seen it on television,

kànj ianguo.

In addition, yě often is used to contrast the thought expressed in the sentence with another thought. This meaning can be paraphrased something like this: "in spite of anything which might be believed to the contrary, indeed what I am saying is true." Sometimes, however, yě is used when there is not much to contrast it with, and means little more than "we really ought to agree that what I am saying is true."

There are many different possible ways to translate this yě into English. The following examples are meant to show some of its range of meaning and some of its possible translations.

Xiànzài shíyǐdiǎn ban le, wǒ yě yào shàng kè le, wǒmende wèntí míngtiān zài tan ba’.

Zhōngguo rénkǒu tài duō, zhèngfù tíchàng wǎnliàn wǎnhūn yě shi yinggāide.

Tāmen wèishénme yào líhūn, wǒ yě bù zhǐdào.

A: Nǐ zěnme hǎi méi bǎ zhèxiē yǐfu xǐwān?

B: Wǒ yě bú shi nǐde yòngren, báitiān wǒ yě shàng bān, wǒ méiyou zhènme duō shij iān.

Nǐ xiànzài yě gāi míngbai le ba?

Women liāngge rènshi yě you jǐniǎn le, nǐ yǐnggāi liǎojiě wo.

It’s eleven-thirty. I really have to be going to class. Let’s talk about our question tomorrow, okay?

The population of China is too large, it really is right for the government to promote late marriage and late involvement.

Why they wanted to get a divorce, I really don’t know.

How come you still haven’t finished washing these clothes?

I’m not your servant, after all; I work during the day too, and I don’t have all that much time.

Now you (really) ought to understand, don’t you?

We have known each other for several years, after all; you ought to understand me.

Taipei:

The day before a young couple is to the mother of the bride:

• A: Gōngxǐ, gōngxǐ! Míngtiān shi

nǐmen xiáojie dàxǐde rǐzi! Xīnláng shi shénme rén a? Tāmen shi zěnme rènshide?

• B: Shi péngyou jièshàode.

Nánfāngde fùqin gēn wǒ xiān-sheng zài youzhèngjú shi tongshì, búguò yǐqián bú tài shóu. Hòulái lìngwài yíge xǐng Lǐde tongshì jiù lái zuò méi, jièshào tamen rènshi. Tāmen jiāowǎng dào xiànzài yě yìnián duō le. Nàge nánháizi xiànzài èrshibǎsuì, rén hěn laoshi, yě hěn shàngjìn. Xiànzài zài Táiwān Yínháng gōngzuò. Tā bàngōngshìlide rén dōu shuō tā nénggàn. Xiùyún duì ta hěn mānyì, érqiě Xiùyún yǐjīng èrshisìsuì le, yě dàole gāi jiéhūnde shíhou le, suoyi nánfāng yì lái tíqīn women jiù dāying le.

A:   Wǒ kàn qǐngtiēshang shuō

wǔdiǎn zhōng zài Guobīn Dà-fàndiàn jǔxíng hūnlǐ, liùdiǎn zhōng rù xí. Nà dìfang hěn dà, cài yě hěn hǎo, míngtiān yídìng hěn rènao.

B:   Tándaò jǔxíng hūnlǐ a, yìjian

duō le. Zhēn fùzá. Xiān shi liǎngge háizi yào dào fǎyuàn gōngzhèng jiéhūn, kěshi nánfāngde fùmǔ bù dāying. Tāmen xìn Jīdūjiào, yídìng yào dào jiàotáng qù. Women jiā xìn Fo, zěnme kéyi rang tamen dào jiàotáng qù jǔxíng hūnlǐ ne! Hòulái, liǎngjiā tánlái tánqù, zuìhòu cái juédìng háishi zài Guobīn Dàfàndiàn

be married, a friend pays a visit to

Congratulations! Tomorrow’s your daughter’s big day! Who’s the bridegroom? How did they meet?

They were introduced by friends.

The father of the groom is a colleague of my husband’s at the post office, but they didn’t know each very well before. Afterwards, another colleague by the name of Li came to act as the go-between and introduced them. They have been seeing each other for over a year now. The young man is twenty-eight years old now. He’s very honest and ambitious. He works at the Bank of Taiwan. The people at his office all say he’s very capable. Xiuyun is very pleased with him, and besides, she’s twenty-four years old; she has reached the time when she should get married. So as soon as his family came to propose the marriage, we agreed to it.

I see it says on the invitation that the ceremony will be held at the Ambassador Hotel at five o’clock, and that the banquet starts at six. It’s a very big place, and the food is very good. It should be very lively tomorrow.

As far as the wedding ceremony is concerned, there were a lot of different opinions. It was really complicated. At first the two children wanted to go to court and have a civil marriage, but the parents of the groom didn’t agree to that. They’re Christians, and insisted on going to a church. Our family is Buddhist; how could we let them go to a church to hold the wedding! Later, our two families discussed it back and

jǔxíng hūnlǐ.

• A: Shi qǐng shénme rén zhènghūn

a?

• B: Zhènghūnrén shi Youzhèngjū

Zhang Júzhǎng. Tā gēn nánfāngde fùqin shi duōniánde lǎo péngyou, suóyi yì qǐng ta, tā mǎshàng jiu daying le.

• A: You méiyou jièshàorén? Jiè

shàorén shi shéi ya?

• B: Nánfāngde jièshàorén jiù shi

lai zuò méide nàwèi Lī Xiān-sheng. Women zhèbiān jiù qǐngle Zhang Zǐmíng Jiàoshòu. Tā shi Xiùyūn niàn dàxué shíhoude lāoshī.

• A: Xǐnniángde jiéhūn lǐfú shi

zài shénme dìfang zuòde?

• B: Bú shi zuòde, shi zūde.

• A: Tāmen jiehūn yǐhòu yào dào

náli qù dù mìyuè?

• B: Tāmen jìhua yào dào Alǐ Shān

qù wan yíge xīngqī, būguò tāmen jiéhūn yǐhòu bù néng mǎshàng zǒu, yào děng huí mén yǐhòu cái qù.

• A: 0, hǎo hǎo hǎo. Wǒ xiang

nǐmen yídìng hen máng. Wǒ yīnggāi zǒu le.

• B: Nǐ nàme kèqi, hái zìjǐ lai

song lǐwù lai. Xièxie, xièxie! Míngtiān yídìng lai chī xījiǔ.

• A: Hǎo, míngtiān jiàn.

forth, and finally we decided it would be best to hold the wedding at the Ambassador Hotel.

Whom did you ask to witness the marriage?

The witness is Postmaster Zhang. He’s an old friend of many years of the groom’s father, so as soon as we went to ask him, he agreed right away.

Are there any introducers? Who are they?

The introducer for the groom’s side is the Mr. Li who was the go-between. For our side we asked Professor Zhang Ziming. He was a teacher of Xiuyun’s when she was in college.

Where was the bride’s wedding gown made?

It wasn’t (specially) made, it’s rented.

After they’re married, where are they going to spend their honeymoon?

They’re planning to go to Mt. Ali for a week, but they can’t leave right after the wedding. They have to wait until after the bride’s first visit to her new parents’ home before they go.

Oh, okay. Well, you must be very busy, so I should be leaving now.

You’re so polite, you even brought presents over in person. Thank you! Be sure to come to the banquet tomorrow.

Okay, see you tomorrow.

NOTES ON THE DIALOGUE

. ..liǎngge háizi yào dào fǎyuàn gōngzhèng .jiehūn: Traditional wedding ceremonies were held at home or in ancestral halls (not in temples or pagodas). Modern ones are likely to "be held in hotels or restaurants, as there is more room and food is then easier to prepare.

Tǎmen jìhua yào dào Ālǐ Shan qù: Ālǐ Shān and Rìyuè Tan (Sun-Moon Lake) are the two most popular honeymoon spots on Taiwan. An average honeymoon stay might last one week.

Vocabulary

PART I

NOTES ON PART I

Notes on No. 1

chénggōng: ’to succeed; to he Zhèihěn shū chénggōng le.

Zhèihěn shū xiěde hěn chénggōng.

Zhèige tāng chénggōng le, dàjiā dōu ài chī.

Zhǐ yào nǐ nǔlì, nǐde shìqing yídìng néng chénggōng.

Notes on No. 2

zuòdào: ’to achieve, to make (a goal)’.. In Unit 2, Part II, you saw tandao ’to talk about, to speak of’, with the ending -dào meaning literally ’to, up to’. Here you see -dào used as an ending after the verb zuò ’to make’. You may think of -dào in zuòdào as conveying the meaning of reaching a goal.

Zhèijiān shi, wǒ yǐjīng zuòdào I have already succeeded in doing le.                                   this.

Nǐ shuōguo, zuǒtiān nǐ yào qù, You said that you wanted to go nǐ zuòdào le ma?                    yesterday. Did you do so?

sān tōngguò: ’the three approvals’. The ’three approvals’ have "been in effect since 1973/7^. At that time, the minimum marriage age was pushed upward, but most recently it has been relaxed to ages twenty-five for males and twenty-three for females. Most couples must still wait a number of years before they can have a child. The sāntŌngguò guiding for city residents effectively means that, without these three approvals for a child, a pregnancy must end in abortion or else the child will have to live without food rations. (A government slogan is Yíge zuì hǎo, liǎngge gòule, "One is best, two is enough.’’) Applications to have children are reviewed and permission granted or denied by one’s work unit, based on the total allowable city quota. A third child is strongly discouraged and life would be very difficult for it should it be born. Special gifts, privileges, and awards are given to one-child families. In the countryside, one can find four to six children in a household, but they of course could not easily move to the city.

Notes on No. 3

yě jiùshi shuō: ’to mean; in other words, that is to say’.

• B: Wǒ bù tongyì.

  I don’t agree.

  
  

Wǒ bù tongyì nǐde huà.             I don’t agree with what you say.

Although in English we can say ’I agree with you’, in Chinese it is wrong to say either Wǒ gēn nǐ tongyì or Wǒ tǒngyì ni. Tongyì can be used in two ways: without an object, or with an object like tā shuōde ’what he said’, tāde huà ’what he said’, tāde jìhua ’his plan’, tāde yìjian ’his opinion’. If you want to say ’I don’t agree with you’, you can say Wǒ bù tongyì, Nǐ shuōde, wǒ bù tǒngyì, Wǒ bù tǒngyì nǐde huà, Wǒ bù tǒngyì nǐde yìjian, etc.

Notes on No. U

dānwèi: ’(work) unit’. This word is used in the PRC as a cover term for any organization or department of an organization. It may, for instance refer to a factory, a school, a government organization, a store, or an army unit.

Nǐ zài něige dānwèi gōngzuò? is a common way of asking where someone works; compared with Nǐ zài nǎr gōngzuò?, the question Nǐ zài něige dānwèi gōngzuò? sounds more official.

Women dānwèi you hen duō nù        There are a lot of women teachers in

lāoshī.                             our unit. (Here, dānwèi refers to

a school. )

To specify that you are talking about a place of work, you can say gōngzuò dānwèi, as in the Reference List sentence.

jūmǐn wěiyuánhuì: ’neighborhood committee’. The official duties of a neighborhood committee are diverse, ranging from sanitation maintenance to political study. Its actual role and duty remain ambiguous, as well as its relationship with the government. Although the government pays a committee’s elected delegates, there is no official connection between the two. The power of the committee in local affairs remains large.

pàichūsuǒ: ’local police station’. The local police station is the lowest level of the Bureau of Public Security. In addition to taking care of matters of a criminal nature, the pàichūsuǒ is familiar with the history and political situation of every one of its residents. Along with the gōngzuò dānwèi and the jūmǐn wěiyuánhuì, it affects the daily life of each citizen.

Notes on No. 5

gēnju: ’according to, on the basis of; basis’.

Nǐ gēnju shénme shuō zhèige        On what basis do you say this?

huà?

Nǐ shuōde huà you méiyou           Is there a basis for what you're

gēnju?                              saying?

pǐzhǔn: 'to give official permission (to someone to do something)'.

Dānwèi pǐzhǔn ta jiēhūn le.        Her unit gave her permission to

marry.

Xuéxiào pǐzhǔn ta qù Shanghai His school gave him permission to go le.                                    to Shanghai.

Wǒ mai zhèige diànshì shi dédao I got permission to buy this pǐzhǔnde.                           television.

fùnǔmen: 'women'. -Men is a plural ending for nouns and pronouns. You have seen it in the pronouns women, zánmen, nǐmen, and tǎmen. After a noun, however, -men is never obligatory. It is usually used with nouns which designate humans (although in literature you may sometimes see it used with nouns referring to animals as well).

Nǔshimen, xiānshengmen.             Ladies and gentlemen.

Note that the group referred to by a noun phrase with -men must be of unspecified number; it is wrong to say liàngge fùnǔmen or sānge jiàoshòumen, etc.

Notes on No. 6

gègè: 'each and every, all of the various'. The first gè (a specifier like zhèi-) literally means 'each...' or 'the various, the different...'. The second ge is the counter ge, as in yíge rén 'one person'.

Jiǔyuèli, gègè xuéxiào dōu         In September all the schools open,

kāi xué le.

Měiguode gègè zhōu dōu you         Each of the American states has its

zíjǐde zhèngfǔ.                     government.

zēngjiā: 'to increase; to increase by (such-and-such an amount)'.

yídìng: ’specific, certain, definite, set’. In addition to the meaning of yídìng which you already know, namely ’certainly, surely’, it can also mean ’set (by regulation, decision, or convention), fixed, particular,’ as in

Tā ban shìqing you yídìng bànfa. He goes about doing things with a

Notes on No. 7

shìqū: ’city proper, municipal area’, the area within a chěngshì where population and buildings are relatively concentrated. Shìqu is used when you are emphasizing the city proper or contrasting it to the suburbs Ejiāoqūl. It is an administratively more exact term than chěngshì. CThe Peking municipal area, Beijing shìqū, is made up of eight urban districts, chěngqū.I

chūshēnglū: ’birth rate’. Chūshēng means ’to be born’. The chūshēnglū is usually considered to be the number of births per one thousand population in one year.

Notes on No. 8

fēnpèi: ’distribute; allot; assign; distribution’.

Wǒ tīngshuō xiàge yuè jiù kéyi I’ve heard that you’ll be assigned

míng*é: ’the number of people assigned or allowed; quota of people’. Míng’é does not exactly correspond to ’quota’. ’Quota’ is a fixed number of places which must be filled. Míng’é is (1) a fixed number of places which must not be exceeded, or (2) one such place. Bābǎige míng’é is literally ’800 name given-numbers’, i.e. ’a quota of 800 names.’

Note on No. 9

bìyùn: Literally, ’avoid-pregnancy’, i.e. ’contraception’. Shíxíng bìyùn ’to carry out (the government policy of encouraging) contraception, to practice birth control’.

Note on No. 10

miǎnfèide: Literally ’exempt from charge’, i.e. ’free (of charge)’

Notes on No. 11

Tā dédao pīzhǔn kéyi liúzai        He has gotten permission to stay in

Beijing gōngzuò.                    Peking to work.

yìjiān xīn fángzi: ’a new room’. Notice that although you have seen fāngzi meaning ’house’, it is being used here in the wider sense of ’a place to live’. In this phrase it is preceded by the counter for rooms of a house, jiān. Thus the whole phrase means ’a new room’, not ’a new house’.

Living quarters in Peking and many other Chinese cities are very scarce. (Housing in Shanghai is more critical than Peking.) When a newly married couple applies for housing, they will be assigned a room that does not exceed 8-10 square meters. Rarely do living quarters have private baths, toilets, or kitchens. Later, when children come along, they will continue to live in the same size room.

Peking:

A Canadian tourist talks with her guide:

PART II

NOTES ON PART II

Notes on No. 12

chǎnjià: ’maternity leave’. The syllable chǎn, literally ’to give birth to’ is used in compounds meaning ’maternity, delivery, birth’. It can also be used outside the context of human reproduction in compounds meaning ’to produce, production’, as in chǎnpǐn ’product’.]

gōngzī: ’wages, pay’, literally ’labor-capital’.

...you chānjià, hái you gōngzi: For a normal birth, a woman is given fifty-six days of paid leave; for a difficult birth, seventy days; and for twins, ninety days after the birth. After this period, one hour per day is allowed off in order to nurse the baby.

Notes on No. 13

gèzhōng: ’various kinds, every kind’. Ge ’each’ is a specifier like zhèi- ’this’ or nèi- ’that’. As a specifier, it can be followed by counters. Here you see ge- used with the counter -zhǒng ’types, kinds, sort, species’. Here are some other ways gè- is used:

u

Tā néng dào gèguō qù luxíng        It’s great that he can go to all

zhēn bú cuò.                        sorts of countries.

Sometimes ge- is followed directly by the noun.

Jīntiān xiàwu gè dānwèi dōu        This afternoon every unit is having

kāi huì.                            a meeting.

bìyùn gōngju: ’contraceptive devices’. This does not refer to birth control pills. EBìyùnpǐn ’birth control products’ includes both bìyùnyào ’birth control pills’ and bìyùn gōngjù.i

jìhuà shēngyù: ’family planning, planned parenthood’. Jìhuà means

Notes on No. lh

juéyù: ’sterilization,’ or ’to sterilize, to be sterilized,’ applies to operations for men and women. Sterilization for women is still much more common than for men; and more prevalent in the cities than in the countryside.

Tā juédìng juéyù.                   He has decided on sterilization.

Juéyù shi jiějué Zhōngguo          Sterilization is one good way to

rénkōu wèntíde yíge hāo bànfa. solve China’s population problem.

shǒushù: ’surgery’.

Notes on No. 1$

shībài: ’to fail’.

Tā zuò mǎimai shībài le.           He failed in business.

Nǐ gēnju shénme shuō tā shibài     On what basis do you say that he

le?                                 failed?

réngōng liúchǎn: ’abortion’, more literally, ’artificial miscarriage’.

dào yīyuàn qu zuò réngōng liúchǎn: ’go to the hospital to have an abortion performed’. Zuò réngōng liúchǎn here means ’to have an abortion done', not of course ’to do an abortion'. Compare the following two sentences:

Yīshēng gěi ta zuòle réngōng       The doctor performed an abortion on

liúchǎn.                            her.

Tā zuòle réngōng liúchǎn.          She had an abortion.

In the first sentence, the subject of the sentence (yīshēng) performed the abortion. In the second sentence, the subject of the sentence (tā) had the abortion performed. In some cases, a verb-object in Chinese can mean either 'to do something' or 'to have something done'. Here are some more examples:

Zhènme hǎode yīfu, shéi gěi nǐ Who made such nice clothes for you? zuòde?

Zài Měiguo zuò yīfu hěn guì.       It's really expensive to have clothes

made in America.

jià: 'leave, vacation'. You have seen this as part of the word chǎnjià ’maternity leave’. Here you see it used by itself.

Notes on No. 16

shǎoshù mǐnzú: 'minority natiionalities', often translated as 'national minorities’. Besides the Han people, China has over fifty national minorities which are spead out over fifty to sixty percent of the land area and make up six percent of the total population of the country. The largest minorities are the Mongols (mostly in the Nèi Měnggú Zìzhìqū, 'Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region'), the Hui (Chinese Muslims), Tibetans, Uighurs (in the Xīnjiāng Wéiwú-ěr Zìzhìqū, 'Xinxiang Uighur Autonomous Region'), and the Miao (found in several southern provinces).

The clothing of the national minorities is very beautiful.

China has fifty-odd minority nationalities.

Notes on No. 1?

xiāngxìn: ’to believe (that), to trust (someone), to believe in, to have faith in’.

Wǒ xiāngxìn, women liǎngguǒ        I believe that the friendship between

rénmínde yǒuyì yídìng huì          the people of our two countries

búduàn fāzhǎn.                      will constantly grow.

Compare xiāngxìn to the verb xìn, which you learned in the last unit. For the second example you need to know you is a verb meaning ’it’s up to...’.

Bié xìn tāde huà.                   Don’t believe what he says.

Xìn bu xìn you ni.                  Believe it or not, as you like.

hōngtáng: ’brown sugar’, literally ’red sugar’. The Chinese often use brown sugar in cooking and for medicinal purposes. For example, a common remedy for colds is a hot drink made by boiling ginger root and brown sugar in water CjiāngtāngC, or simply brown sugar water Ctángshuǐ3.

chǎnfù: ’a woman who has given birth within the last month’. [Contrast this word with yùnfù ’a pregnant woman*.3 The birth of a child is celebrated on the successful completion of the first month of life.

yíngyǎngpǐn: ’a nutritional food item’. Yíngyǎng means ’nutrition’, for example:

Dòujiāng hěn you yíngyǎng.         Soy bean milk is very nitritious.

-Pin is a syllable used in many words to mean ’item, article, product’, [for example jìniànpǐn ’souvenir’, yòngpǐn ’item of use’, chǎnpǐn ’produce’, gōngyèpǐn ’industrial product’3.

As the Reference List sentence shows, the mother’s health continues to be an important consideration even after the child is born. Both mother’s and baby’s health are carefully attended to after birth, while Western medicine emphasizes the mother’s health only as long as she is carrying the child.

Notes on No. 18

bù tōng: ’to be not the same, to be different’. This is often used in

the pattern ...he ... bù tong,

Bù tong can also be used as a noun as in

Tāde dānwèi he nǐde you hěn        There is a big difference between

dàde bù tong.                       his work unit and yours.

You should be aware that tong ’same’, cannot be used as the main verb of a sentence to mean ’to be the same’. To say, ’These two things are the same’, you must say Zhèiliǎngge dōngxi shi yíyàngde.

qǐnjìn: ’to be close (to), to be on intimate terms (with)’.

Zhèiliǎngge rén hěn qǐnjìn.        These two are on intimate terms.

Dàjiā dōu yuànyi qǐnjìn ta.        Everyone wants to be friends with him.

Note on No. 20

Here you see the specifier -gè are some more examples:

I’d very much like to go visit lots of places in America. America is a great country.

I’ve visited and sightseen lots of places in China for three weeks, it’s time to go back home.

Peking:

A Canadian student in Peking interviews a population control worker:

A:   Wo zài Jiānádàde shihou jiù

tīngshuō Zhōngguo kōngzhi rén-koude gōngzuò zuòde hen chéng-gōng. Nǐ néng hu néng gěi wo jiǎngyijiǎng nīmen shi zěnme zuòde?

• C: Shōuxiān, zhèngfǔ tíchàng

wǎnhūn. Érqiě, yìhānde shuō, zài chéngli jiéle hūnde rén liǎngnián yǐhòu cái yào haizi. Tāmen yào xiǎohair yǐqián yīnggāi zuòdao sān tōngguò.

A:   *Sān tōngguò' shi shénme

yìsi ne?

C:    'Sān tōngguò* yě jiùshi shuō

yīnggāi dédao nǐ gōngzuò dānwèi , nǐ zhùde dìfangde jūmín wěiyuánhuì hé pàichūsuǒ zhèi-sānge dìfangde tongyì.

A:   Gè dānwèi gēn^u shénme biāo-

zhūn pīzhǔn fùnūmen shēng xiǎohair ne?

C:   Gè chéngshì dōu you yídìngde

rénkōu chūshēnglū, měinián měige chéngshì zhǐ kéyi zēngjiā yídìng shùmude haizi. Zhèixie míng'é Jiù fēnpèigei gègè shìqūde xiāng shēng háizide nutóngzhì. Fùnū dōu shi dédao pīzhǔn yǐhòu cái huáiyùnde.

Bù xiāng yào háizide kéyi shíxíng bìyùn; hìyùn gōngjù hé bìyùn yào dōu shi miǎnfèide.

A:   Ruguo bìyùn shībàile zěnme

bàn?

C:   Kéyi dào yīyuàn zuò réngōng

liǔchān, shǒushù bǔbì zìjǐ gěi qián, hái you liāngge xīngqīde

When I was in Canada I heard that population control work is being done very successfully in China. Could you explain to me what you do?

First, the government promotes late marriage. Furthermore, generally speaking, in the city, married people don’t have children until after two years. Before they have a child they should have the 'three approvals*.

What does the 'three approvals' mean?

The 'three approvals* means that you should have the consent of your work unit, the neighborhood committee of the place you live, and the local police station.

According to what criteria do the various units give official permission to women to have children?

All the various cities have set population birth rates, and each year they can only increase by a certain number of children. These quotas are apportioned among women comrades in all the various cities who want to have children. Women do not become pregnant until they receive official permission.

Those who do not want to have children can practice birth control; all contraceptive medicines and contraceptive devices are free.

What is done if birth control fails?

One can go to the hospital to have an abortion. A person doesn't have to pay for the operation herself, and

jià, you you gōngzī.

A:   Wo hǎoxiàng tīngshuō Zhōngguo

fùnū shēng háizide shihou you wǔshiliùtiānde chǎnjià, érqiě kéyi duō mǎi yìxiē yíngyǎngpǐn, shi hu shi?

C:   Duì le, chǎnjià you gōngzī.

Chǎnfù hái kéyi mǎi yìliǎngjīn hongtáng, duō mǎi yìliǎngjīn jīdàn. Zhōngguo rén dōu xiāngxìn hōngtáng duì chǎnfù hěn hǎo.

A:   Rénmen shēng háizide shíhou,

qīnqi péngyou song hu song lǐwù?

C:   Qīnqi hé qīnjìnde péngyou

háishi huì song yìxiē xiǎo lǐwù, xiàng xiǎoháizide yǐfu la, xiǎo tǎnzi la, xiǎo màozi la, wánjù shenmede. Yě you rén huì song yìxiē shuǐguǒ huōzhǎ xiǎnhuā.

A:   Yíge jiātíng kéyi you jǐge

xiǎoháir?

C:   Zài chéngshìli niánqīng fūfù

zuì duō yào liǎngge háizi.

A:   Nongcūnde qíngkuàng zěnmeyàng?

C:   Gèdì nongcūnde qíngkuàng hù

tong. Rénkǒu duōde dìfang zhèngfǔ tíchàng jìhuà shēngyù. Nóngcūnlide rén yě yòng gè-zhǒng hìyùn gōngjù. Bù shǎo rén yōule liǎngge háizi yǐhòu jiù zuò juéyù shǒushù, nánde zuò, nude zuò, dōu kéyi. Nōngmín juéde zuò Juéyù shǒushù hǐ yòng hìyùn gōngjù fānghiànde duō.

there is two weeks' leave with pay.

It seems to me I've heard that when Chinese women have children they get 56 days' maternity leave, and they can also huy extra nutritional food items. Is that so?

That's right. The maternity leave is paid. In the month after delivery, a woman can also huy one or two catties of hrown sugar, and one or two extra catties of eggs. Chinese believe that hrown sugar is very good for women during the month after delivery.

When someone has a hahy, do relatives and friends give presents?

Relatives and close friends will still give a few small gifts, like clothes for the hahy, little blankets, little hats, toys, and so forth. There are also people who will give a little fruit or fresh flowers.

How many children can one family have?

In the city young couples have two children at the most.

What's the situation like in the rural areas?

The situation in rural areas is different in different places. Where there's a large population the government promotes family planning. People in the rural areas also use all the various kinds of contraceptive devices. Quite a few people undergo contraceptive surgery after they've had two children. Either men or women may have this done. The peasants feel that having contraceptive surgery performed is much more convenient than using contraceptive devices.

Keshi zài shaoshù mínzú dìqū, yīnwei rénkǒu shǎo, zhèngfǔ hù tíchàng jìhuà shēngyù, suoyi yìbānde jiātíng kéyi duō you jǐge xiǎoháir.

But in the areas populated hy minority nationalities, because the population is smaller, the government doesn’t advocate family planning, so the average family can have a few more children.

NOTE ON THE DIALOGUE

Rénmen shēng háizide shíhou, qǐnqi péngyou song bu song lǐwù?: As stated in the dailogue, friends and relatives in the PRC give useful items for the baby, like clothes, hats, cups, or perhaps a chicken for the mother. These are presented casually.

Vocabulary

PART I

NOTES ON PART I

Note on No. 1

fúqi: ’blessings, good fortune, luck’.

Wo hěn you fúqi, érzi bāng wo I’m very fortunate, my son helps me bù shǎo máng.                         a lot.

You really have bad luck. You just leave on a trip and then it rains.

Notes on No. 2

xífu: ’daughter-in-law, son’s wife’.

Tā xífu hāo piāoliang!             Her daughter-in-law is so beautiful!

Wo xífu gōngzuò mángjíle.          My daughter-in-law is very busy.

tōu-: ’first’, (literally ’head’) as in tōuyitiān, ’the first day’. Tōu- is used much like dì-: before a number and a counter, which may or may not be followed by a noun.

tōuyicì                             the first time

touyige rén                         the first person

tóuliāngge rén                      the first two people

tousānběn                           the first three volumes

In touyige, tou- is stressed and yi is in the neutral tone. Also notice that the word for ’two’ is liāng- (not èr as is usually the case when a counter follows).

Now here is a comparison of tou- and dì-:

• (1) Touyige rén and dìyíge rén are both translated as ’the first person’ and touyige is for the most part interchangeable with dìyíge.

• (2) Although the yǐ in touyige is unstressed and written without a tone mark over it, the yī in dìyíge is stressed and said with a second tone (or sometimes with a first tone).

• (3) The word for ’two’ is liāng after tou-, but èr after dì-. Dìèrge means ’the second one’, while touliāngge means ’the first two’.

(L) Tou- must be used with a counter, but dì- can be used with just a number after it. Here are some examples of dì- used with a number but no counter after it:

I’m going to buy this. First, it’s very well made; second, it’s inexpensive.

He is first, I’m second.

But touyī-, touliāng-, tóusān- always have a counter word after the number.

tāi: This is the counter for pregnancies, whether carried to term or not. Literally tāi means ’embryo’. The expression touyitāi can also be said toutāi.

The first three hahies were all girls it wasn’t until the fourth that she had a boy.

(grandson) (granddaughter)

nuxu son-in-law)

without any rise in pitch. (Some people also say hǎohǎo and xiao bǎobǎo.) IThere are many other words used to refer to babies. Some terms used by both men and women include (xiǎo) bēibì, (xiǎo) guāiguai, xiǎo jiǎhuo. Some terms used mostly by men include xiǎo bēibei and xiǎo budiǎnr.J

Note on No. 4

bù gǎn dāng: ’I’m flattered'. Literally, this means 'I dare not assume (the honor you pay me)'. This is a polite response to a compliment (such as 'You speak Chinese very well'), to a respectful gesture (such as helping someone put on their coat), or to a respectful phrase (like 'Qǐngjiǎo').

Note on No. 5

pòfei: 'spend money (on someone)', also sometimes translated as 'to spend recklessly'.

Notes on No. 6

you duo zhòng: 'how heavy?' Zhòng is the adjectival verb 'to be heavy’. Notice the similarity between asking age, weight and height. In each the pattern is literally 'have how much (of some quality)'.

Nǐ you duo dǎ?                      How old are you?

Nèizhāng zhuōzi you duo zhòng? How heavy is that table?

Tā you duo gāo?                     How tall is she?

This pattern is usually confined to measurements of some sort.

bang: 'pound (unit of weight)’. In addition to the traditional Chinese units of weight such as dǎn 'picul (100 liters approximately)', jIn 'catty (1 1/3 lbs.)', liǎng 'tael (105 grams approximately)’, and the metric system of weights, such as gōngliǎng *100 grams’ and gōng jin ’kilogram', you also find customary American units such as 'pound' used.

Notes on No. 7

gang wèile tā bù jiǔ: This means 'It's only been a short while SINCE I fed him.', NOT 'I fed him for only a short while.' Chinese can distinguish between the duration of a continued activity and the duration of something not happening by putting these two types of duration phrases in different places in the sentence.

Let's review time when and time spent, and take a look at how you express TIME WITHIN WHICH something didn't happen and TIME ELAPSED since something happened.

• 1. Simple duration phrases, that is phrases telling how long an activity went on, follow the verb. These contrast with phrases telling the time when something happened, which come before the verb.

Simple duration

Time when

• 2. The amount of time something did not happen, that is the TIME WITHIN WHICH the activity has not taken place, is expressed in negative sentences with time phrases before the verb.

Time Within with a Negative Verb

We haven’t seen each other for a year.

I haven’t been going there for a month now.

• 3. To express the time elapsed since an activity took place the duration phrase is again placed after the verb.

Time elapsed in an affirmative sentence

bù jiù.                         short while.

Note on No. 7

chī nǎi: ’to eat (mother’s) milk’, in other words, **to breastfeed” and by extension ’to drink milk’, even from a bottle. Similarly, wèi nai can mean ’to feed milk (to a baby)* without specifying mother’s milk or otherwise. To distinguish between breast feeding and bottle feeding, one can say chī māmade nǎi, ’to eat mother’s milk’. And from the mother’s point of view, one can say mama zìji gěi haizi wèi nǎi, ’the mother nurses the child herself.’

Note on No. 8

Tǎ zhǎngde hěn piàoliang: * She’s very pretty.’ Zhǎngde piàoliang literally means ’grow pretty’, but it should be translated simply as ’is pretty*. Zhangde ... is often used in descriptions of the appearance of living things. In these cases, zhǎngde ... is absent of any meaning such as ’has grown ...’, ’has come to be ...’ or ’has become ...’; it simply means ’is, are*.

Tǎ zhǎngde hěn hǎokàn.              She is very beautiful.

Tā zhǎngde gēn wo yíyàng gāo.      She is just as tall as I am.

Tāde lian zhǎngde gēn wo mèi-      Her face looks just like my little

mei yíyàng.                         sister.

There is almost no difference in meaning between Tā hěn piàoliang and

Tā zhǎngde hěn piàoliang. Both are used frequently. But there is a difference in meaning between Tā zhǎngde hěn gāo and Tā zhǎnggāo le: the former means ’He is very tali’, and the latter ’He has grown tall*.

Notes on No. 9

fúxiàng: ’auspicious physiognomy’. This phrase implies something more than ’lucky face’. The word fú expresses the destiny of a person to enjoy a life of good fortune. Xiang is a person’s looks considered from the point of view of fortune telling. Traditionally, it was believed that a person's destiny could be determined from the individual variations of his hands, bones, face, ears, hair, and so forth. The xiàng includes the face, ears, hairline, and bumps on the head.

...erduo zhǎngde zhēn dǎ: Portraits of some of the most admired men in Chinese history depict them with long ears. (Long ears are thought to indicate wisdom.) It was thought that rulers in particular were so endowed. Buddha is also pictured with long ears, as he appeared in Indian portrayals.

Taipei:

Mrs. Song’s daughter-in-law, Bǎolǎn, has just recently had a baby. A friend of the family, Mrs. Zhāng, comes to pay them a visit:

Z:   Song Taitai, nín xífu shēngle

meiyou?

• S:   Shēng le. Shēngle ge nánháizi.

Z:   ōu! Nín fùqi zhēn hao. Tā

tóuyitāi jiù gěi nin shēngle yige da súnzi. Gōngxǐ, gōngxǐ.

S:   Xièxie, xièxie! Lai kànkan

wǒ xífu gēn xiǎo bǎobao ba!

Z:    Hǎo.

Bǎolǎn! Gōngxǐ, gōngxǐ! Nǐ hǎo ma?

B:   Wǒ hen hǎo. Zhāng Bomù, nín

lai le.

Z:   Ou! Nǐ zhè haizi hen you

fúxiāng, ǒrduo zhǎngde name da!

B:   Xièxie! Tuō nínde fú!

Z:   Tā shēngxialaide shíhou you

duō zhòng a?

B:   Qībàng ban.

Z:   Ùg, zhēn bù xiǎo.

S:   Tā zhēn néng chī. Bǎolàn

gāng wèile ta bù jiù, xiànzài you kū le. Dàgài you yào chǐ nǎi le.

Z:   Tā kūde shēngyin hen dà.

Shēntǐ yídìng hen jiànkāng.

B:   Duì! Tā cōng yǐyuàn huílai

yíge lǐbài jiù zhǎngle yíbàng.

Z:   Wǒ lái yǐqiǎn xiǎngzhe nǐ

yīnggāi shēngle, suōyi

Mrs. Song, has your daughter-in-law had the baby yet?

Yes. It’s a boy.

Oh! How lucky you are. She had a nice big grandson for you—and it was her first! Congratulations.

Thank you. Come see my daughter-in-law and the baby!

Okay.

Congratulations, Bǎolǎn! How are you?

Well Mrs. Zhāng! I’m fine, thanks.

Oh! He’s got a very lucky physiognomy. Such big ears,’

Thank you! It’s because of your lucky influence!

How much did he weigh at birth?

Seven and a half pounds.

Hm. That’s really pretty big.

He eats like a horse. Bǎolǎn just fed him a little while ago, and now he’s crying again. He probably wants to nurse again.

He cries so loudly. He must be very healthy.

Yes! In the week after he came back from the hospital, he gained a pound.

Before I came I thought you should have had the baby by now, so I got a zhùnbèile yíge hóngbāo. Shi gěi xiǎo bǎobaode.

B:   Bù gǎn dang. Nín tai kèqi

le. Hébì pofei ne?

Z:   Bú shi kèqi. Zhí shi yìdiǎn

xiǎo yìsi.

B:   Xièxie! Xièxie!

’red envelope* ready. It’s for the baby.

You shouldn’t have. That’s too polite of you. Why should you spend money?

I’m not being polite. This is just a little something to express my feelings.

Thank you!

PART II

NOTES ON PART II

Notes on No. 10

mǎnyuè: ’thirtieth day after a child is born’, literally, ’full-month’. (it also means ’full moon’.) This refers to a baby’s completion of the first full month of life and is a cause of celebration.

Wángjiā háizi kuài mǎnyuè le, The Wang’s hahy is about to be a qīng dàjiā qù chī mǎnyuè           month old, and they’re asking

jiù.                                everyone to go take part in the

’full month’ banquet.

chuī fēng: Literally, ’to blow wind’, but actually ’to be in a current of air, a draft, the wind’. Although what blows is the wind, fēng ’wind’ seems to be in the object position in this phrase. Chǎnfù bù keyi chuī fēng does not mean ’’Women recently delivered of a child cannot blow wind", but rather, ’’Women recently delivered of a child cannot have wind blow on them." Traditionally, Chinese women were to stay out of drafts because of the very poor overall health situation of the country, and because of the importance of caring for the next generation. Of the three (Confucian) ways to be unfilial, the worst was to be heirless.

Nīde bìng gang hǎo, bu yào         You're just over your illness,

chūqu chuī fēng.                     don’t go out in a draft.

Notes on No. 11

zuò yuèzi: Literally, ’to sit the yuèzi', yuèzi being the month after giving birth during which a woman is supposed to take special care of her health. There are different motivations underlying this custom. Woman’s most important function (indeed her only one) was to aide in perpetuating the family line. Therefore it was essential to take special precautions for her own health so that she would nurse a healthy baby. Another idea was that a woman’s body at this time was "dirty" and to avoid offending the door gods she should not go past them.

Tā zuò yuèzide shíhou, kě xiǎo- During the first month after delivery xìn, méi chūguo yìtiān men.        she was extremely careful. She

didn’t go out once.

xiǎoxīn: ’to be careful’, literally, ’small-heart’. Xiǎoxīn is an adjectival verb which can be used with or without an object following.

Tā zhèige rén bù zěnmeyàng, hé This guy is nothing special, you’d tā zuò péngyou yào xiǎoxīn.        better be careful making friends

with him.

Xiǎoxīn.’ Qiánbianr shi hóngdēng. Careful.’ There’s a red light up ahead.

Xiǎoxīn nèige rén!                  Be careful of that person.’

Xiǎoxīn guò mǎlù.                   Be careful crossing the street.

Note on No. 12

shēngleng: 'raw or cold foods'. Traditional Chinese medicine divides foods into yin and yang Yin are "cool" (liángxìngde) foods, that is, foods that make the system cool; yang foods are "hot" (rèxìngde), that is, they make the system hot. These characteristics are not dependant on the degree temperature at which the food is eatenj but are rather inherent in the food. For example crab, white sugar, and most vegetables and fruits are yin or cool while hot pepper, lard, millet, brown sugar, and certain fruits such as canteloupe and lichee nuts are all particularly yang or hot. Generally speaking, yang foods harmonize with body temperature while yin foods shock the system. Nonetheless, a balance between the two kinds of foods must be maintained. Too much yang food can cause the body's "heat" to rise too much (shàng huo), minor symptoms of which might include a cough, fever, dry mouth, blisters on the tongue, and constipation. On the ocher hand, too much yin food is bad for the stomach and can cause diarrhea.

The body's "heat" (huo) can be regulated by eating one or the other kind of foods. Thus in hot weather, when the huo naturally rises, one should eat "cool" foods to lower the huo (qing huo), and in the winter one should eat "hot" foods. Likewise, certain illnesses call for the eating of one kind of food or the other: one should eat "cool" foods to counteract infections and fevers, while one should eat "hot" foods to build up one's strength if one has a disease which makes him weak. In particular, women giving birth should eat plenty of the "hot" type of foods.

Shēngleng, raw or cold foods, have also traditionally been considered bad for women who are pregnant or have just given birth. Given sanitary conditions in traditional China, this is understandable.

Chi shēnglengde dōngxi yídìng When eating raw things, be sure to yào xǐgānjing.                      wash them well.

Here are some examples of dé followed by the name of an illness:

Tā dé gānmào yǐhòu, jiù méiyou He didn't go out after he got a cold, chūlaiguo.

Here are some more examples sentences showing various uses of de:

Jīnniān guè shēngrì wo dele        I got a new book on my birthday this

yìběn xīn shū.                      year.

Xiǎodì jīntiān néng de hǎojǐ- Little brother will be able to get ge hongbāo!                         a lot of "red envelopes" today!

Of course, de cannot be used in all cases when we would say ’get’ in English. For one thing, de only means to receive passively, whereas English ’get’ sometimes denotes actively seeking to obtain, as in ’I’m going to the supply room to get some paper and pens’, or ’I got a package of cereal at the supermarket’. In these cases, dé would not be appropriate in Chinese. To show you some other ways in which the English word ’get’ is expressed in Chinese, here are some Chinese sentences which do not use de although the English translation uses ’get*:

Zuotian lai nǐde diānhuā le.       Yesterday you got a phone call (but

you weren’t here to get it.)

Zuotian wo jiēdāo tāde diānhuā Yesterday I got a phone call from le.                                 him (and was there to receive it.)

pèng: ’to touch’, only in the sense of one object coming into contact with another. The verb pèng can also mean to come into contact with something in a violent way, ’to hit, to bump into’. Whether pèng means merely ’to touch’ or ’to bump into’ must be determined by context.

Ni bie peng zheige zhuōzi.         Don’t touch this table.

Tāde chē kě bùdeliǎo. Biérén His car is terrific! Other people pèng dōu bù néng pèng, gèng        can’t even touch it, not to mention

bú yào shuō Jièqu kāi le!          borrowing it to drive!

CSome other words meaning ’to touch’ are āi ’to be close to, to be next to, to be touching’

Notes on No. 1U

tang: ’to lie down’. This is an action verb. Under most circumstances it requires some kind of complement: either a zài phrase telling where the subject ended up in a lying position, as in

Ta tangzai chuangshang le.         He lay down on the bed.

or the durative apsect marker -zhe, as in

dāngxīn: ’to watch out, to watch oneself, to be cautious’. Not to be confused with dānxīn, ’to worry’.

Gāng xiàle xuě, chū men dāngxīn! It’s just snowed, watch yourself when you go out.

Kāi chē shàng jiē dāngxīn yì- Watch yourself when you go out diǎnr a!                            driving downtown!

Notes on No. 16

jiéguǒ: ’as a result, and so ...’. One of the uses of this word is to connect the thought of one sentence with the next. (Another is as the noun ’result(s)*.) It provides a transition from one sentence to another, as in

'As a result, then        Below is a monologue which takes place in Peking,

in which the apeaker uses the word jiéguo in this way several times. (This is not meant to he an example of eloquence; in fact, you should not use jiéguo as repetitively as this speaker.)

tòngkū: ’to be in pain, to be suffering’.

Tā nèi shíhou hen tòngkū.          She was in a great deal of pain at

that time.

Liàn’ài shībàile tā hěn tòngkū. It was very hard on him when they broke up.

Zheijiàn shìqing ràng ta           This matter pained him a great deal,

fēichǎng tòngkū.

Notes on No. 17

duo kuài: ’how fast’.’ Duo or the alternate form duome is used in exclamatory sentences to mean ’how ...!’ Here are some more examples:

Notes on No. 18

Wángjiā: ’the Wang family’, referring either to the people, the social unit, or their home (in which case it can be used as a place word).

pǎng: ’to be fat, to get fat’. The verb pǎng can be used in two ways: one as an adjectival verb ’to be fat’, the other as a process verb ’to get fat’. To the Chinese, a fat baby is not only a healthy baby, it is a beautiful one. Plumpness and roundness are two features admired in babies and children.

Taipei:

Mrs. Fang pays a visit to Mrs. Zhāng and her daughter-in-law to see the daughter-in-law’s new baby:

NOTE ON THE DIALOGUE

hōngdàn: Red eggs symbolize a combination of lucky influences: red is the color of happiness and dignity, while eggs are symbols of health and prosperity to the farmer. Hōngdàn are sometimes also used as gifts from a newly-engaged couple to their friends.

Vocabulary

Customs Surrounding

Marriage, Birth, and Death: Unit 5

PART I

NOTES ON PART I

Notes on No. 1

zuìjìn; ’lately, recently; in the near future*. This word can either refer to the near past or the near future.

• A: Tā zuìjìn zěnmeyàng?           How has she been lately?

• B: Zuìjìn tā hěn hǎo.              Lately she’s, been very well.

Wǒ zuìjìn zài niàn shū.            I’ve been studying lately.

Wo zuìjìn yào dào Jiāzhōu qù.      I’m going to be going to California

in the near future.

chūchāi: ’to go away on official business’.

Notes on No. 2

zǔmǔ: ’(paternal) grandmother'. Remember that this refers exclusively to the father's mother. The mother's mother is wàizǔmǔ. EA grandmother is usually addressed by her son's children as nāinai.J Here is a chart showing these terms:

zǔfù zǔmǔ                     wàizǔfù       wàizǔmǔ

qùshì: 'to pass away'. Literally, this means 'to go (from this) world'. It is a euphemism for sǐ 'to die', which is introduced in Unit 6.

Xiǎo Wāngde fùqin qùshì yǐjīng It's been two years since Xiǎo Wang's liǎngniǎn le.                       father died.

xiǎoxi: 'news, information, tidings'.

Zhèiliǎngtiǎn bàozhǐshang you     The

hěn duō guānyu Zhōngguode

xiǎoxi.

Jīntiǎn bàozhǐshang you shénme

xīn xiǎoxi?

Xiāoxi can be used with the counter -ge to mean ’a piece of news, an item of news’:

I have a piece of good news.

Note on No. 3

diàosāng: ’to present one’s condolences at a funeral, to attend a funeral’. At a traditional funeral, the guests, by groups, present their condolences to the family of the deceased in a brief formal ceremony.

Jīntiān wǒ qù diàosāng, jiàndao Today when I was at the funeral I nín jiā lǎotàitai.                  saw your grandmother.

Note on No. 4

sānglǐ: ’the funeral ceremony’. CSāng- in some combinations means ’funeral’, for example, sāngfú ’funeral clothing’, or sāngshì ’funeral’.! On a volunteer basis, family, friends, and villagers help with funeral preparations. Members of the immediate family stay with the coffin to guard it during the day and sleep with it at night.

Notes on No. 5

yíxiàng: ’always (up to now)’, has been so all along up until now (and else change).

Wǒ yíxiàng ài chi tian diǎnxin.

Tā yíxiàng niàn shū niànde hen hǎo.

Wú Lǎoshī yíxiàng xǐhuan haizi.

Xià Xiānsheng yíxiàng hěn kèqi.

hūrǎn: ’suddenly’. This is a or at the front of the sentence.

zài yě bù he le: ’will never drink again’. Sometimes people ask what is the word for ’never’ in Chinese. The answer is that ’never’ is not expressed by one word, but rather by a combination of adverbs and negative. Not only is ’never’ rendered into Chinese by several words, but the word patterns are different for sentences expressing completed action, habitual action, or planned action. For these examples you need to know that yongyuān is the word for ’forever’.

Wo cǒnglai méi chīguo Zhōngguo I’ve never eaten Chinese food, cài.

Wǒ cónglái bu kàn nèiyangde        I’ve never read those kinds of books,

shū.

Tāde wèntí yongyuān bù néng        His problems can never be solved,

jiějué.

Wo zài yě bú qù nàli le.            I’ll never go there again.

If zài is placed in front of the negative, the meaning of the phrase is more emphatic.

Wǒ zài bù huílai le’.                I’m never coming back here again.’

If yě is added between zài and the negative, the meaning is approximately the same.

Wǒ zài yě bù chǐ táng le.          I’m never going to eat candy again.

Nèitiáo lù bù hāo zǒu, nǐ zài That road is hard to go on, don’t yě Lie zǒu nèitiáo lù le.          ever take it again.

Don’t ever read, this kind of book again.

That restaurant is too expensive; I only went there once and then I never went back again.

We were schoolmates, but after we left the school, I never saw him again.

Three months ago it rained once, and since then it hasn’t rained again.

seen zài ’again’ used in sentences òu used in sentences which did.

But there are further qualifications on the use of ’again’ in Chinese. While zài always refers to activities which have not yet occurred, that is future activities or events, you is not totally limited to activities or events which are completed or past. You may be used in present or future situations if the thing being talked about is so certain that it may be treated like something which has actually happened.

And tomorrow is Monday again.

And how much money is needed again for this?

And this day is about to end too. (Said at the end of a long busy day with many things left to do.)

Now I have a job again.

A third party can be referred to as tā lǎorénjiā:

He said that we don't need to be in a rush to do this.

Wǒ gěi tā lǎorénjiā song yidiǎn diǎnxin lai.

Wo wènguo wǒ zùfù le, tā lāo- I asked my grandfather, and he said rénjia shuō míngnián zánmen        our whole family is going to

quánjiā qù Shanghai.                Shanghai next year.

Here are two examples of lāorénjia being used as a respectful word for ’old people’:

Today those two (old people) had a very pleasant conversation.

Lāorénjiamen dōu xǐhuan chi ruānde dōngxi.

In Peking, the syllable lāo in lāorénjia receives the heaviest stress of the three syllables, and jia is in the neutral tone.

song: ’to take (someone somewhere), to escort (someone somewhere), to see someone off or out’. The basic meaning of this word is to accompany someone who is leaving, but as you can see from the various translations given, song can be used in a wide variety of circumstances. Here are some examples:

Notes on No. 8

jǐngguò: You have seen jǐngguo meaning ’to go thru’. Here it is used to mean ’though’ in the sense of ’by means of’. It can also be translated ’as a result of’, ’after’, ’through’, or ’via’.

jíjiù: ’emergency treatment; to administer emergency treatment, to receive emergency treatment’. Notice that jíjiù can mean to give or get emergency treatment.

jiùguolai: ’to save’, literally ’to save over’. The directional verb ending guòlai ’over’ sometimes shows the recovery of an original desirable or normal state. For example, in jiùguolai it implies the change from a condition in which death is imminent to one in which the patient can be expected to' live.

Note on No. 9

bǎozhòng: ’to take care of oneself, to take care of (one’s health)’.

Notes on No. 10

guòqu: ’to pass away’. Like English ’pass away’, this is a euphemism for ’to die’.

Nín duo dà niánji le?              How old are you? (polite way of

asking an adult’s age)

Tā niánji bù xiǎo le.               She’s not young any more.

Tā niánji dà le. or Tā shàngle He’s getting on in years, niánji le.

[Although the adjectival verb dà ’to be big’ is used after niánji to mean ’to be old’, when you want to say ’to be young’, you should use the adjectival verb qīng ’to be light* rather than xiǎo ’to be small’; for example, Tā niánji hái qīng, bù yīnggāi ràng ta qù gōngzuò, ’He’s still young, you shouldn’t make him go get a job.’]

Note on No. 11

píngjìng: ’to be calm’. Pingjìngxiàlai, ’to calm down’.

Notes on No. 12

méi néng: ’was not able to’• Here you see the auxiliary verb néng used with the negative méi. You have learned that state verbs (auxiliary verbs are one type of state verbs) are negated with bù, (bù hǎo, bù zhīdao) not with méi. Here, however, you see méi néng instead of bù néng. This is an exception to the rule that all state verbs are always negated with bù. Actually, either bù néng or méi néng would be acceptable in this sentence. Some speakers, however, feel that there is a subtle difference between bù néng and méi néng when referring to an event in the past. For example, one can say Wo zuōtiān méi néng qù as well as Wo zuotiān bù néng qù. Wǒ zuótiān méi néng qù hints at the fact that there was a failure to attain the state of being able to go, whereas Wǒ zuotiān bù néng qù merely describes the state of being unable to go, without making any implications about failure (to attain the state of being able to go). Such a subtle difference

in implication may make very little difference in the actual import of a sentence in some contexts, although in other contexts it may be of some significance. (For the first example sentence, you need to know that mìmi means ’secret’.)

Taipei:

A woman goes to visit her friend after hearing of her father’s death:

PART II

NOTES ON PART II

Note on No. 13

da chángtú diànhuà: ’to make a long-distance telephone call’.

Qǐng nǐmen shēngyin xiǎo           Would you all he a little quieter,

yídiǎn, wǒ zài dǎ chángtú         . please? I’m making a long-distance

diànhuà ne!                          call!

You saw in the Post Office-Telephone Module that diànhuà can also be used with the meaning ’a telephone call’ as in You nǐde diànhuà, ’There’s a telephone call for you’. Chángtú diànhuà can be used in the same way:

Wèi! Xiǎo Sānr! You nǐde         Xiǎo Sānr! There’s a long-distance

chángtú diànhuà!                    phone call for you!

In the Meeting Module you saw the expression lái diànhuà ’a telephone call is received’ or ’make a telephone call here’. Here is chángtú diànhuà used in the same pattern:

Jīntiān zǎoshàng you ren gěi       This morning someone called long-

ni lái chángtú diànhuà le,         distance for you, but you weren’t

nǐ bú zài.                           here.

Note on No. 1H

guòshǐ: ’to pass away, to die’. You have now seen ’to die’ expressed three different ways: guòqu, qùshì, and guòshì. All may be used in conversation, although guòqu is probably the most common.

Note on No. 16

chángshòu: ’long life, longevity; to live a long life’.

Note on No. IT

zài shuō: ’furthermore, moreover, in addition, besides’. Often following a clause with zài shuō, one of the adverbs yě ’also’ or you ’also’ is used.