{"id":15291,"date":"2020-12-16T15:30:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=15291"},"modified":"2020-12-09T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T21:30:11","slug":"top-20-chinese-blog-posts-of-2020-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/top-20-chinese-blog-posts-of-2020-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 20 Chinese Blog Posts of 2020 (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of us will be happy to say goodbye to 2020 in a few weeks. The year was dominated by the coronavirus<\/strong> (\u65b0\u51a0\u75c5\u6bd2 x\u012bn gu\u0101n b\u00ecng d\u00fa), which taught us terms like social distancing<\/strong> (\u793e\u4ea4\u9694\u79bb sh\u00e8 ji\u0101o g\u00e9 l\u00ed). Even in China where it seemed like they had finally gotten the virus under control, new cases were recently reported in the city of Chengdu. At least there are positive developments in terms of a vaccine<\/strong> (\u75ab\u82d7 y\u00ec mi\u00e1o), because we’re all suffering from pandemic fatigue. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 was an important topic here on the blog this year. Thankfully, it’s not all we talked about! We had popular posts this year about Chinese holidays, food, idioms, and much more. I usually count down the Top 10 posts at the end of each year, but this year we’re going big with the Top 20 Chinese Blog Posts of 2020! In Part One, we’ll look at the ten best posts from the first half of the year.<\/p>\n

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Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

COVID-19 Chinese Vocabulary<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s hard to talk about current events when you don’t know the necessary vocabulary. That’s why Ayana wrote this post to teach some COVID-19 vocabulary. You’ll learn vocabulary such as World Health Organization<\/strong> (\u4e16\u536b\u7ec4\u7ec7 sh\u00ec w\u00e8i z\u01d4 zh\u012b) and symptom<\/strong> (\u75c7\u72b6 zh\u00e8ng zhu\u00e0ng) along with example sentences to help you understand them better.<\/p>\n

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The Spring Festival Gala<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spring Festival is far and away the most important holiday in China. It’s a time to visit family, eat an absurd amount of food, light off boxes upon boxes of fireworks, and gather round the TV set for the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Known as Chun Wan<\/strong>\u201d (\u6625\u665a \u2013 ch\u016bn w\u01cen), this program is watched by a billion people. This post talks all about the show and what kind of sketches and performances it features.<\/p>\n

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The Year of the Rat<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

2020 was a Year of the Rat<\/strong> (\u9f20\u5e74 sh\u01d4 ni\u00e1n), which actually starts a new cycle of the Chinese zodiac calendar. If you’re not familiar with the order of the zodiac, you should definitely read this post. I also go into detail about characteristics of people born in the Year of the Rat and their relationships and careers. I also mention some famous folks who were born in a Year of the Rat.<\/p>\n

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Image by George Tan from flickr.com.
Public Domain Mark 1.0<\/p><\/div>\n

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A New Chinese Phrase<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This post by Ayana talks about the phrase \u6700\u7f8e\u9006\u884c\u8005 (zu\u00ec m\u011bi n\u00ec x\u00edng zh\u011b), which has been widely used this year to describe the frontline workers battling the pandemic. It’s a bit tricky to translate this directly, but she explains the background to this phrase and its relevance in 20020. There’s even a new CCTV show titled “\u6700\u7f8e\u9006\u884c\u8005,” the first-ever anti-epidemic TV show in the country.<\/p>\n

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The Rising Demand for Masks in China<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to the coronavirus, there was a massive increase in the demand for protective masks<\/strong> (\u53e3\u7f69\u00a0<\/strong>k\u01d2u zh\u00e0o) both in China and around the globe. Even though China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of these masks, they faced a shortage earlier this year. Ayana goes into detail about protective masks while teaching lots of useful vocabulary in this post.<\/p>\n

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Be Strong Wuhan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the location of the first reported case of the coronavirus, the Chinese city of Wuhan<\/strong> (\u6b66\u6c49 w\u01d4 h\u00e0n) has had a rough year, to say the least. The city of 11 million was under lockdown for nearly two months as the pandemic wreaked havoc. Trapped in their homes, the residents of Wuhan took to yelling “\u6b66\u6c49\u52a0\u6cb9!” (w\u01d4 h\u00e0n ji\u0101 y\u00f3u), or “Go Wuhan!” Western media picked it up and translated it as “Be Strong Wuhan,” which resulted in several touching moments. Read all about it in this post which sheds a little light on the darkness of this year!<\/p>\n

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Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

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China\u2019s Epidemic Heroes Returned Home<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

After several very difficult months, the situation in Wuhan began to improve. On March 16, the city reported only one new case of COVID-19. The next day, they began to withdraw the extra medical personnel<\/strong> (\u533b\u62a4\u4eba\u5458\u00a0<\/strong>y\u012b h\u00f9 r\u00e9n yu\u00e1n) that had been rushed to the city to help. This post from Ayana goes into detail about this important event in 2020.<\/p>\n