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Plain pleasures
I'm not Singaporean; I have no strong feelings one way or the other about Uncle Lee and the effect of his policies (any more, I'm sure, than my LRD friends have an opinion about Pierre Elliot Trudeau.) But it occurs to me that I owe the man for one very distinct pleasure. For the first time in my fifteen years of fandom I'm able to fangirl a series with a group of friends, rather than one or at best two, who are intelligent and insightful (ie not unthinking pretty bishie fen) and who understand the source better than I do.
The last is rare, so rare. Because as it's gone, if they understand the source better than I do, they either can't talk to me or don't want to; and if we can talk, we're at cultural cross-purposes because I analyze and they squee; and if we're from the same culture, *I* suddenly become the authority because I read the original and they read the translation, and I know more of the country and culture than they do, but it's still a case of the one-eyed leading the blind. And if we have the same qualifications, language and experience-wise, it's only the two of us dialoguing and where is everyone else? mournful sigh
My present fannish contentment is thus brought about by the fact that Singapore conducts its education system in English. Thank you, Uncle Lee.
(Yes, it owes some to me finally getting into a Chinese-based fandom. I can only mourn that in my day no one thought Chinese a proper subject to teach grade schoolers, however differently they may think now.)
The last is rare, so rare. Because as it's gone, if they understand the source better than I do, they either can't talk to me or don't want to; and if we can talk, we're at cultural cross-purposes because I analyze and they squee; and if we're from the same culture, *I* suddenly become the authority because I read the original and they read the translation, and I know more of the country and culture than they do, but it's still a case of the one-eyed leading the blind. And if we have the same qualifications, language and experience-wise, it's only the two of us dialoguing and where is everyone else? mournful sigh
My present fannish contentment is thus brought about by the fact that Singapore conducts its education system in English. Thank you, Uncle Lee.
(Yes, it owes some to me finally getting into a Chinese-based fandom. I can only mourn that in my day no one thought Chinese a proper subject to teach grade schoolers, however differently they may think now.)
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Tones are actually a lost cause. I know that, but pretend that if I ignore it I may learn the difference between one or two of them. (pathetically- I can recognize the Cantonese high rising tone always. Mind you, you'd have to be deaf not to recognize the high rising tone. It's what makes Cantonese sound so snarky to an English speaker's ear.)
And I did notice, not tones changing, because I wouldn't, but a final r slipping into Chen Daoming's pronunciation of eg the Shi of Shi Mai, that no one else seems to do
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a final r slipping into Chen Daoming's pronunciation
I'd say it's his Beijing accent except Hu Jun is a Beijinger too. Hmm. People on the message boards have commented on his 话剧腔 lit. stage drama accent in this series which some found difficult to get used too; I have no idea how this stage accent is different from everyday accents but I do know it's more pleasing to my Southern ears than the usual Nothern accent with which he conducts interviews, for example.
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lit. stage drama accent
yes yes that's exactly the type of thing my Chinese teachers used to play tapes of and insist we read and speak during the oral exam. Which sounded pretentious in conversation and rather inappropriate if you were, for example, narrating a piece about the justification for installing cameras to detect people urinating in public housing elevators (in LRD), but perfect for this series.
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*cacklesnort!* I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything there!
You know I've seen the signs...but they are ALL bogus!!! I've not seen one camera ever...not EVEN when they were supposed to be installed X years ago! Hah! ^__^
SOrry for interuptin' I just thought that was funny! Yo!
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To me it sounds cheerful and sassy; cockney, pretty much, with an admixture of yiddish sardonic. But for the same reason Cantonese dialogue always sounds wise-guy. Do they do serious drama ever? Can they?
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