Identity struggles
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1466090,00.html
China is my homeland. But these days - in the bars, cafes, on the
streets - I am lost in translation
Xinran
Friday April 22, 2005
The Guardian
When you are in Rome/China, do as the Romans/Chinese. I have been
struggling with being a real Chinese person in China since I came back
to the land of my birth at the beginning of this month.
I can no longer understand the menus: the dishes named in the
traditional phrase or the modern common saying, such as "Touch Hands,
Through Black Hair", which is the title of a popular song but also
seaweed cooked with pig's trotter. "Mrs Green" is a dish of deep-fried
dry, green vegetables. "Why is it Mrs Green, not Miss?" I asked the
waiter; he explained that "Miss Green" is used for fresh vegetable
dishes. (This is a typical Chinese philosophy - after marriage, women
become dry and tasteless.) Meanwhile, "Hero Can't Pass Beauty's Test" -
the 1,500-year-old traditional sentence from a Tang poem - is tofu
cooked with beef. By the way, if you are a man, don't say you like to
eat tofu "Ai chi dou fu" to your Chinese friends - that means you like
sex.
Xinran
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/f3a452a8ff580a9c
Is the wakening giant a monster?
http://tinyurl.com/iws6
A Blueprint for the Future
http://groups-beta.google.com/=ADgroup/alt.atheism/msg/59c28cd6=ADdfe6f60f
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