General historical overview After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in the early 1900s, there was an explosion of Western education, as wealthier families sent their children to be educated abroad (mostly in Japan which by then was fairly Westernized, but some went to the US/UK too). The old traditional Chinese medicine practices began to […]
General Almost no one from the older generations (30+ y/o) will speak English; almost everyone sub-30 will speak at least some English. Menus, signs, etc. will probably be entirely in Chinese or occasionally very questionable English. Great Firewall of China Many websites/apps that Westerners take for granted are blocked. Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, etc. Even if […]
The Longest Day in Chang’an has been lauded as one of the best modern Chinese tv series, with fans going so far to say it is of comparable quality to some of the best Western shows. Parallels have been drawn with Game of Thrones, since both focus heavily on characters’ perspectives and motivations. In brief, […]
People often ask me if it’s worth learning Chinese. Usually, the question is posed by those who have the option of taking it in high school or college and have been told that “it’s the language of the future,” so are considering whether it’ll be advantageous to learn. The short answer, perhaps surprisingly, is probably […]