Bloggen

Beverly Hillbillies in China

They have been mentioned more than 56 million times on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter. Everyone wants to be their friend, but no one likes them. They seem to be everywhere, throwing around their newly minted renminbi and well-used UnionPay debit cards; yet they are elusive and shun the media. Their love for bling has become the backbone of the global luxury goods industry, yet they are also the subject of disdain, the butt of jokes, the punching bag for that which is offensive to good taste.
他们在新浪微博上被提及超过5600万次；人人都想和他们成为朋友，却没人真的喜欢他们；他们无处不在，挥霍崭新的人民币、刷爆银联的借记卡；同时他们又行踪诡秘、躲躲闪闪。他们喜欢亮闪闪华丽丽的东西，这种嗜好已经成为全球奢侈品行业的支柱；同时他们又品味极差，并且因此遭到鄙视、嘲笑和抨击。
They are the tuhao — tu means dirt or uncouth; hao means splendor — and they are the Beverly Hillbillies of China.
他们是“土豪”——“土”意味着土气和粗野，豪意味着奢华、霸气——他们是中国的“贝弗利山人”。
Tuhao once meant rich landowner — the villainous landed gentry and class enemy of communist China's proletariat — but the term's modern revival began with a popular joke that made its rounds on Chinese social media in early September. A young man asks a Zen master, "I'm wealthy but unhappy. What should I do?" The Zen master responds, "Define 'wealthy.'" The young man answers, "I have millions in the bank and three apartments in central Beijing. Is that wealthy?" The Zen master silently holds out a hand, inspiring the young man to a realization: "Master, are you telling me that I should be thankful and give back?" The Zen master says, "No … Tuhao, can I become your friend?"
土豪旧指富有的地主——恶毒的有产乡绅，中国无产阶级同志的阶级敌人——这个概念重新走红，是由于9月初中国社交媒体上一个广为流传的笑话。一个青年人问禅师，“我很富有，却不开心。我该怎么办呢？”阐师答曰：“何谓‘富有’？”年轻人回答说，“我有千百万的银行存款，在北京中心城区有三套房子。这可以称为富有了吧？”禅师默然、握住青年人的手。青年醍醐灌顶似的顿悟道：“大师，您是想告诉我，我应该心存感恩，回报他人吗？” 禅师说，“不是……我是想说，土豪，我们可以做朋友吗？”
This rather lame joke struck a chord with China's middle class, a rapidly expanding group that now numbers over 300 million. As a middle-class lifestyle grows increasingly normal, so has disdain for flaunted wealth. Many Chinese would now say they consider themselves the antithesis of tuhao — educated, fashionable, and disdainful of conspicuous consumption.
这个并不那么好笑的笑话，却触动了中国中产阶级的心弦。这是一个在中国迅速壮大的群体，目前人数已经超过了3亿以上。随着中产阶级式的生活方式越来越普遍，对炫富习气的鄙夷也越来越普遍。许多中国人现在会说自己是土豪的反面：有文化、很时尚，鄙视挥霍消费。
At the same time, Chinese live in a society where understanding tuhao is valuable, catering to tuhao taste is lucrative, and making tuhao friends is sensible. Multinational corporations understand this.
但与此同时，在当下的中国社会中，理解土豪是很有必要的，迎合土豪趣味是有利可图的，和土豪交往是很有道理的。跨国公司懂得这一点。
Tuhao had their breakout moment on Sept. 20, when Apple introduced a gold version of the new iPhone 5s smartphone. Despite initial disbelief that Apple would indulge such tackiness, the gilded phone has become insanely popular in China, where it is known — even in state media headlines –as the "tuhao gold."
9月20日，土豪们终于扬眉吐气了。这一天苹果公司推出了金色的新型号苹果5s智能手机。人们起初不敢相信苹果会如此张扬俗气，然而这款镀金手机很快在中国受到疯抢。在中国媒体的头版头条新闻上，这款手机被称为“土豪金”。
The tuhao concept extends beyond gilded gadgets. On Sept. 22, members of Hollywood royalty flocked to the seaside Chinese city of Qingdao for the opening of a cinema complex owned by developer Wang Jianlin, whom Bloomberg calls China's richest man. China's Internet users labeled the event an "Extravaganza of Tuhao" and a celebration of "Haollywood". A-listers rubbed shoulders with security guards in uniforms; elderly locals performed Chinese opera. The country's middle class, it seems, is conflicted: The nouveau is surely gauche, but the old is still uncouth.
土豪的概念不只体现在手机等小玩意的品味上。9月22日，好莱坞御用班底齐聚青岛，参加彭博社所称的中国首富王健林旗下一个电影城的揭幕式。中国网民们将这个揭幕式成为“土豪的盛宴”，“豪莱坞”。上层名流和穿着制服的安保摩肩接踵；老一辈们表演着山东戏曲。这个国家的中产阶级似乎有些矛盾：新生的爆发户们显然十分粗野，老一辈的中产阶级还固守土气。
Among stiff competition, the most famous tuhao on the Chinese Internet in early October was a nameless woman in backwater Anhui province. Chinese media reported that she gave a Bentley worth approximately RMB 4 million (about $650,000) to her son-in-law as a wedding gift. Some allege the reporter fabricated the story, but it has already caused uproar online, where responses range from derision to expressions of real or exaggerated jealousy of the young man's good luck.
土豪之间也有名气的激烈角逐。10月初以来网上最有名气的中国土豪是一位匿名的中国女士。根据媒体报道，这位家住安徽省的女士给女婿的新婚礼物是一部价值400万人民币的宾利轿车。有些人指出这则消息是媒体造价，但无论如何这则消息已经在网上造成一片哗然，有人嘲笑，有人假装嫉妒，也有人真的嫉妒。

Continue Reading →

Renwuzhi 人物志 “About Human Character”

The Renwuzhi 人物志 "About human character" is China's oldest book on psychology. It was written by the Three Kingdoms period 三国 (220-280) scholar Liu Shao 刘卲. The book is 3 juan "scrolls" long and divided into 12 chapters. Human nature is expressed, according to Liu Shao, in two different ways, namely talent and character. These can be rightly applied for specific use after careful analyis. Talent (cai 材 "matter") can be acquired by learning, yet all humans have also a certain portion of natural talent that is different is each person. Some persons have more of it, others less, some develop it earlier, others later. Human talents can be used for different purposes, and not everyone is able to take over each task. Sparingness, artificial skills, judicial skills, politics, the arts, philosophical talents, literary abilities, rhetorics or a heroic spirit are such talents that are unequally distributed among all people. Character is influenced not only by the five processes五行 of which the cosm is composed and to which it is subject, but also by the physical conditions of the body. There are, accordingly, strong people or weaker ones, audacious or prudent persons, persons with a love for specialized details and others with a broad interest, persons that are lenient and such that are impatient, active and moving people or passive and quiet persons, and people that like opennes and other loving to conceal matters.

Continue Reading →

Rulin waishi 儒林外史 “The Scholars”

Wu Jingzi 吴敬梓 (1701-1754) used this novel called "Inofficial History of the Scholars" to describe with a good portion of irony the ideals of a the Confucian scholarship and their dedication to study and eremitic life. The author himself gave up his career and began a life of dissipation. His work is a mirror for his own disrespect for the intellectual decay of the middle Qing time 清 upper class. The sources for his novel are undeniable popular stories about remarkable scholars that loved more to live a quiet life instead of pursuing the traditional way to become an official. The langage of the Scholars is a vernacular prose that exhausts in detail descriptions and builds up a mixture of folk and belletristic work.

Continue Reading →

Sanguozhi 三国志 The Records of the Three Kingdoms

The Sanguozhi 三国志 "Records of the Three Kingdoms" is one of the official dynastic histories (zhengshi 正史). Together with its predecessors Shiji 史记, Hanshu 汉书 andHouhanshu 后汉书 it is one of the "four great histories" (sishi 四史) of ancient China. It describes separately the history of each of the so-called Three Kingdoms 三国 (220-280 CE) in a biographic-thematic style (jizhuanti 纪传体). The author was Chen Shou 陈寿 from the Jin period 晋 (265-420), the first commentator was Pei Songzhi 裴松之 from the southern dynasty of Liu-Song 刘宋 (420-479). The Weishu 魏书 "Book of Wei (sometimes also called Weizhi 魏志 "Records of Wei") contains the imperial and normal biographies of the kingdom (better: empire) of Wei, which was ruled by the family of Cao 曹, in 30 juan "scrolls", the Shushu 蜀书 "Book of Shu" (Shuzhi 蜀志) that of the empire of Shu, ruled by the family of Liu 刘 who claimed to be the righteous successors of the Han dynasty 汉 (206 BCE-220 CE), in 15 juan, and theWushu 吴书 "Book of Wu" (Wuzhi 吴志) that of the southestern empire of Wu, which was ruled by the family of Sun 孙, in 20 juan, which makes for a total amount of 65juan.

Continue Reading →

Sanguo yanyi 三国演义 “The Three Kingdoms”

This romance (also called Sanguozhi yanyi 三国志演义) about the war between theThree Kingdoms Wei 魏, Wu 吴 and Shu 蜀 is said to be a writing by Luo Guanzhong 罗贯中 (1494), but it was probably already written during the Yuan Dynasty 元. It developed from popular stories about the heroes of that historical period, their strategies, tactics and battles. Comparing the novel with the historical bookSanguozhi 三国志 (written during the Jin period 晋) and the Song time 宋 (Zizhi) tongjian gangmu (资治)通鉴纲目 "Summary of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government", we see that there is a great difference in judgment about justified rule. Contrasting to the historical book, where the ruler of Wei, Cao Cao 曹操, is seen as the legal ruler of all China, the later histories and the romance see him as an usurpator of the throne that has to be possessed by the Liu family, whose descendant Liu Bei 刘备 was ruling in Shu. Central figures in the novel are heroes like the wise tactician Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮, Zhang Fei 张飞 or the red faced semi-god Guan Yu 关羽. Not describing in black and white, the novel judges nevertheless between the good side, the followes of Liu Bei, and their conterparts like Sun Quan 孙权, king of Wu, and the usurper Dong Zhuo 董卓. Many of these persons and their stories have been adapted in theater and performing arts. Unbroken is the popularity of the war skills and plans that occur in the novel, and there exist even TV series. See a short excerpt of the Three Kingdoms telling of the battle at the Red Cliff.

Continue Reading →
1 … 167 168 169 170 171 … 1,697