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For my 250th post on this blog, I created a new pinned post to introduce myself!

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If you are on my blog, click the tags below to see posts on topics I often post about!

First time in years reading an actual paper book in Chinese. It’s the Chinese translation of Malice by Keigo Higashino. Last time I tried reading a physical book, it was excruciating; now I can manage without a pop-up dictionary!

I'd heard of the term 美国时间 (meaning spare/leisure time) before, but I'd never actually encountered it until I was watching the Taiwanese show 忘了我记得, when one of the characters said:

对，有哪一个妈妈有这个美国时间来看演出？ 對，有哪一個媽媽有這個美國時間來看演出？ Duì, yǒu nǎ yígè māma yǒu zhège měiguó shíjiān lái kàn yǎnchū Yeah, what mom has the spare time to go watch a performance?

While I'm not sure what the origins of this term are, it seems to suggest that Americans have a lot of free time. Maybe that's true compared to East Asian work culture, but of course we Americans like to say stuff like Americans live to work, Europeans work to live.

An ode to the particle 嘛

Over the years, I've developed an appreciation for the humble particle 嘛 ma. In the dictionary you'll find 3 uses of this particle, but at least in my experience, I only learned the first one in my Chinese classes. But the other 2 are super useful, and I encounter them often!

(1) Marks a pause in a sentence, to call the listener's attention

用在句中，表示停顿，引起对方注意

(2) Indicates something is obvious (declarative)

用在陈述句末尾，表示理所当然

(3) Expresses a hope or advice/persuasion (imperative)

用在祈使句末尾，表示期望或劝阻

If the last 2 uses are new to you, I bet you'll start noticing them now!

If you’ve ever wondered how to express “let them eat cake” in Chinese, I just came across 何不食肉糜 hébùshíròumí.

Check out this life/travel in China handbook

I saw a post featuring this Chinese Handbook for International Visitors on Reddit, and it looks like an incredible resource for those traveling/moving to China! It includes useful vocabulary, sample sentences, and mini dialogues.

Included topics:

How I’m learning Japanese kana

I’ve always wanted to learn hiragana and katakana, but it’s been a lot harder than learning hangul. After 2 failed attempts—using Duolingo and printed worksheets—I finally found a better way for me! I’m using the website Kana Pro (I assume it’s known in Japanese-learning circles).

You can select exactly which categories you want to practice, and then the site takes you through 4 stages.

Stage 1 shows you a kana, and you select the correct romaji. Stage 2 is the reverse. As you progress, correct answers fill up the blue bar, and incorrect answers subtract from it. You move to the next stage when the bar is full.

Stage 3 displays a kana and has you type the romaji. Stage 4 also has you type, but it shows a random sequence of 3 kana.

Since I have no need to write Japanese, this works well for me. But ugh, the シ (shi) vs. ツ (tsu) thing is killing me. Way worse than 茶 and 荼 or whatnot.

My 2025 in cdramas, cmovies & cvariety

With 2025 almost over, it’s time for my annual writeup of Chinese-language shows and movies I watched throughout the year! You can read last year's list here.

I do my best with content warnings, but it’s possible I’ve forgotten things. I only include warnings for shows/movies I’ve completed.

Shows/series:

《异人之下之决战！碧游村》 I Am Nobody S2

Tasked with locating rogue NDT operative Chen Duo, Zhang Chulan, Feng Baobao, and the rest of the gang journey to the mysterious Biyoucun and clash with Ma Xianhong, the village's charismatic leader. Season 2 was tonally much darker than season 1, but there were still many humorous moments. Wen Qi as Chen Duo was a real standout. Just wish this season had been longer!

Content warning: Gore

《我的阿勒泰》 To the Wonder

After struggling to make it in the city, Li Wenxiu moves in with her mother in rural Xinjiang province. There she meets Batay, a Kazakh boy, and learns about his family's way of life. I decided to watch this show after hearing about how beautiful the scenery and cinematography were. And it did not disappoint! It felt like a breath of fresh air—truly unlike any other drama I’ve watched.

Content warning: Harm to animals

Watch on YouTube

《莲花楼》 Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Ten years after his supposed death, Li Xiangyi lives as a miracle doctor named Li Lianhua. Together with his (unwanted) companions Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng, he travels the jianghu solving mysteries and encountering figures from his past. This drama is highly-rated and talked about for a reason. I don't watch a lot of wuxia or costume dramas, but I really couldn't get enough. Totally lived up to the hype!

Content warning: Depictions of torture, (mild) horror & creepy scenes

Watch eps 1-5/40 on YouTube

《变成你的那一天》 The Day of Becoming You

A freak accident causes entertainment reporter Yu Shengsheng and idol Jiang Yi to switch bodies. As they try to survive in each other's shoes without slipping up, they also fall in love. This show was beyond hilarious, especially Zhang Xincheng’s acting. If you want a fun, feel-good show, definitely check it out. I wish there were more cdramas like this.

Watch eps 1-5/26 on YouTube

《滤镜》 Filter

I just realized last night that 威亚 wēiyǎ (as in 吊威亚 diào wēiyǎ) is borrowed from wire in English...

I remember when I first encountered 威亚, I had no idea what it was. I eventually realized from context that it meant wires/tethers for aerial or stunt work. Still, I wondered why it was called 威亚, two characters with no relevant meaning. But last night it suddenly hit me that wēiyǎ sounds kind of like wire. I can't believe I never put two and two together until now!

My trip to the Taipei Music Center

If you like cpop music and are traveling to Taipei in 2026, I highly recommend you visit the Music Island Stories exhibit at the Taipei Music Center!

The exhibit is across the street from the main concert hall, conveniently located in Taipei's Nangang District near the Kunyang stop on the Bannan (blue) line.

The exhibit combines music, memorabilia, videos, projections, and audio recordings to showcase the evolution of Taiwan's music scene. Your journey through each room (with themes like campus folk music or hip-hip) is narrated by the voices of artists like Leehom Wang and Cheer Chen. And at the end, an immersive concert hall plays concert footage from artists like Mayday and JJ Lin.

I spent about 2 hours at the exhibit, and I definitely could have spent more! Here are some of my photos:

I just want everyone to know that in Chinese a van is called 面包车 miànbāochē (bread car), and this is apparently the explanation:

大家觉得很像当时市面上的面包，再加上前后没有突出的仓体，就像缩小的巴士一样，“Minibus”的读音也近似于“面包”，就被取了个“面包车”的外号

Everyone felt that it was similar to the bread on the market at the time, coupled with the fact that there was no protruding trunk/engine in the front and back, just like a mini bus. The pronunciation of "Minibus" is also similar to "mianbao", so it was nicknamed "mianbaoche"

Now look at this!!!

If you've ever wondered what a bandaid wrapper looks like in China...

创口贴（創口貼）chuāngkǒutiē - band-aid 

高弹舒服

不得二次使用

弹力透气型

已消毒

为避免创口贴破损 请如图撕开包装

由此撕开

I bought these bandaids in China, but I forgot the word and asked for a 绷带 bēngdài, which is like a wrap-around style bandage. When the pharmacist brought me a long roll, I said something like, "No, I need the little sticky ones." She looked at me like I was a bit of a fool 😬

In (at least my dialect of) English, bandage is ambiguous: it could be either type. If someone asked me for a bandage, I'd probably reply, "Which kind?" But my understanding is that in Chinese, 绷带 and 创口贴 are totally different categories.

Distinguishing Chinese and Korean (Hanja) names

As you may or may not be aware, most Korean names have corresponding Hanja, aka hanzi. As a learner of Chinese, it can be tricky to tell if a name is Korean or Chinese. But with experience and exposure, you can start to make educated guesses.

Surnames

If you see the surname 朴, it's almost certainly a Korean name. This is the very common surname Park 박.

The following surnames are more common in Korea than in China, so while it's not 100%, it's a strong sign:

But be warned that there is a lot of overlap of surnames!

Given names

A lot of Korean names use rare characters or characters that are less commonly used in Chinese names.

I put together this (non-exhaustive) list of common characters that signal a name may be Korean. To be clear, there are Chinese people whose names have these characters too. But from what I've seen, they're more common in Korean names, so it's big indicator.

Buying things online in Chinese

A while ago I bought something online from Taiwan, and it occurred to me that I didn't know how to leave a review for a seller in Chinese! So I gathered some reviews on the site Shopee 虾皮 to learn how.

Vocab

Packaging

Shipping

Seller

Buy again

Quality

Full reviews

You can basically stitch any of these together, like so:

Simplified Chinese characters vs. Japanese shinjitai

I had always heard that Japanese has simplified kanji, kind of like how Chinese has simplified characters. They are called shinjitai (新字体). When I traveled to Japan (knowing Chinese but not knowing any Japanese), I instantly began noticing shinjitai and comparing them to simplified characters.

It was fascinating how I was able to understand some shinjitai instantly, whereas others took more time to decode. Some are actually identical to simplified Chinese characters. Below are all the shinjitai I noticed on my trip. This has been in my drafts for ages...!

Simplified in Japanese only

(Order: traditional / shinjitai)

Same simplification in both languages

(Order: traditional - simplified/shinjitai)

Different simplifications in each language

(Order: traditional - simplified - shinjitai)