My Chinese story, Chapter 3 part 1

Chapter 3 is longer, but my teacher hasn't finished correcting it yet.  This is the portion that has been corrected so far.

第三回: 苍鹭的故事

苍鹭的伤又多又严重。那个老人把他从地上抱起来以后，他晕过去了。后来他醒过来的时候，他不知道他在哪儿，也不知道这是什么地方。那个地方非常黑，但是他可能听水的声音。他不能动，也不能说话。他只能躺在哪儿。他渐渐得明白了他在一个洞里。

那个老人来看苍鹭的时候，他没说什么。他就是好好地照顾苍鹭。那个老人

给苍鹭吃药，吃饭，还有他把他的伤都治了。苍鹭不知道为什么那个老人想帮助他。他想了一想，可是还不想去一个原因。

苍鹭复原了一点以后，他又可能说话，所以他跟那个老人说，“谢谢，前辈。我不知道怎么报答你。“那个老隐士说，“不用谢。”苍鹭有一点讶异，因为他觉得那个老人一定是哑巴。苍鹭问他，“请问，前辈，为什么你以前没说什么？”那个老人没有答回他。

因为苍鹭还有伤，他不能走路，得住在那个洞里面。那个老人告诉他，“我教你内功，帮你养好伤。“苍鹭没想到那个老人也是一个功夫高手。他心里想，要是我可以请这个老隐士帮我一点，我就能救我的兄弟葱绿刀了。哪有多好啊！

Cānglù de shāng yòu hěn duō yòu yánzhòng. Nàge lǎorén bǎ tā cóng dìshang bàoqǐlai 

Heron's injuries were many and serious.  After the old man picked him up off the ground, 

yìhòu, tā yūnguòqùle. hòulái tā xǐngguòlái de shìhou tā bù zhīdào tā zài nǎr, yě bù zhīdào zhè shì shénme dìfang.

he fainted.  Later when he woke up, he didn't know where he was, and didn't know what kind of place he was in.

Nàge dìfang fēicháng hēi, dànshi tā kěnéng tìng shuǐ de shēngyīn. Tā bùnéng dòng yě 

The place was very dark, but he could hear the sound of water.  He couldn't move and 

bùnéng shuōhuà. Tā zhǐnéng tǎng zài nǎr. Tā jiànjiànde míngbaile tā zài yīge dònglǐ.

couldn't speak.  He could only lie there.  Gradually he realized he was inside a cave.

nàge lǎorén láikàn cānglù de shìhou, tā méi shuō shénme. tā jiù shì hǎohǎo de zhàogu 

 When the old man came to see him, he didn't say anything.  He only took care of Heron.

cānglù. nàge lǎorén gěi cānglù chīyào, chīfàn, háiyǒu ba tāde shāng dōu zhìle. cānglù 

The old man gave Heron medicine and food and also cared for his wounds. 

bù zhǐdào wèishénme nàge lǎorén xiǎng bāngzhù tā. tā xiǎngle yīxiǎng, kěshì hái bù xiǎng qù yīge yuányīn.

Heron didn't know why this old man wanted to help him.  He thought about it, but he couldn't think of a reason.

cānglù fùyuánle yīdiàn yìhòu, tā yòu kěnēng shuōhuà, suǒyǐ tā gēn nàge lǎorén shuō, 

When Heron had recovered a little, and he could speak again, he said to the old man,

“xièxie qiánbèi. wǒ bù zhīdào zěnme bào nǐ.” nàge lǎo yǐnshì shuō, “bùyòngxiè.” cānglù 

"Thank you, elder.  I don't know how to repay you."  The old hermit said, "There's no need for thanks."

yǒu yīdiǎn yàyì, yīnwèi tā juéde nāge lǎorén yīdìng shì yǎba. cānglù wèn tā, 

Heron was a little surprised, because he felt the old man must be mute.  Heron asked him,

"qǐngwèn,qiánbèi,wèishénme nǐ yǐqián méi shuō shénme?" nàge lǎorén méi yǒu huìdā tā.

"May I ask, elder, why you didn't say anything before?"  The old man didn't answer him.

yīnwèi cānglù hái yǒu shāng, tā bùnéng zǒulù yě děi zhù zài dòng lǐmiàn. nàge lǎorén 

Because Heron was still injured, he couldn't walk around and had to stay inside the cave.  The old man

gàosu tā, “wó jiào nǐ nèigōng, bāng nǐ yǎng hǎo shēng.” cānglù méixiǎngdào nàge lǎorén yě 

told him, "I'll teach you an internal energy method, it will help your injuries."  Heron hadn't expected this old man 

shì yīge gōngfu gāoshǒu. tā xīnli xiǎng, yàoshi wǒ kěyǐ qǐng zhège lǎo yǐnshì bāng wǒ yīdiǎn, 

was also a master kungfu practitioner.  In his heart he thought, if I can ask this old hermit to help me out a little bit, 

wǒ jiù néng jiù wǒde xiōngdì cōnglù dāo le. nǎ yǒu duō hǎo ā!

I'll be able to rescue my brother Verdant Blade.  That would be great!

My Chinese story part 2

第二回: 苍鹭的故事

Chapter 2: Heron's Story

苍鹭在璀璨黎明派的时候，炯炯头领请几个武林的人都去璀璨黎明派

Cānglù zài Cuǐcan Límíng Pài de shíhou, Jiǒngjiǒng tóulíng qíng jíge wǔlín de rén dōu qǜ Cuǐcan Límíng Pài

While Heron was at the Resplendent Dawn School, Headmaster Shining Eye invited some martial artists to the Resplendent Dawn School

跟璀璨黎明派的弟子比武。很多客人们来到璀璨黎明派。客人们包括石龙教的弟子。

gēn Cuǐcan Límíng Pài de dìzǐ bǐwǔ. Hén duō kèrénmén lái dào Cuǐcan Límíng Pài. Kèrénmén bāokuò Shílóng Jiào de dìzǐ.

to complete in martial arts with the Resplendent Dawn disciples.  Many people came to the Resplendent Dawn School.  The guests included disciples from the Stone Dragon Sect.

石龙教的将人叫无敌龙。无敌龙将人想要让武林人都＇顺我者昌逆我者亡＇,

Shílóng Jiào de jiàngrén jiào Wúdí Lóng. Wúdí Lóng jiàngrén xiǎngyào ràng wǔlínrén dōu 'shùn wǒ zhě chāng nì wǒ zhě wáng',

The leader of the Stone Dragon Sect was called Invincible Dragon.  Invincible Dragon wanted all the martial artists to 'submit to him or die', 

他真的想跟皇帝一样。他的弟子对璀璨黎明派的弟子很不客气。

tā zhènde xiǎng gēn huángdì yīyàng. Tāde dìzǐ duì Cuǐcan Límíng Pài de dìzǐ hěn bù kéqi. 

he really wanted to be just like an emperor.  HIs disciples were very impolite to the Resplendent Dawn disciples.

石龙教弟子跟璀璨黎明派弟子比赛功夫的时候，石龙教的弟子都做鬼。

Shílóng Jiào dìzǐ gēn Cuǐcan Límíng Pài dìzǐ bǐsài gōngfu de shíhou, Shílóng Jiào de dìzǐ dōu zuòguài.

 When the Stone Dragon disciples competed with the Resplendent Dawn School disciples, they all used dirty tricks.

比武之际，葱绿刀跟一个石龙教的弟子赛功夫,

bǐwǔ Zhījì, Cōnglǜ Dào gen yīge Shílóng Jiào de dìzǐ bǐsài gōngfu, 

During the contest, Verdant Blade competed with a Stone Dragon Sect disciple, 

石龙教的弟子往葱绿刀身上甩毒药的针试图让他受伤。

Shílóng Jiào de dìzǐ wǎng Cōnglǜ Dào shuǎi dúyào de zhēn shìtú ràng tā shóushāng.

and the Stone Dragon disciple threw a poisoned needle at Verdant Blade and tried to injure him. 

苍鹭看到了那个东西，因为他跟葱绿刀有八拜之交,所以他阻断那个毒药针，

Cānglù kàndàole nǎge dōngxi, yīnwèi tā gēn Cōnglǜ Dào yǒu bā bài zhī jiāo , suǒyǐ tā zǔduàn le nǎge dúyào zhēn, 

 Heron saw this thing, and because he and Verdant Blade had sworn an oath of brotherhood, he intercepted the poisoned needle,

可是毒药针伤他，他中毒了，也生病。他生病的时候，他觉得很乱,

keshi dúyào zhēn shāng le tā, tā zhòngdú le, yé shēng bìng. Tā shēng bìng de shíhou, tā juěde hěn luán,

but the poisoned needle injured him and made him ill.  While he was ill he felt very confused,

也很不好意思。他让轻风很生气，也让冬月生气。后来他不知道怎么办。

yé hěn bù hǎo yīsi. Tā ràng Qīng Fēng shēngqì, yé ràng Dōng Yuè shēngqì. Hòulái tā bù zhǐdào zěnme bàn.

and also very embarrassed.  He made Gentle Breeze angry, he also made Winter Moon angry.  Later he didn't know what to do about it.

比武完了以后，苍鹭看到了一个很奇怪的事情，他看到了四个石龙教的

Bǐwǔ wánle yìhòu, Cānglù kàndàole yīge hěn qíguài de shìqíng, tā kàndàole sīge Shílóng Jiào de 

After the contest finished, Heron saw a strange thing, he saw four Stone Dragon Sect disciples 

弟子绑架了葱绿刀。苍鹭追不上他们。

dìzǐ bǎngjiá le Cōnglǜ Dào. Cānglù zhuī bù shàng tāmen.

kidnap Verdant Blade.  Heron couldn't catch up with them.

后来他无意中地找到了他们的安营的地方。可是苍鹭不敌那四个人，

hòulái tā wúyìzhōng de zhàodàole tāmende ānyíng de dìfang. Kēshì Cānglù bùdí nǎ sīge rén,

later he unexpectedly found their campsite.  But Heron was no match for those four people,

他们抓住他还重重的殴打他。苍鹭的伤非常严重。

tāmen zhuāzhù tā hái zhòngzhòng de ōudà tā. Cānglù de shāng fēicháng yánzhòng. 

they captured him and severely beat him.  Heron's injuries were very serious. 

他躺在地上，觉得不行了。那时，一个白色头发的老男人来，救他。

Tā těng zài dìshàng, juěde bù xíng le. Nǎ shi, yīge báise tóufa de lǎo nán rén lái, jiù tā. 

He lay on the ground and felt like he was about to die.  Just then, a white-haired old man came and saved him. 

请看下回分解。

qíng kàn xià huí fēn jiě

to be continued

My Chinese story

This is a story I've been writing for Chinese class.  The story is a summary of a novel I'm working on (in English).  To avoid spoilers, I've changed some of the details.  Below is part 1.

苍鹭的故事

Heron's Story

从前在一个遥远的国家有一个男人叫苍鹭。 他跟他的爸爸一起遨游，

Cóngqián zài yīge yáoyuǎn de guǒjiā yǒu yīge nán rén jiào Cānglù. Tā gēn tāde bàbà yīqī áoyóu,

Long ago in a faraway country there was a man named Heron.  He and his father wandered around,

帮助人们，也做英雄的事。 但是他的妈妈不跟他们一起遨游,

bāngzhù rénmen, yé zuò yīngxióng de shì. dànshi tāde māma bù gēn tāmen yīqī áoyóu, 

helping people and doing heroic things.  But his mother didn't travel with them, 

因为苍鹭两岁的时候，他的妈妈离开，再也没回来。苍鹭不知道他的

yīnwèi Cānglù liǎng suì de shíhou, táde māma líkāi, zài yé méi huí lái. Cānglù bù zhīdào tāde

because when Heron was two years old, his mother left, and didn't return.  Heron didn't know 

妈妈在哪儿, 也不知道怎么找妈妈。

māma zài nǎr, yé bù zhīdào zěnme zhǎo māma.

where his mother was, and didn't know where to find her.

一天苍鹭的爸爸出去以后，也没回来。苍鹭想要找爸爸，不过不知道怎么办。

Yītiān Cānglù de bàba chūqù yǐhòu, yé méi huí lái. Cānglù xiǎngyào zhǎo bàba, bùguò bù zhīdào zěnme bàn.

One day Heron's father went out, and he also didn't return.  Heron wanted to find his father but he didn't know what to do.

他在这儿里找过爸爸，在那儿里找过, 那儿都没有找到爸爸。

Tā zài zhèr lǐ zhǎoguò bàba, zài nàr lǐ zhǎoguò, nàr dōu méi yǒu zhǎodào bàba.

He looked here and he looked there, but he couldn't find his father anywhere.

苍鹭找爸爸的时候， 他见到了两个人，一个是男的，叫葱绿刀，

Cānglù zhǎo bàba de shíhou, tā jiàndào le liǎngge rén, yīge shì nánde, jiào Cōnglǜ Dào,

While Heron was looking for his father, he met two people, one was a man called Verdant Blade,

一个是女的，叫冬月。 他们都是璀璨黎明派的弟子。

yīge shì nǚde, jiào Dōng Yuè. Tāmen dōu shì Cuǐcàn Límíng Pài de dìzǐ.

 one was a girl named Winter Moon.  Both of them were disciples of the Respledent Dawn School.

葱绿刀真像苍鹭。 冬月是很漂亮的美人。

Cōnglǜ Dào zhèn xiàng Cānglù. Dōng Yuè shì hěn piàoliang de měirén.

Verdant Blade looked a lot like Heron.  Winter Moon was a very pretty young lady.

苍鹭非常喜欢那两个人。 葱绿刀也很喜欢苍鹭。

Cānglù fēicháng xǐhuan nà liǎngge rén. Cōnglǜ Dào yé hěn xǐhuan Cānglù.

Heron liked these two people very much.  Verdant Blade also really liked Heron.

苍鹭和葱绿刀马上成朋友。 不过开始的时候冬月有一点不喜欢苍鹭。

Cānglù hé Cōnglǜ Dào mǎshàng chéng péngyou. Bùguò kāishǐ de shíhou Dōng Yuè yǒu yīdiar bù xǐhuan Cānglù.

Heron and Verdant Blade immediately became friends.  But at first Winter Moon disliked Heron a little bit.

葱绿刀请苍鹭跟他们一起去璀璨黎明派的房子见他的爸爸。

Cōnglǜ Dào qíng Cānglù gēn tāmen yīqī qǜ Cuǐcàn Límíng Pài de fàngzi jiàn tāde bàba.

Verdant Blade invited Heron to come with them to  theResplendent Dawn School  to meet his father.

他的爸爸是璀璨黎明派很有名的头领, 叫炯炯。

Tāde bàba shi Cuǐcàn Límíng Pài hěn yǒumíng de tóulíng, jiào Jiǒngjiǒng.

His father was the Resplendent Dawn School's headmaster, Shining Eye.

璀璨黎明派的房子在璀璨山上。 他们三个人到璀璨黎明派的房子去的时候，

Cuǐcàn Límíng Pài de fàngzi zài Cuǐcàn Shān shàng. tǎmen sānge rén dào Cuǐcàn Límíng Pài de fàngzi qù de shíhou, 

The Resplendent Dawn School was on Resplendent Dawn Mountain.  When the three people arrived at the Resplendent Dawn School, 

炯炯头领很高兴地认识了苍鹭, 可是葱绿刀的妈妈不要见他，

Jiǒngjiǒng tóulíng hěn gāoxìng de rénshi le Cōnglù, kēshì Cōnglǜ Dào de māma buyào jiàn tā, 

Headmaster Shining Eye was very happy to meet Heron, but Verdant Blade's mother didn't want to meet him, 

他不知道为什么。

tā bù zhīdao wèishénme.

he didn't know why.

苍鹭在璀璨黎明派的时候他见到了葱绿刀的堂妹，叫轻风。

Cānglù zài Cuǐcàn Límíng Pài de shíhou tā jiàndào le Cōnglǜ Dào de tángmèi, jiào Qīng Fēng. 

When Heron was at the Resplendent Dawn School he met Verdant Blade's cousin, named Gentle Breeze. 

她是很漂亮的美人。因为轻风很喜欢葱绿刀，所以她也喜欢苍鹭。

Tā shì hěn piàoliang de méirén.Yīnwèi Qīng Fēng hěn xǐhuan Cōnglù Dào, suǒyǐ tā yě hěn xǐhuan Cānglù.

She was a very pretty girl.  Because Gentle Breeze really liked Verdant Blade, she also liked Heron.

可是这样的事让冬月很生气。因为她暗暗地很喜欢苍鹭,所以她对轻风很嫉妒。

Kèshi zhèyàngde shí ràng Dōng Yuè hěn shēngqì. Yīnwèi tā ànàn de xǐhuan Cānglù, suǒyǐ tā duì Qīng Fēng hěn jídù.

But this business made Winter Moon angry.  Because she secretly liked Heron, she was jealous of Gentle Breeze.

另外苍鹭爸爸出去的以前他给儿子一本功夫的秘笈。

Língwài Cānglù bàba chūqù de yǐqián tā gěi èrzi yīben gōngfu de mìjí.

Furthermore before Heron's father went away he had given his son a secret kungfu manual.

冬月看了那本书，因为那本书像璀璨黎明派的功夫秘笈，

dōng yuè kànle nǎbēn shū, yīnwèi nǎbēn shū xiàng Cuǐcan Límíng Pài de gōngfu mìjí,

Winter Moon saw the book, and because the book looked like the Resplendent Dawn School's kungfu manual,

所以她觉得苍鹭偷了璀璨黎明派的书。后来，苍鹭跟冬月发生过很多误会。

Suǒyǐ tā juěde Cānglù tōu le Cuǐcan Límíng Pài de shū. Hòulái, Cānglù gēn Dōng Yuè fāshēngguò hěn duǒ wùhuì.

so she thought Heron stole the Resplendent Dawn School's book.  Afterward, Heron and Winter Moon experienced many misunderstandings.

Banging My Head Against the Great Wall of Chinese

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I am learning Chinese.  I've been studying how to speak Mandarin Chinese for about two and a half years, and for the past year I've also been learning to read and write Chinese characters. 

More than a year of studying a foreign language sounds like a fair amount, doesn't it?  I should be able to go to China and talk to people, shouldn't I?  But I think most Chinese learners would tell you that you can't go to China and function with your Chinese language skills until you've been at it for three years or more.  My current Chinese language skills are probably equivalent to a second-grader.  I can only talk about concrete things, nothing abstract.  I don't know the words for thousands of objects.  I know how to write the characters for even fewer words, and reading something like a restaurant menu is well beyond my current capability. 

Another writer has written a much longer and more thorough description of how hard it is to learn Chinese.  If you're interested in the perspective of someone who's been studying the language much longer than I have, try this:  Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard

But here's my perspective as someone who's only been struggling with it for a short time.  Yes, Chinese is hard.  Its' writing system, grammar, syntax and pronunciation are all very different from English or other Indo-European languages.  Let's start with the basics. Chinese is a tonal language.  What does that mean?  It means that the tone with which you pronounce the words is important to their meaning.  For whatever reason, Chinese developed far fewer phonemes - the sound units that make up the core of the language - than languages like English. 

To make up for this limited selection of phonemes, the Chinese added tonality to their languages as part of the sound/meaning combination.  In English, tone usually is used for emphasis and emotional content.  Saying "What?" with a tone of surprise and alarm is different than saying it with a tone of indifference, or one of impatience, but regardless of tone the word is still an interrogative with the same essential meaning.  But in Chinese if you say the phoneme "shi" with the fourth tone, sharp and descending, it might be the shi that represents all the tenses of "to be".  If you say it with the second  tone, a rising tone that sounds a bit like a question in English, it could be the sound of the number 10.  But there are a lot of "shi" phonemes in Chinese, and many of them use one of those tones.  You can really only know which meaning is being used by the context - or by seeing it in writing, because they'll look completely different.

I don't find the tones as challenging as some of my fellow students.  I don't know why it comes easier to me, but that doesn't really mean it's easy.  Especially when listening to native speakers speaking Mandarin Chinese, it's a real challenge to figure out which word they're saying.  To make it even harder, Chinese uses sounds we don't have in English.  There's a sound very similar to the German ö (which is easy for me, since I took German for several years in high school).  There's also a HSH sound, a sound sort of like J but not as sharp and made with the molars held a little farther apart, and a sound sort of like "woo" that follows a consonant ( i.e. "lwoo", "ywoo").  It's hard for an English speaker to wrap her tongue around some of those sounds.

Then there's the way all this is represented in a form an English reader can understand.  The method of transcribing Chinese language into the English alphabet is called pinyin romanization.  There have been numerous different methods of pinyin developed.  The current one is known commonly as Hanyu pinyin.  Hanyu is pinyin for "language of the Han people", the Han being the dominant ethnic group in China.  Hanyu pinyin uses English alphabet to represent those odd sounds I described above, so to learn to read it you first have to throw out a lot of what you know about how English letters are pronounced.  The HSH sound is represented as X in pinyin, so you have to remember that when you see an X in a pinyin word, it doesn't sound like KS or Z as it does in English.   An A in pinyin never sounds like the A in bake.  It always sounds like the A in all.  An E never sounds like the E in end; it sounds more like the U in under.  Don't ask me why it isn't just represented by U.  C doesn't sound like K or S, it sounds like TS.  There was a previous version of pinyin, Wade-Giles Pinyin, that actually used TS to represent that sound, but for some reason that pinyin method has fallen out of favor. So Chinese language learners now must struggle to put aside everything they've learned about pronouncing the alphabet in English when they start to use that alphabet to learn Chinese.

Now that I've dealt with some of the difficulties of speaking Chinese, let's go on to reading and writing it.  When you know the English alphabet and general rules of pronunciation, you can figure out how to say a word you've never seen before.  But Chinese characters generally don't have anything to do with pronunciation.  They're all about meaning.  My Chinese teacher would probably disagree somewhat with that statement, but I think it's largely true.  Sometimes the strokes in the character do represent something about the pronunciation, but not always.  How does a student of Chinese learn that 就 and 九 are both pronounced jiu (jyoe)?  You just have to memorize them.  And then you have to memorize that the first one is pronounced with the fourth tone, and the second one is third tone.

Writing is a challenge, too.  As you can see from the above example, some of the characters have a lot of marks.  就 doesn't really have that many.  Chinese characters can have anywhere from one stroke to more than 20.  You have to write them in the correct sequence, too.  Teachers can tell if you've done the wrong stroke order.  When you learn to write the English alphabet, you're taught to write the letters in a certain way, but most kids almost immediately start developing their own method of writing the letters.  After first grade, teachers usually won't penalize students for not using the original method, as long as they can figure out which letter the student was attempting.  But when you're learning to write Chinese characters, teachers will usually insist that you do it in the correct stroke order.  That's not to say that the Chinese don't have an equivalent to our cursive handwriting.  They do.  People learn how to take all those marks and write them in a faster method, without having to pick up the pen after each stroke.  It's nearly impossible to read it, in my experience.  It's like reading a doctor's infamously bad handwriting.  When my teacher makes corrections to my homework, it takes me a lot of effort to figure out what she's telling me.  I can really only read Chinese that is done in the equivalent of block printing.  

Chinese characters are made up of combinations of  things called radicals, which are sort of the building blocks.  I don't know the radicals very well, because the first teacher who taught me to read and write Chinese didn't go over the radicals.  Unfortunately, you need to know radicals to use a Chinese-English dictionary effectively.  You also need to know stroke number and type.  It took me a long time to figure that out.  Before I learned a little about these things, looking anything up in the dictionary was torturous.  Just as an example of the importance of radicals, look at these two characters:  快 and 块.  They're both pronounced kuai (kweye), with the fourth tone.  The first one means quick or fast.  The second one is commonly used as an indicator of monetary denominations, similar to the use of "dollar" in English.  If you write the wrong left-hand radical, it means something completely different.  

Then there's context.  Lots of Chinese words are contextual.  It's a much more contextual language than English.  The character/phoneme 就 is a good example.  It means a lot of different things, depending on context.  In some contexts it means "then", but it can also mean "immediately", "just", "only", "as early as", "to approach" or "move towards" something, "to accomplish", or "concerning", along with a whole list of other potential meanings.  It's a multi-purpose word.   As you can probably see, that means it's a challenge to read Chinese and get the meaning, since you have to puzzle out which usage is being employed in the context of the statement.  It took me over a year to read a book that had only eight chapters and was written at about a third-grade vocabulary level.

Just to make all this more fun, the Chinese have two different writing methods.  In Taiwan and Hong Kong, they write using traditional characters, which are the way the characters originally developed historically.  Traditional characters have more strokes as a rule.  But about 60 years ago the People's Republic of China (that's the mainland Communist country, for those who are geographically challenged) started using something called "simplified" characters.  Some of them are simpler; they reduced the number of strokes necessary to write the characters.  But the decision-making process about when to remove strokes seems to have been rather arbitrary, at least from my perspective.  The word canting, which means restaurant or cafeteria, is written like this 餐厅 in both traditional and simplified characters.  The first character has about 16 strokes.  So why didn't they reduce the strokes in that one?  Beats me. And once you start learning to read Chinese, you realize that you're probably going to have to learn both types of characters, because you can't limit yourself to reading printed materials from only one country.  Chinese teachers say you can learn to recognize the traditional character for something you already know in simplified, but I can't.  

So why, you may ask, do I want to learn this language, when it's so difficult and isn't going to progress my career or improve my life in a measurable way?  Because I like it.  It speaks to me.  It is hard, it is frustrating, but it's also immensely satisfying.  I may be 70 years old before I can read Journey to the West in the original language, but that gives me something to look forward to.  I hope I can continue learning Chinese for the rest of my life.  And maybe I'll be good enough at it eventually to make a career of it.  I'd love to be able to make a career of translating Chinese literature into English.  We're missing out on a lot of good reading.

Where it all began

I've mentioned that I'm obsessed with all things Chinese, not just the Monkey King.  But where did it all begin?  What makes a person who's never been to China so interested in everything Chinese?

I've been learning to speak Mandarin Chinese for the past 2 and 1/2 years, and over the past year I've also begun to learn to read and write it.  I won't deny it's a difficult language to learn, but I love it.  But I didn't come to it initially out of a love of the language. 

One day about 7 or 8 years ago, I had a sick day and was struggling to find something palatable to watch on daytime tv to distract me from my illness.  I happened to turn to the now-defunct International Channel.  I found myself watching a program in which various people in beautiful costumes were doing kung fu and fighting with swords.  I've long enjoyed kung fu movies, so I watched.  I soon saw a kooky old man, a young man missing an arm, and a giant bird that walked like a man.  What the heck was going on?  There were no English subtitles on the show, which I eventually discovered was dubbed in Vietnamese, though that clearly wasn't the language the actors onscreen were speaking.  Fortunately during the commercial breaks they showed a title in both Chinese characters and English.  It was called Return of the Condor Heroes. 

Despite the weirdness, I was intrigued.  It spoke to me for some reason.  I found out that the show aired daily, so the next day I left a VHS tape in the VCR to record it.  I taped it every day for the next three weeks or so, until the show concluded.  In the meantime I started searching the web for more information about it.  I finally stumbled upon a site called spcnet.tv, where I learned that it was actually a Chinese-language program produced in Singapore, and that it was based on a novel.  That led me to another site, wuxiapedia.  Wuxia (roughly translated meaning "heroic warrior"), I learned, is the name for a whole genre of Asian entertainment, especially literature, and that much of this literary output has been adapted for television. 

One of the more prolific contributors to the literary genre is Jin Yong, pen name of a Hong Kong newspaper magnate whose English name is Louis Cha.  It was one of his stories, originally serialized in his newspaper Ming Pao, that had become Return of the Condor Heroes.  The Chinese title is Shen Diao Xia Lu 神雕侠侣, which doesn't actually mean Return of the Condor Heroes.  It would more accurately be translated as Divine Eagle Heroic Companion, or Divine Eagle Gallant Knight.  Somehow either because the giant intelligent bird in the story is huge, or due to a translation error, it has been dubbed a condor, regardless of the fact that condors don't exist in China.  For whatever reason, Return of the Condor Heroes or Condor Heroes has become the English language title of choice for any adaptation of the novel - and there have been quite a few.

Once I learned about this novel and the rest of Jin Yong's substantial output of wuxia stories, my nest goal was to read them.  Disappointingly, only three of his works have been published in English: Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, The Book and the Sword, and The Duke of Deer Mountain.  No publisher has picked up any of the others, despite the fact that Shen Diao Xia Lu and its predecessor She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan 射雕英雄传 (common English title Legend of the Condor Heroes) are enormously popular in China and other Asian countries and have been turned into innumerable tv shows, movies, and comic books, in addition to being constantly in print for the past 30 years.  But I was again in luck:  some dedicated fans have taken it upon themselves to produce amateur translations available online.  They may not be as polished as a translation published by a legitimate publisher would be, but they still manage to make apparent why these books are so popular in other parts of the world.


Jin Yong wrote 15 novels and short stories between 1955 and 1970.  As I mentioned, the two books described above have been adapted for television many times.  Versions of Legend of the Condor Heroes have been produced in mainland China in 2003 and 2008.  Return of the Condor Heroes was last produced for tv in 2006.  This was the eighth tv adaptation since 1960.  The producer of the 2003 Legend and the 2006 Return has practically made his career on producing elaborate adaptations of Jin Yong novels.  Those have barely made their way across the pond; I only managed to discover the existence of the 2006 series because a friend mentioned he'd found it on Netflix (where it was confused with a 1983 version starring pop sensation Andy Lau).  I've now watched that series many, many times.  I've lost track of how may repeat viewings.  And now I can actually read some of the Chinese subtitles (though my reading skill is probably at about a second-grade level at best). 

There it is, a bit of a long, rambling explanation of what really sparked my interest in Chinese.  I still want to read the novels in the original language.  But now that I've discovered my affinity for Chinese, I hope perhaps someday I can be the one to introduce more of Jin Yong's works to an English-speaking audience.  At least it's a goal to aim for.

Playing Dress-Up

You may ask, why does a 50-year-old woman want to dress up as the Monkey King?  Or as a Chinese swordswoman or an elf or a wizard, for that matter?  (Yes, I've done the other three.) 

There are a lot of things we're allowed to do as children that are considered inappropriate - or just plain weird - if you do them as an adult.  Playing dress-up is one of them. For some reason it's only acceptable on Halloween.  If you dress up as Link from the Zelda games at any other time, people will think you're peculiar or even mentally disturbed.  I don't know why that should be thought a sign of mental instability. Mentally ill people don't dress up in carefully assembled recreation costumes, they put on their entire wardrobe all at once. If a person with a mental disorder actually believes he is Link from the Zelda games, he'll probably still believe it when he's wearing a plastic bag overcoat.  He doesn't need a Link costume to support his delusion.

Wearing a costume is no different than wearing a sports uniform, or an evening gown.  I don't play sports or attend events for which evening gowns are requisite attire, and when I do wear something outside my ordinary wardrobe I prefer it be indicative of my other interests.  So I attend science fiction conventions and dress up as elves and wizards and kung fu heroines.  I have tremendous admiration for people who hand-make elaborate recreations of movie, tv and comic book costumes.  I also envy them enormously.  I don't sew, and my crafting skills are limited.  So I generally buy other peoples' products and use what little skill I have in assembling them into a costume that makes me happy. 

I have friends who are crafty and sewy (sic), but unfortunately they're also either too busy or too far away, so I guess I'll have to come up with my Monkey King outfit on my own. 
Starting at the top, here are some of my ideas for the costume:
I could see myself in this shirt, in the golden-yellow color with the xiangyun design in red:
Cloud shirt
 I like the cloud design.  Monkey travels on a flying cloud, so the design would make reference to that.

Then I need some trousers.  Perhaps these will do, probably in the firebrick red brocade:
brocade pants

I'll need some shoes, too.  Luckily the same site also has some shoes with a cloud motif:
Cloud shoes

I'd like to get some of the socks and leg wraps the site offers, but I'm worried they won't be big enough to fit around my fat Western calves.  As an alternative to the shoes, I could purchase some of these boots:
Chinese cloth boots
I wish I'd known about the boots when I developed my wuxia heroine costume.  Oh, well; black would have been pretty harsh against the powder blue pants. wuxia swordswoman costume

Now I've just got to figure out the jingubang, and his circlet.  I've been conemplating a toned-down version of the phoenix-plume headress he's often shown wearing.  I have a friend who's recently gotten into making mini-hats.  Maybe we can work something out together.  That would be fun.

Meet the Monkey

So, you may ask, who is this Monkey King she's so obsessed with?  Well, I'll tell you what I know:

The Monkey King, aka Sun Wukong in Mandarin Chinese, is a popular folk character from Chinese Buddhist mythology.  His adventures began with a real historical event.  During the Tang Dynasty (c. 618 - 907), a monk variously known as Xuanzang or Sanzang traveled to India to acquire copies of the Great Vehicle Buddhist sutras or scriptures, with the encouragement of the Tang Emperor Taizong.  Buddhism was already well entrenched in China at that time, but only really known through the Lesser Vehicle scriptures.  I'm not going to try to explain the difference, because I'm no Buddhist scholar.

During the 16th Century in the Ming Dynasty, an author called Wu Cheng'en transcribed a version of stories that already existed about how the monk traveled to India, accompanied by a group of magical companions.  One of these companions was Monkey.  Monkey is a special case.  He's not really a god (or at least he didn't start out to be) or a monster or demon.  He was born from an egg that emerged from a rock.  He became king of the monkeys of the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers, learned the secret of immortality from a Taoist Immortal, and then decided that he ought to have more kingly raiment.  So he went to the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and demanded that the Dragon King give him gifts.

To get rid of this annoying guest, the Dragon King finally gave him a magic staff that had once been used to hold the Milky Way in place. (Don't ask what happened to the Milky Way after the staff was removed from the Dragon King's palace.  I don't know.)  Equipped with the staff, armor, and magical cloud-stepping shoes, the Monkey King's ego got bigger and bigger.  When the Dragon King complained to the Emperor of Heaven about the Monkey's rude behavior, the Jade Emperor decided to offer Monkey a post in the celestial hierarchy, to keep him out of trouble.  Pestering the Dragon King wasn't the only thing Monkey had done to make a nuisance of himself; he'd also died of old age, but when taken to the Underworld he crossed his name off the Roll of the Dead, as well as the names of all of the monkeys of the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers.  Many complaints had been lodged against him in the Heavenly Court.  So the Emperor wanted to keep him close.

Monkey was delighted at first to be given a position in the Heavenly Court.  But when he eventually realized that Protector of the Horses wasn't a very important post, he was offended.  He made a fuss, fought with the Heavenly army, and was finally offered a more prestigious role as overseer of the Heavenly Peach Orchard.  Unfortunately, being a monkey, he didn't have a lot of self-control, and he quickly ate up most of the Peaches of Immortality.  When the Jade Empress wanted to have a Peach Banquet, Monkey was embarrassed that he'd eaten the peaches, but instead of apologizing and humbling himself before the Emperor, he tried to hide his crime and escape from Heaven.  In the process he also managed to get drunk and consume all of Lao Zi's pills of immortality as well.  Then he fled back to his mountain.

But he'd caused so much uproar in Heaven by this point that the Emperor couldn't let it go.  An army of celestial warriors was sent to subdue the rebellious monkey.  They failed to corral him, so the struggle escalated as divinities of greater and greater power were summoned to help.  Finally the Goddess of Mercy Guan Yin came to lend her aid.  She called on Tathagata Buddha for assistance.  In his wisdom, the Buddha challenged Monkey:  if Monkey could leap out of the Buddha's palm, he would be set free.  Monkey didn't realize that the Buddha's palm was infinite, so he was unable to succeed at the challenge.  Buddha then trapped him beneath a mountain for 500 years as punishment for his misdeeds.

At the end of the 500 years, along came the Tang monk seeking the scriptures.  Guan Yin persuaded Monkey that if he would convert to Buddhism and protect the monk on his journey, he would be released from his imprisonment.  She also provided the monk with a magic circlet that would bond itself to Monkey's head and control him, since she obviously knew that Monkey couldn't be trusted to cooperate.  To further aid the monk on his journey, she persuaded several celestial beings who had been exiled to earth as punishment for various infractions to act has his servants and companions (and in one case, his mount).

Along the way there were lots of local gods and minor celestial beings looking after the monk in addition to Monkey and his pals Pigsy (Zhu Bajie) and Sandy (Sha Wujing).  This was a good thing, because even though Monkey was very powerful, equipped both with his incredible enlarging/reducing staff and his ability to change shape and duplicate himself, there was only one of him. The rest of the protectors weren't nearly as powerful.  The monk was in constant danger, because his dharma-infused flesh was very desirable to monsters and demons who believed that consuming it would grant them immortality.  Monkey spends the rest of the lengthy book fending off monsters or rescuing the monk from them.

The book, Journey to the West, is intended to teach some Buddhist parables, but since the first seven chapters are about Monkey and how he gets into trouble, it largely becomes his story.  Consequently he's become immensely popular throughout Asia.  There have been numerous movies and tv series about him, as well as puppet plays, Beijing opera, and other entertainment.  He's a fairytale hero, a superhero, and a kind of minor deity.  I think he's a character who deserves more appreciation from Western audiences.  There's a whole tradition of fantasy literature in Asia that we're missing out on.  I just want to make a tiny effort toward rectifying that by making other people aware of its existence. 

And Monkey's just a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to putting on his persona as well as his clothes.