DMan's New Writeups

tong shui (thing)

2000-09-16T21:11:21Z

Tong shui is not a fad, it has been around for eons in Southern China. Tong shui translates into literally into sugar water, it is usually a desert served after lunch or dinner. It is believed to have a chilling effect on the human body, hence it is usually consumed in hot summers. They are usually sweet and made from various beans, vegetables and lots of sugar.

The faddish Yankee tong shui is not even considered the same genre by people back in Asia, who disdain from the fancy and tasteless fusion cuisine some yuppie Americans are so fond of. Dumplings are never eaten with tong shui, it is strictly a desert dish and is consumed at the very end of a meal. If cold, it is served without a spoon, drink it from the bowl. If hot, spoons are supplied.

Real tong shui can only be found in Southern China, any place north of Fujian is unacceptable. I have yet to find good tong shui in Shanghai, plenty can be found in…

Evangelical atheist (thing)

2000-09-15T20:39:37Z

Preaching atheism as a religion. Aggressive atheists often do this a lot. Oddly enough, the most targeted religion is always Christianity, even though there are so many religions out there with skeletons in the closet. This trait can sometimes be traced back to a religious upbringing; many atheist evangelists are often disgruntled ex-Christians, hence explaining their bias. Anti-Christian zealot is probably a better word, I've met people who rant and rave about Christianity and claim to hate all religion but practice buddhism because they think it is some sort of "perfect religion".

Many anti-Christian "atheist evangelists" I know have not read the bible, instead making wide-sweeping and generally false assumptions on its meaning. Overused (and false) rhetoric includes:

Remember the Crusades and the Inquisition?
I refuse to raise my children as Christians.
I fight Christianity to make the world a better place.
How

…

Sendero Luminoso (thing)

2000-09-15T07:28:16Z

The Shining Path, or the Communist Party of Peru for the Shining Path of Jose Carlos Mariategui, is one of the most radical and violent of the many left wing terrorist groups in the world. They claim to be Marxists, however, they are really Maoists, favoring a peasant-run socialist economy instead of one led by a corps of urban cadres. They have been responsible for over 25,000 murders since they began operating in 1980.

Their actions include assasinations, bombings, raids, and other ultraviolent activities. They were the group responsible for the siege at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru a few years back. Not a single terrorist survived that episode.

Their organization has been under attack recently, with the capture of various Shining Path leaders. Their founder, Abimael GuzmÃ¡n Reynoso, was arrested in 1992 and is serving a life sentence in a special prison. He was an "intellectual", while being a Maoist, also envied other…

Black rage (idea)

2000-09-12T18:57:05Z

A courtroom euphemism. Black rage has been known to win various lawsuits in America, usually some ultraviolent crime committed by a black against some other ethnicity. Doesn't matter if the victim is white, Asian or Hispanic. Apparently, black people have been oppressed so long that they can commit crimes in the name of some kind of "ethnic anger" and get away with it. Outrageous, eh?

One particularly nasty case in Los Angeles saw a gang of blacks bludgeon a Korean man to death because his car broke down in the ghetto. He had a nice car. Now he's dead. The blacks were found innocent by this so-called "black rage" defense.

In addition to this, black rage has been used to defend blacks from various other crimes, such as looting. We all remember Rodney King.

I wonder if Asian rage or white rage works in the courtroom. Maybe I should find out...

Love the soft-links. Thank you, I love you all.

I…

Beijingese (thing)

2000-09-11T23:23:32Z

The Mandarin dialect spoken in the Beijing/Tianjin area, this is supposedly what standard Mandarin is based on. Unfortunately, Bejingese is so heavily accented that it is quite difficult to understand. Pronounciation is indeed the same as standard Mandarin, but the locals have an annoying habit of adding an "r" after every major character, making their speech somewhat similar to a continuous dog-like growl. Tongue-curling is also overused, as are guttural noises (for unknown reasons).

In essence, anyone who knows Mandarin can speak Beijingese, you just have to growl like a mutt when you talk. And wave your hands around a lot, like Italians. Northern Chinese do that for some reason. Maybe it warms their hands or something.

Beijingers are full of ego, so they often refer to their dialect as "standard Mandarin", and that is met with ridicule by the other 1 billion Chinese. When the nasty Beijing dog accent is removed, then it is…

Shanghainese (thing)

2000-09-10T07:16:50Z

Shanghainese is the local dialect spoken by the people who live in Shanghai and the area surrounding it. It belongs in a larger group of dialects, Jiangsunese, after the Jiangsu province. Jiangsu is a big place, just like most other chunks of Chinese dialects, Jiangsunese is quite diverse, each major city has their own dialect. Shanghainese is the major dialect of the region, however, it is completely different from Nanjingnese, the other major dialect of the province. I suspect that Shanghainese developed from either Nanjingnese (the Nanjing dialect) or Suzhounese (Suzhou), for Shanghai was little more than a fishing village a few centuries back, and Nanjing has been around for eons, Suzhou even longer. My rudimentary knowledge of Shanghainese leaves me no chance of understanding any of the other Jiangsu dialects.

Shanghainese is notoriously difficult to learn, even more so than Cantonese, because a large part of their characters are…