What's on your Christmas wishlist?

[roddy]

Well, it's almost Christmas - what are we all hoping Santa brings us?*

 

First off, I think I'd like him to bring me the time and motivation to read Perry Link's An Anatomy of Chinese, which I specifically requested for Christmas last year. Since then it's sat on my bookshelf. I don't know why I haven't read it. I'm interested in it. It's not like I haven't read other books this year. 

 

Also in the 'books' category, probably anything in this topic that I haven't already read. I have a copy of The Party Line on its way from Amazon though, and know of a copy of Deep China I can borrow. Actually, that doesn't leave much...

 

Also, there are some high profile translation that have come out the last year which I feel I should take a look at - Mai Jia's Decoded (currently reading in the Chinese), Ken Liu's translation of the first in the Three-Body trilogy, and I keep on seeing Gao Xiaolu (not sure if she writes in English?) and Can Xue mentioned, so maybe those too. I'll have those in Chinese and English where available, please. 

 

I'd also like to create a collection of Chinese movies - boxed sets of Zhang Yimou, Wong Kar-Wai, Feng Xiaogang, please. 

 

Anyone else getting anything China-related (or, as it's Christmas, let's go mad and allow off-topic posts about anything else you're getting) on your Christmas list?

 

*If you don't celebrate Christmas - try it! It's fun!

[Shelley]

I have put in requests for monetary contributions so I can have a subscription to Skritter for as long as the funds raised allow.

 

One thing I would like but not sure anyone can give me is time, not just more of it, but to be able to use the time I have better, the reason it doesn't happen is mostly my lack of disciple in saying no to other things taking up my time. So I suppose I would like the ability to say no more often.

[anonymoose]

Peace on earth.

[li3wei1]

Peace on earth.

 

I got that last year. There were no batteries, and it broke in about 4 seconds.

[winterpromise31]

I want news that the girl we're trying to adopt from Taiwan has agreed to the adoption. They are meeting with her next week! 

[Lu]

Guo Xiaolu writes in English, I haven't read her but she's supposed to be good. I'm hesitating about the 三体 translation: it's great that it's there, but should I read the translation (at some point) or just bite the bullet and pick up the original? I have a copy. But I have at least one other Chinese book to read before that and I worry 三体 will be one of those books that is just hard enough that I have to push myself to keep reading it so that it'll take me months to finish.

I'd also like more time. Longer days to get more work done, longer weekends and evenings to spend with friends and to read... I'm trying to make do with just procrastinating less, perhaps that'll help.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Peace on earth.

 

That reminds me of a scene from the Taiwanese idol drama 換換愛 starring Rainie Yang.

 

It's Rainie's character's 20th birthday and her best friend "Little South" asks her to make a wish and she tells her not to wish for something stupid like "world peace", 世界和平. That comes under the purview of Miss. Universe, 環球小姐(环球小姐) and you're not Miss. Universe. Or words to that effect. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDi1IeLSYbI&index=4&list=PL978968A32FC7A063

 

Not up to the best Ariel Lin or Joe Chen, not even up to the best Rainie Yang, but, nonetheless a quite enjoyable little romantic comedy. 

 

Kobo.

[XuanWu]

i hope he will bring me miss xuanwu

[ChTTay]

Just bought glossika fluency 1-3 and I'm calling it an 'early xmas present' to myself 

 

May also buy myself a new bike... it's not related to China per say but I will be using it in China!

 

For Christmas wishes, a month off work would be nice.

[tysond]

The willpower to learn around 2000 new vocabulary items, the wisdom to use them correctly, the ability to improve my pronunciation, the opportunity to practice with people every day, and a new bicycle because mine got stolen!

Thanks Santa!

[Meng Lelan]

Anyone else getting anything China-related (or, as it's Christmas, let's go mad and allow off-topic posts about anything else you're getting) on your Christmas list?

 

 

 

A career in Orientation and Mobility in a residential school for the blind and deafblind, now that I passed all the exams and did the internship, all in 2014. Time to move on to 2015. 

[Angelina]

Blue skies and fresh air! And good harvest for my family because I can't work in China so the better the harvest = more money on my Visa. 

[dnevets]

Considerably more sleep, willpower to maintain Chinese as the only language used at home, and the courage to give up daily Anki usage (5+ years, so far...!).

[ChTTay]

I also want to recommend two books to add to your Christmas 'to read' list ...

 

Morris 'Two Gun' Cohen's biography by Daniel S. Levy here

 

Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's American and the Persecution of John S. Service. here

 

Both are podcasts on the China History Podcast. After listenin to Lazlo talk about them over 2 or 3 podcasts I thought i'd buy the books. Definitely worth it. Both amazing stories. The John Service story is unbelivable in parts.

[Angelina]

I got myself 漢語音韻學，中國小說史略，中國古代心理詩學與美學.  Plus Olga Freidenberg from the library. Merry Christmas! 

[abcdefg]

I asked Santa for some warm slippers for the chilly January and February months. Ironically, To help Santa out, I ordered some now that I'm back in the States for a while. Ironically, when they arrived I discovered they were made in China.

 

Seems they don't stock large sizes on the retail shelves in Kunming. Not the first time I've seen that. Understandable really; a matter of local demand. Looks like these were made for the export market.

[yueni]

The motivation to finish reading 《历史是个什么玩意儿》. I think I only just got past the Shang dynasty before I stopped. Maybe I'll get more into it once I start delving into 三国时代. We'll see.

 

I'm on the lookout for Chinese literature that I enjoy. For whatever reason, I can't read Chinese literature. I just lose all interest after the first chapter. I don't feel any connection to any of the people in the stories. The only authors/books that have kept my interest are 《亲爱的安德烈》, 《傅雷家书》, & 朱自清. I did like 《三重门》, though I didn't finish it. I just really lost a lot of the deeper meaning and allusions in the book, mostly because of a lack of background knowledge.

 

A decent-paying job in my industry in China.

 

Working on one of the following: 文言文, Japanese, or German.

[Kobo-Daishi]

I sent out my wish list about a month ago to my siblings since they don't want it last minute.

 

I've been back to cooking since about a year and a half, so, my list is full of only cooking related stuff.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=hand+crank+meat+grinder+sausage+maker an old fashioned hand crank meat grinder. Usually in Chinese cooking we use ground pork a lot. Most western supermarkets don't carry it. And I really don't feel like bothering the meat counter guy to ground it special for me, so, I prefer to grind my own. Besides the ones I get in Chinatown are terribly fatty, so, I can control the amount of fat myself.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=garlic+press A simple garlic press. I know, with a simple Chinese dao, knife, why would you need one. Still...

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=ceramic+ginger+grater a ceramic ginger grater. I know, same argument as garlic press. Again, still... I just want one.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=universal+pan+lid some universal pan lids. A while back I read a cooking tip to buy cheap non-stick pans at supermarkets. They're so cheap that once they lose their non-stickiness you just toss them out and buy another. Well they often come without lids and now I find it would be convenient to have a few on hand.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=plastic+storage+jars gallon plastic jars with lids. When I lived with my parents my father brought home these gallon maraschino cherry jars, wash them out and used them to store dry ingredients. Dried black mushrooms, dried squid, wood or tree ear, snow ear, dried lily buds, sugar, flour, etc. Now that I'm back into cooking I'd like to do the same thing with gallon jars, but, plastic ones so don't have to worry about glass breaking.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=maraschino+cherry+jars

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=steamer+rack+stock+pot Actually, I just want the steamer rack. I've already the stock pot. The other day I was grocery shopping and saw these huge stock pots with steamer racks on sale for about $17. We have a rather large Mexican-American population and the more traditional families make tamales for Christmas. They have masa dough, corn leaves, etc. on sale. And they use the steamer arrangement to cook the tamales. I'd probably use it to make dim sum or steamed fish, steamed spare ribs, meat cookies, etc. I've got bamboo and stainless steel steamers but would be good to have a rack to hold instead of the makeshift one I'm using at the moment. Might even have a go at making Mexican tamales. They even got masa pre-mixed.

 

https://www.google.com/search?&site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=masa

 

The masa reminds me of the old days when we'd make glutinous rice dumplings for Chinese new years. My cousins had converted an old washing machine to knead the dough. Quite a few Chinese-American families did back in those days. This was back in the olden days when washing machines had a wringer attached to it. Ahhhh...the good old days.

 

https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=washing+machine+wringer

 

Happy holidays to one and all!!!!

 

Kobo.