Chinese Language Blog

A much-discussed drama involving the Chinese tech giant Tencent and the well-known Chili sauce brand Lao Gan Ma erupted last June. Lao Gan Ma (老干妈 Lǎo gàn mā) is one of the most favored chili sauces in China. The company was founded by an illiterate woman from a mountain village who built her small noodles restaurant into a…

Summer in Beijing is very fun (北京的夏天很有趣 Běi jīng de xià tiān hěn yǒu qù). Sure it’s a bit hot, but there are plenty of ways to cool down. Plus, if you can’t make it to a body of water, you can always just roll your shirt up over your belly and rock the now…

The Olympic Games (奥运会 ào yùn huì) are the world’s biggest celebration of sport. More than 200 nations participate in the foremost international sporting event. For a couple of weeks, people from all over the world engage together in fair competitions and athletic skills. The international festival aims to promote solidarity and respect, and to rejoice…

Summer is upon us, which means the weather is getting hotter and hotter (天气越来越热 tiān qì yuè lái yuè rè). On those hot summer days, it’s nice having a cool, refreshing snack. There’s perhaps no better dish for this time of year than a smashed cucumber salad (拍黄瓜 pāi huáng guā). You may also see…

症状 (zhèng zhuàng) is a noun meaning symptom. The Chinese dictionary defines it as an abnormal condition (异常状态yì cháng zhuàng tài) indicates disease (疾病jí bìng). For example: 头痛是许多疾病的症状。 Tóu tòng shì xǔ duō jí bìng de zhèng zhuàng. Headache is a symptom of many diseases. —————————————————————————————————————————– Adjectives to describe symptoms include: For example: 流鼻涕是感冒的常见症状。 Liú…

On the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, China celebrates the Dragon Boat Festival (端午节 – duān wǔ jié). This year the holiday falls on June 25th. It has been celebrated in China for thousands of years, but it has only been a public holiday since 2008. Learn all about this traditional holiday in…

The landlocked province of Guizhou (贵州 Guìzhōu) is situated in southwest China. The Chinese describe the province as: 天无三日晴， tiān wú sān rì qíng, 地无三里平， dì wú sān lǐ píng, 人无三分银。 rén wú sān fēn yín. The rhymed parallelism depicts it well. The first part describes the sky and indicates the weather: 天无三日晴 (tiān wú…