culture
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Blog 11: Tomatoes with Sugar or Salt?
When I was growing up in China we always ate fresh and raw tomatoes with sugar as a cold dish, whether we were at home or in a restaurant. I always refused to eat them because I like salty food. I disliked the cold, sweat and sour taste of tomatoes, especially during dinner when most dishes, including the warm dishes with tomatoes, are salty. I sometime murmured that I only liked raw tomatoes when they were salty and not sweet. But neither my parents nor anyone else thought it was a good idea. They all stared at me as if I were E.T. from another planet with a ridiculous custom.…
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Blog 10: Chinese New Year
Today is Chinese New Year, also popularly known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year. It is the longest and most important traditional festival for the Han Chinese. The origin of Chinese New Year celebration („Guo Nian“, 过年 in Chinese) is no longer known. But the tale that most people tell as the reason is that the word year, “Nian(年)“. In Chinese this was originally the name of a monster which always preyed on people the night before new year. To save the people a kindhearted immortal transformed himself into an old man. e told people to put red paper decorations on their windows and doors and to light…
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Blog 7: Happy New Year – Live Like a Tumbler
German Version On New Year’s eve, thousands of thoughts flashed through my mind. A lot of memories came back when I read a post from one of my longest friends J. She posted a photo of the two of us smiling and hugging, which was taken just a couple of days ago during her 6th wedding anniversary. Under the photo she commented: “When I had just moved to this city 8 years ago, it was this girl who helped the lonely me find my other half. (Her original wording was actually more implicative. The word for word translation should read: “It was just this girl who helped the lonely me…
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Blog 5: Dog Pissing Love – a Story about Chinese Tattoos
German Version I have been living in two cultures for many years. It’s interesting to see the effect when people choose words or symbols from another culture without knowing what they really mean. For example in China it is very trendy to wear T-shirts with English words or slogans. However, some well-known stars have worn T-shirts with prints such as „VAMP“, „Hustler“ or „social butterfly“ on TV or openly without realising what kind of wrong image they were portraying to the public and their fans. When I came to Europe I started seeing various tattoos using Chinese characters. Some of them were so strange that I didn’t know whether to laugh…