“Definitions of nonsense vary widely and often pay little attention to cultural context or the phenomenology of reading.” – explains Professor Alan Levinovitz of James Madison University, US in a Sept. 2017 article for the journal Comparative Literature. “After surveying the problems with these definitions, the article then redefines nonsense experientially, that is, as the […]
Tag: Chinese
The Ig Nobel book is now out in Traditional Chinese
And now, the traditional Chinese translation that you may have been waiting for: The Ig Nobel Prizes, by Marc Abrahams, ISBN 9789869189781.
The ‘Usefulness of Uselessness’ and a vice versa update
It was somewhere around the 4th century BC that Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou raised the idea of ‘The Usefulness of Uselessness’. Master Zhuang pointed out that objects (or information) which appear at first sight to be quite useless, can, on further investigation (and/or at a later date, and/or at another place) sometimes turn out to […]
A confusing study: Chinese Sports Reports
Non-specialists may find the following study to be delightfully confusing. Here’s the citation, and a snippet from the whole thing. (Click on the image to see an enlargement of it. Click on the title link to obtain a copy of the entire article.): “A Study of Chinese-English Code-switching in Chinese Sports News Reports,” Chun-xuan Shen, […]
A multi-level documentary about Melbourne
The documentary film “This is Melbourne… Wow!“, by Cameron Cairns, presents information about a city called Melbourne, which is in Australia. The information is presented on two levels. [vimeo]14757932[/vimeo] (HT Carl Pilber) BONUS: “Away From It All“
Irrational Torque Technique of Hammer Throwers
This study explains that the technique of certain hammer throwers is irrational. Below the citation, you can see a video about the comparatively rational techniques of Soviet hammer throwers. “Kinematical Research on the Whole Pace and the Features of the Kip and Knee of the Throwing Technique of Chinese Elite Female Hammer Throwers,” Zhang Jinyi, […]
Problems and Solutions in Chinese Pickles
Today: Part 2 in our Problems with Chinese Pickles Series (click here to revisit part 1). Chinese pickles are, as the title of this series strongly implies, not always without problems. The situation is far from intractable, as one sees in this study: “Problems Existing in Sichuan Pickles and Solving Measures” Tai-jian Hu, Guo-bing Li, […]
Chinese Pickles and the Book of Songs
Today: Part 1 in our Problems with Chinese Pickles Series. Chinese pickles are a window into many worlds, as the keywords indicate for this study: “The History and Development of Chinese Pickles, ” Gong Chen, Food and Fermentation Technology, March 2010. (Thanks to investigator Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at […]
Textual Analysis of Fortune Cookie Sayings
Though many enjoy the experience of opening ‘Fortune Cookies’ in a Chinese restaurant, some have asked “How Chinese are they?” In particular, Jing Yin and Yoshitaka Miike of the Department of Communication, at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo , Hilo, Hawaiʻi. The two researchers examined the “Chineseness” of 595 fortune cookie sayings, using the […]