Categories
Current Events

jiāqiáng

jiāqiáng (jiā·qiáng {adding (to)} · strengthening [→ [booster (e.g. for vaccine)]] 加强 加強) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Note: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”, tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”.]

As of this writing, deep in the year 2021, the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, to say the least, on people’s minds now for a while. So, it would be good to be able to refer to things related to it in Mandarin when speaking to people in the Mandarin field, or when speaking to our brothers and sisters in the truth.

electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19

An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
Creative Commons Attribution License logo NIAID

This week’s MEotW, “jiāqiáng (jiā·qiáng {adding (to)} · strengthening [→ [booster (e.g. for vaccine)]] 加强 加強)”, literally means “adding (to), strengthening”, and is often used to refer to the “booster” part of what English-speakers call a “booster shot” for, say, a COVID-19 vaccine.

How about the “shot” part of “booster shot”? It seems this can be expressed in Mandarin as “zhēn (needle → [injection; shot] 针 針/鍼)”, “jì ({medicinal/chemical preparation}; dose 剂 劑)”, or “zhēnjì (zhēn·jì {needle → [injection; shot]} · dose 针剂 針劑)” (the first two put together).

Frequencies

The following table of Google search result numbers gives us an idea of how frequently used these possible terms are, compared to each other:

jiāqiáng (jiā·qiáng {adding (to)} · strengthening → [booster (e.g. for vaccine)] 加强 加強)…
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"加强针"
(jiāqiáng (jiā·qiáng {adding (to)} · strengthening → [booster (e.g. for vaccine)] 加强 加強) zhēn (needle → [injection; shot] 针 針/鍼))		 14,208,000*
"加强剂"
(jiāqiáng (jiā·qiáng {adding (to)} · strengthening → [booster (e.g. for vaccine)] 加强 加強) jì ({medicinal/chemical preparation}; dose 剂 劑))		 2,560,000
"加强针剂"
(jiāqiáng (jiā·qiáng {adding (to)} · strengthening → [booster (e.g. for vaccine)] 加强 加強) zhēnjì (zhēn·jì {needle → [injection; shot]} · dose 针剂 針劑))		 192,000

 

* Since “加强针” is contained in “加强针剂”, the number of results for “加强针剂” has been subtracted from the raw number of results for “加强针” to arrive at this number. ^
Categories
Culture Theocratic

wēnhé

wēnhé (wēn·hé {[is] warm} · {[is] gentle}; {[is] mild}; {[is] moderate} [→ [mildness]] 温和 溫和) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

The eighth part of the fruitage of the spirit listed is mildness.— Jiālātàishū (Jiālātài·shū Galatia · Book → [Galatians] 加拉太书 加拉太書) 5:22, 23.

Galatians 5:22, 23 (WOL nwtsty-CHS+Pinyin)

The English word “mildness” is translated into Mandarin in the above scripture as “wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和)”, this week’s MEotW.

Note that the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus information for “wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和)” (← tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”), as used in the above context, shows that in the above context it literally means “being warm, being mild”, which in turn effectively means “mildness”. The Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus information renders the literal meaning this way because in this case “wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和)” is a stative verb.

Stative Verbs

The ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, edited by John DeFrancis and Victor H. Mair, among others, tells us the following about the entries in it that are marked as stative verbs:

S.V. (Stative Verb, Xíngróngcí 形容词).

These entries are frequently translated into English as adjectives, even though they actually behave in Chinese as verbs. That is, the sense of ‘to be’ is already incorporated into these verbs, e.g. Zhèige hěn hǎo ‘This is quite good.’ In fact, it is simply ungrammatical to place the verb shì, ‘to be’, directly in front of a stative verb.

Because stative verbs are actually verbs, they are directly negated by bù, e.g. bù hǎo ‘not good’, and can be further modified by adverbs of degree such as hěn ‘quite’, fēicháng ‘extremely’ and shífēn ‘very; utterly’. One common function of stative verbs is that they may serve as adverbs to other actions, e.g. mànmàn in mànmàn chī ‘Take your time (eating)’ and rènzhēn in rènzhēn de xiě ‘write carefully’.

Sometimes a Verbal Noun

One might wonder, though, why “wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和)” is used in the above scripture to translate “mildness”, a noun, if “wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和)” is a stative verb there. This seems to be a case of “wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和)” acting as a verbal noun, or gerundial noun. Verbal/gerundial nouns were discussed in the MEotW post on “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)”:

One interesting thing to note about “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)” (and about “jiàoxun (teaching → [reprimanding | knowledge gained from an error] 教训 教訓)”, for that matter) is that their component morphemes seem to basically be verbs. In certain contexts, however, they are used as nouns. An example of this being done in English is that “teach” and “teaching” are verbs (e.g. “Jesus was teaching the crowd.”), but in certain contexts, “teaching” is used as a noun (e.g. “The crowd was amazed at the teaching Jesus shared with them.”). When a word is used this way, it’s called a verbal noun, or a gerundial noun. Verbal nouns are quite common in Mandarin.

Multifaceted

“Wēnhé (Wēn·hé {[is] warm} · {[is] gentle}; {[is] mild}; {[is] moderate} [→ [mildness]] 温和 溫和)”, then, like many Mandarin words, is multifaceted. Sometimes it acts as an adjective, sometimes it’s a stative verb that seems like an adjective, and other times it functions as a noun. Here are examples of it being used in these different ways:

Used as an adjective:
📖 📄 📘 Tā (he 他) shì (is 是) ge ([mw] 个 個/个) hěn (very 很) wēnhé (wēn·hé warm · mild → [mild] 温和 溫和) de (’s 的) rén (person 人).

Used as a stative verb that seems like an adjective:
📖 📄 📘 Tā (he 他) hěn ({very much} 很) wēnhé (wēn·hé {is warm} · {is mild} → [is mild] 温和 溫和).

Used as a verbal noun:
📖 📄 📘 Tā (he 他) hěn ({very much} 很) yǒu (has 有) wēnhé (wēn·hé {being warm} · {being mild} → [mildness] 温和 溫和).

Categories
Culture Current Events Language Learning

sàng

sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

The post about past MEotW “tǎngpíng (tǎng·píng lie; recline · {[to be] flat} 躺平)” refers to this article:

Screenshot of the article “Tired of Running in Place, Young Chinese ‘Lie Down’ ”, on the Sixth Tone website

This article in turn refers to an article about the culture of “sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪)”, this week’s MEotW.

What is sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) culture, or, in Mandarin, sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) wénhuà (wén·huà {(with) writing} · transformed (system) → [culture] 文化)?

Another article that I found provides this nice, simple description: (Note: The rest of the article contains some good information, but has a couple of curse words.)

A little Mandarin lesson here-

The character 丧 is a polyphone in mandarin Chinese. When it is pronounced sāng, it loosely translates to funeral or mourning. When as sàng, it could be referring to either losing certain things or people (“丧失”), or a conglomeration of negative emotions such as feeling depressed, angry, disappointed and vexed.

And the sàng culture we are talking about here really takes both meanings: it is, very vaguely, the idea that you’ve lost something and are feeling horrible about it.

Manifestations

This article also goes on to mention some ways in which sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) wénhuà (wén·huà {(with) writing} · transformed (system) → [culture] 文化) has been manifested:

Screenshot of the article “The Culture of sàng: a Generation Lying-down? | China Buzz Report”, on the Elephant Room website

As the above article mentions, and as shown in the above screenshot, one of the first manifestations of sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) wénhuà (wén·huà {(with) writing} · transformed (system) → [culture] 文化) was the “Gě Yōu ((Gě [surname] 葛) (Yōu Ample; Abundant [→ [Excellent; Superior]] | Actor; Actress 优 優/优) (a Chinese actor)) tǎng ({lies down} 躺)” set of memes, viral content on the Chinese Internet. (Gě Yōu ((Gě [surname] 葛) (Yōu Ample; Abundant [→ [Excellent; Superior]] | Actor; Actress 优 優/优) (a Chinese actor)) is a well-known Chinese actor, and the picture in the above screenshot is from the 1993 TV show Wǒ (I 我) Ài (Love 爱 愛) Wǒ (My 我) Jiā (Family 家), in which he plays the role of “a parasitical freeloader who was unemployed and broke and consistently failed in his filial responsibilities”, as one academic article put it.)

A translation of a Chinese article on sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) wénhuà (wén·huà {(with) writing} · transformed (system) → [culture] 文化) contains these comments about the image that the “Gě Yōu ((Gě [surname] 葛) (Yōu Ample; Abundant [→ [Excellent; Superior]] | Actor; Actress 优 優/优) (a Chinese actor)) tǎng ({lies down} 躺)” memes are based on:

This image runs contrary to the positive, healthy and upwardly mobile mainstream views that people of all generations favor. It does, however, fit in well with the youth culture of today. His decadence, despair, pessimism and hopelessness are exactly the inner state of this group of masses who work overtime, eat overtime, are under constant pressure and are having a hard time making a living.

Speaking of making a living, one business named Sàng ({Lost (by Death)} [→ [Lost (Sth. Important) | Bereaved | Dejected; Frustrated; Disappointed; Discouraged]] 丧 喪) Chá (Tea 茶) (English name: Song Tea) is opportunistically riding the wave of sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) culture with a chain of tea shops that uses tongue-in-cheek black humour in the names of its drinks, such as this one featured on its USA blog:

Screenshot of the blog post “Love Overtime Love Being Broke Tea 加班不止加薪无望四季春 - 丧茶美国总代理Song Tea”, on the Song Tea USA website

From Feeling Bereaved to Lying Flat

The “tǎng ({lies down} 躺)” used in “Gě Yōu ((Gě [surname] 葛) (Yōu Ample; Abundant [→ [Excellent; Superior]] | Actor; Actress 优 優/优) (a Chinese actor)) tǎng ({lies down} 躺)” is the same one as the one in “tǎngpíng (tǎng·píng lie; recline · {[to be] flat} 躺平)”, and “sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪)” is indeed related to “tǎngpíng (tǎng·píng lie; recline · {[to be] flat} 躺平)”. Perhaps it can be said that the feeling of sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) moves many of those experiencing it to take the action of tǎngpíng (tǎng·píng lying; reclining · {[to be] flat} 躺平). As an above-mentioned article on tǎngpíng (tǎng·píng lie; recline · {[to be] flat} 躺平) says:

Unlike similar, previous terms to have had their time in the spotlight in recent years, tang ping is an action rather than a feeling — resolving to just scrape by, exerting the bare minimum effort at an unfulfilling job, as opposed to the futility of raging against the capitalist machine.

Echoing the West?

The title of one of the articles mentioned above, “Turn Off, Drop Out: Why Young Chinese Are Abandoning Ambition”, appears to be a play on the Western counterculture-era phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out”. In the 1960s, while the West was going through its counterculture era, China was in contrast undergoing its Cultural Revolution—a very different thing! Perhaps, similarly to how China is now racing off into space, and even to the moon, as the West did decades ago, it is now also in some ways changing in its popular culture, as the West did decades ago.

Stand Strong for These “Sheep Without a Shepherd”

If you are mourning your lack of progress in learning Mandarin despite your strenuous efforts to learn the traditionally mandated but extraordinarily and unnecessarily complex Chinese characters, please be assured that there is an alternative to just quitting the Mandarin field. Focusing on Mandarin SPEECH with the help of the simple and elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) writing system can help you get a grip on understanding Mandarin speech, and on using it to give meaningful spiritual help to those in the worldwide field whose mother tongue is Mandarin.

As this look at sàng ({lost (by death)} [→ [lost (sth. important) | bereaved | dejected; frustrated; disappointed; discouraged]] 丧 喪) culture shows us, many of them are feeling the need for something beyond the selfish, materialistic, and ultimately meaningless rat race promoted by Satan’s world—they need the good news of God’s Kingdom, and they need people like us to share it with them in a language that they will understand and respond to from the heart.—Mr. 6:34.