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Life in China Mei Nü
Life in China Mei Nü | Mei Nü |
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| China | |
| Saturday, 16 June 2007 | |
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Beijing 10 bella – beauty – měi nǔ Jingwen and I went out again today. I bought a new mobile and my family can now finally text me in Chinese (my British one wasn't able to read Chinese). I have been holding my handbag very tightly all day today. I was using so much energy that if anyone attempts to grab my bag, he/she probably wouldn't succeed. As a result, my hands were very sore in the end, but it was worth it. I was called "měi nǔ" (beautiful woman) hundreds of times today. "Měi nǔ, please come in and have a look!" Once we entered a shopping centre, hundreds of people were calling us "měi nǔ" and trying to get us to see their products. Honestly, we were a bit scared to be called "beauty" by that many people, from both our left and our right sides in that volume. We said to each other while walking through that crowd "This is scary!" One of the girls heard us and replied back "No need to be scared!". It reminded me of Italy actually, where I kept hearing "Ciao Bella!" It wasn't in this frequency and volume though. I don't remember being called "měi nǔ" by shopkeepers in China before. It would more likely to be "Miss, come in and have a look please", in the places I had lived anyway. Is this just a Beijing habit, or is it a new habit of today's China? I think it's more likely to be a new habit of today's or recent China. Young people have added many new words into spoken Chinese. Some could be because of the influence of foreign languages. For example, "zuo xiù" comes from the English word "show" or "showing", it often means "showing off" in Chinese. This word must be about several years old now. Some of these new words also could be coming from a popular film. For example, I have been hearing young people here calling a type of insects "xiao qiang", their real name is actually "zhang lang". I asked them why, they said that it was from a film, the main female charactor of that film called zhang lang "xiao qiang"… Well, it must be a very popular film then, otherwise how can they - from different parts of China - all call zhang lang "xiao qiang" now? I have so much to catch up in this NEW China. MeiMei www.meimei.co.uk |
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