Yihhei: unreliable or not serious (lit. playing like kids)Emperor Mahn, who ruled from 179 B.C. to 156 B.C., once conducted two military inspections. On his journey to Bah Seuhng and Gik Muhn, he and his attendants finished their task without any impediment. On his trip to Sai Lauh, the soldiers on guard blocked his path. The emperor was forced to send in a man with a military warrant before they opened the gate for him. Emperor Mahn then found the commander general and commended him, … [Read more...]
Colorful Casting
August 13, 2012 Leave a Comment
Gunjih leuhnggo hau: the officials have two mouthsWithin the character for "official" appears two mouths (they look like square boxes). Regular people use one mouth. This phrase means that those in power can speak much louder. Whether they're right or wrong, you still have to listen to them. Some things are out of one's control. When a writer gets their work turned into a movie, it transitions out of their hands. Film adaptations require different skills. That's why there are … [Read more...]
To Go or Not? A Writers’ Conference Dilemma
August 6, 2012 5 Comments
Louhsyu Laaigwai --> Mouhdehng Maaihsau: don't know how to startIn Chinese language, there exists a verbal riddle known as the enigmatic parallelism. A hungry rat (louhsyu) tries to bite a tortoise (gwai)--without success when the tortoise hides in its shell. This image of the rat trying to pull out the tortoise demonstrates the phrase's meaning of not knowing how to begin.I'm not sure where to start in terms of writers' conferences. According to this post called "The Writers Conference … [Read more...]
E-Fever
July 30, 2012 4 Comments
Dinggwagwa: very goodDing means the "the top," and gwagwa is the transliteration of "good, good" in Cantonese. Be the best--go to the top. Confession: I own both a Nook Touch and a Kindle Fire. Before the advent of e-readers and e-ink, I was skeptical about replacing written words with digital print. Now, though, I love having portable books, an entire revolving library in the palm of my hand. (It also preserves the life of my crammed bookshelves.) Electronic books have swept the country. … [Read more...]
Fireworks: Flashes of Insight into Fiction
July 9, 2012 Leave a Comment
Che Daaihpaau: boast, talk big; tell a lieMany Cantonese words and expressions come from ancient times. The characters used back then have become so rare that they've been changed to homophones. In che daaihpaau, the original che means "to boast" and paau signifies "to fool people with exaggeration." Nowadays, the words "chariot" and "big cannon" have replaced the characters.Speaking of booming cannons, I watched a beautiful fireworks show this past 4th of July. It lasted 30 minutes, which a … [Read more...]
Who Am I?
June 18, 2012 3 Comments
Hahmbahlaahng: allAncient Han language, dialects of northern China, and foreign languages collude to form Cantonese. The word hahmbahlaahng came from the spoken language of northern China during the Yuan dynasty. While "hahp" means all, "bala" is an empty morpheme, a sound without meaning tacked onto the end of an adjective. What happens to our identity when we, like the Cantonese dialect, come from multiple origins? Best-selling novelist Lisa See's lineage holds both Chinese and Caucasian … [Read more...]
