It’s been a while since I’ve posted on Forumosa, and so first off let me say, hello friends and enemies! I did finally end up moving to Alabama, and have found a job.
In the past several weeks I have been diving back into learning Chinese, chiefly by reading John DeFrancis’ Intermediate Chinese Reader, Part I. A few years back, after I graduated from college, I read the Beginning Chinese Reader Part I and II to give myself a thorough review. It worked like a charm. Now I am determined to make my way through the entire series.
I am also looking for ways to improve my listening skills as well. In the past I watched the entire Meteor Garden (Liuxing Huayuan) series, and that helped immensely. Unfortunately Meteor Garden 2 got terrible reviews, and so I am hoping to find another series, available on DVD if possible, similar in quailty and style to Meteor Garden. Something set in modern times, with colloquial language, and preferably not completely goofy or bitterly sad and depressing (OK Meteor Garden was a little goofy, but overall it wasn’t bad). I had previously a cable extension that included a Taiwanese channel, but nearly every show was unbearable. If it wasn’t a completely unbelievable and overly dramatic soap opera, it was a wacky variety show where the host wore routinely wore ski goggles, a fluffy woolen cowboy hat, and other over-the-top regalia. The hostess was usually dressed like a 2-NTD hooker.
By the way I know that language exchanges are good ways to learn Chinese, but my present schedule doesn’t really make that feasible. If anybody knows of any good TV series in Mandarin available on DVD, please let me know.
On digital cable where I live (Canada), there’s a series called 醋溜族 (cu4liu1zu2) that’s playing right now. It’s mildly amusing and a bit goofy, but it’s decent for listening practice as the accents of the characters range from very Beijing to very Taiwan. The actors originate from both the mainland and Taiwan. It’s a forty episode series about four young people living in Shanghai and their love lives. The language is fairly easy (imo) and colloquial.
Subtitles are in simplified Chinese. You can order the entire series from www.yesasia.com.
[quote=“sjcma”]On digital cable where I live (Canada), there’s a series called 醋溜族 (cu4liu1zu2) that’s playing right now. It’s mildly amusing and a bit goofy, but it’s decent for listening practice as the accents of the characters range from very Beijing to very Taiwan. The actors originate from both the mainland and Taiwan. It’s a forty episode series about four young people living in Shanghai and their love lives. The language is fairly easy (imo) and colloquial.
Subtitles are in simplified Chinese. You can order the entire series from www.yesasia.com.[/quote]
Awesome. Thank you. I just ordered it, and will post my own review after I’ve seen it.
Hi, I missed this post before. A while ago, I posted this in another thread:
橘子紅了 (júzi hóngle - Oranges Ripen) The story of a poor girl who marries into a rich family in the early 20th century.
金粉世家 (jīn fěn shì jiā - Story of a Noble Family) The story of a poor girl who marries into a rich and powerful family in China in the early 20th century. I have also been reading the book at the rate of a page a day for about a year.
畫魂 (huā hún Painter’s Soul) The story of a poor girl… ok, you know the rest. But she also goes to Paris and becomes a painter.
These are pretty girly and maybe not to everyone’s taste- all historical dramas so perhaps not what you want to see. Good luck and I hope there are more recommendations. I like to get things on DVD so I can go back and watch it again, or pause to look up a character on the subtitles.
If you want something with some of the same actors as Meteor Garden, try Mars (Zhan Shen). It has both ZaiZai (Vic Zhou the guy who played HuaZeLei in MG) and Da S (Barbie Hsu aka ShanCai from MG) in it. I liked it, but to be honest, it isn’t very funny and ZaiZai mumbles a lot.
Other Taiwanese series that have gone down well in recent history…
-WangZi Bian QingWa (starring Ming Dao and Chen Qiao En), can’t remember the English name, probably something like Frog Prince.
-It Started With a Kiss (E Zuo Ju Zhi Wen starring Ariel Lin and Joe somethingerother)
-Tokyo Juliet (Ariel Lin and a guy from Fei Lun Che whose name I can’t remember).
-Love Magicians (Ai Qing Mo Fa Shi starring 183 Club and Qiao Qiao).
-Devil Beside You (E Mo Zai Shen Bian starring Rainnie Yang and Mike He)
Most of these were pretty silly Ou Xiang Ju, but I really liked Wangzi Bian Qingwa (Frog Prince). I’ve been watching Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu on GTV recently and find it hilarious (not necessarily to my credit, but who cares?!). It stars Ella from SHE and the guy whose name I can’t remember who is in Fei Lun Che. But I am pretty sure only the first 5 episodes are out on DVD at the moment.
It’s a bit depressing but I also liked Dou Yu (The Outsiders). And The Scent of Love (Lian Xiang). The most original I’ve seen recently is definitely Bump Off Lover (Ai Sha 17 or Love Kill 17 starring Angela Zhang) which I thought was excellent, but gave me pretty freaky dreams while I was watching it!
Otherwise I stick to Korean series. They’re dubbed into Mandarin and have Chinese subtitles. I really liked My Name is Kim Samsoon (or My Lovely Samsoon - Wo Jiao Jin San Shun), The Princess Hours (Gong - Ye Ting Wang Fei), Full House (Lang Man Man Wu), Sad Love Story (Bei Shang Lian Ge, but they weren’t kidding when they said it was sad), My Girl (Wode Nu Hai). I’ve watched so many now, I’m surprised I can actually remember any of their names! Oh and Jewel of the Palace (Da Chang Jin) is excellent, but is set in Korea centuries ago and so has a whole bunch of language to do with court ettiquette in it. Plus it is really, really long (72 episodes I think).
The least girly out of all these are Bump Off Lover, The Outsiders and Mars.
Hope there is something in there that works for you!
王子變青蛙 (Wangzi bian qingwa) - One of my LE partners recommended this one - I bought it on VCD (not DVD because I live in Australia, which uses PAL rather than NTSC) to watch so I can practice my Chinese when I’m in Australia. Haven’t watched it yet though.
I am sadly addicted to this one. Xiu Yi (who is played by another guy from Fei Lun Hai ) (飛輪海) has been particularly amusing of late. If you search for the chinese name on you tube (花樣少年少女), or, alternatively, the name of the original japanese manga (Hana Kimi), you will find that several fans have been posting the latest episodes on there. Each ep is split into 6 10-minute segments. It’s pretty silly, but I enjoy Ella’s range of facial expressions (even though I don’t find her particularly attractive). The guy who plays the gay teacher is a scream.
I am sadly addicted to this one. Xiu Yi (who is played by another guy from Fei Lun Hai ) (飛輪海) has been particularly amusing of late. If you search for the Chinese name on you tube (花樣少年少女), or, alternatively, the name of the original japanese manga (Hana Kimi), you will find that several fans have been posting the latest episodes on there. Each ep is split into 6 10-minute segments. It’s pretty silly, but I enjoy Ella’s range of facial expressions (even though I don’t find her particularly attractive). The guy who plays the gay teacher is a scream.[/quote]
I, too, am addicted to Hana Kimi. It’s on youtube now with English translations (search: “hana kimi” english. Word has it (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hua_Yang_Shao_Nian_Shao_Nu_2) that a second season will be on TV come new year. :discodance:[/code]
After watching the Korean soap Save the Last Dance (I think that’s what it’s called anyway) which seems to have been filmed before, it looks like Wangzi Bian Qingwa is a copy of it. The Taiwanese version is pretty funny, but having seen them both now I prefer the original.
If you liked Ming Dao and Qiao En from WZBQW, are also in a Sanli TV show at the moment (something about 3jia1).
Wu Zun (the guy who starred with Ella in Hana Kimi) is also in a series on at the moment called Gongzhu Xiao Mei, starring with Angela Zhang (from Bump off Lover).
A sequel to It Started With A Kiss, is filming at the moment.
For anybody else who likes to watch TV to “study” and wants to take a break from Taiwanese Ou xiang ju, I’ve watched these fairly recently and thought they were pretty good…
A Moment in Peking 京華煙雲 with Zhao Wei (Chinese actress who is starring with Taiwanese supermodel Lin Zhi Ling in the movie Hong Chi) and Huang Wei De (Taiwanese singer and actor). It is set in Beijing just before the Japanese invaded.
Couple or Trouble 幻想情侶 was hilarious. It’s Korean but dubbed into Mandarin with Chinese subtitles.
If you are familiar with the comic books Condor Heroes, you could try 神鵰俠侶. It’s long, but the scenery is pretty.
[quote=“gao_bo_han”][quote=“sjcma”]On digital cable where I live (Canada), there’s a series called 醋溜族 (cu4liu1zu2) that’s playing right now. It’s mildly amusing and a bit goofy, but it’s decent for listening practice as the accents of the characters range from very Beijing to very Taiwan. The actors originate from both the mainland and Taiwan. It’s a forty episode series about four young people living in Shanghai and their love lives. The language is fairly easy (imo) and colloquial.
Subtitles are in simplified Chinese. You can order the entire series from www.yesasia.com.[/quote]
Awesome. Thank you. I just ordered it, and will post my own review after I’ve seen it.[/quote]
We just started watching it last weekend. When we bought it, the website said “all region DVD” or something like that, but it didn’t work on our Playstation 2, which we had been using for years to watch DVDs. But we recently bought a flat screen HDTV and DVD upconverter to go along with it. The Cu Liu Zu discs work perfectly on the upconverter.
So far, it’s basically like sjcma described, mildy amusing and a bit goofy. Well more than a bit goofy really, but not as much as those horrid Taiwanese variety shows. At least there is something of a plot and the characters can hold halfway normal conversations without being interrupted every 0.000000001 seconds with annoying sound effects and canned laughter.
Honestly, why are Mandarin language shows always so camp? There are apparently two themes: Qing dynasty dramas where the characters are neurotically obsessed with filial piety, tradition, and honor, or zany, bizarre comedies where every character is a caricature of himself.
There are some great Mandarin language movies, but those aren’t as useful for learning Mandarin. But, as Mandarin TV goes, Cu Liu Zu is pretty decent so far. Thanks again to sjcma for the suggestion.
Also, what kind of oddball handle is sjcma anyways?? Get something pronounecable!
Then there are those love story dramas where any crying less than ten times by each character per episode will be deemed to be not dramatic enough (typical of novels/shows by author Qiong2 Yao2 瓊瑤). Actually, one of the more decent of those love dramas is Qing2 Shen1shen1 Yu3 Meng2meng2 情深深雨濛濛 (by Qiong Yao no less). It was a big big hit all over the Chinese speaking world when it came out and it’s a long drawn out love drama that took place mostly in Shanghai (again) in the 1930’s. Again, a mix of mainland, Taiwan, and HK cast members. HK actors speak in Cantonese but are dubbed over in Mandarin. Because of its setting, the language is a bit more formal when compared to Culiuzu, but still good for learning Mandarin. It’s 49 episodes and you can find it here: asianmv.com/biqeqsj.html
If you’re from Eastern Europe, you’d know that ‘j’ is pronounced like the English ‘y’. Thus, sjcma sounds very much like “sigma”.
But that’s not the real reason for the handle…but it’s plausible! Actually, sjcma are just my initials and I never thought that I’d stay with this forum long enough to actually want to pick a pronounceable name. Too late now!
And what does gao_bo_han stand for anyway? Sounds like “fondling breast man”
(搞波漢)
, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Ah, how could I forget. I used to pay for a cable extension package that had only one Mandarin language channel. Mainly stuff from Taiwan but with the occasional Mainland show. The drama crying shows you mentioned were matched only by the reality crying shows, which were almost entirely in Taiwanese actually. Not that it matters, because even if it was in Mandarin I would not have understood a word through their incessant sobbing.
Then there was an annoying variety show with a bearded host who occasionally hauled out foreigners like prize monkeys and did his best to mock and humiliate them.
We watched the second episode of Cu Liu Zu last night. Is overacting considered a virtue among Chinese actors? Perhaps the Chinese audience expects actors to constantly exaggerate their expressions and body language. For instance, whenever a character says anything that could on a very remote possibility be considered mildly shocking to a three year old, the actors erupt with “WAAAAAAAA???!!??!?!?!?!??!”, raise their eyebrows, open their eyes wide, and drop their jaws.
Unfortunately, China gets a lot of its pop culture cues from Taiwan and reality crying shows are now mainstream on the mainland. Of course, Taiwan gets a lot its pop culture cues from Japan and the US and I’m guessing Jerry Springer was the inspiration for it all. No chair throwing yet, but give it time…
There’s a Chinese saying that goes 家醜不外揚 (family skeletons are not to be made public). Twenty years ago, one wouldn’t be caught dead airing dirty family secrets on the air. Now…well…just goes to illustrate the continuation of the breakdown of traditional family values.
You’re talking about 張菲 (菲哥). I thought all stars on his show get humiliated equally? I believe there are a couple (a few?) F’mosans that have been on his show. His schtick is getting old though and increasingly creepy.
It’s a light hearted love comedy, so expect characters to be a bit of a caricature. But more importantly, this TV series was based on a popular comic book series and although I haven’t read the comic books it’s based on, I think it’s pretty clear the TV show tried to retain the “cartoonish” elements of the original print version.
Bullpoppy (and I mean that in a friendly way). I hated the Jerry Springer show (is it still on?), but it wasn’t remotely akin to the bizarre Taiwanese crying shows. Springer’s “guests” (haha) didn’t usually break down crying after three seconds because their son got into the second best high school in the nation rather than the best.
I don’t agree. He treated foreigners much worse than Taiwanese guests. Why any foreigner would go on his show is beyond me.
Bullpoppy (and I mean that in a friendly way). I hated the Jerry Springer show (is it still on?), but it wasn’t remotely akin to the bizarre Taiwanese crying shows. Springer’s “guests” (haha) didn’t usually break down crying after three seconds because their son got into the second best high school in the nation rather than the best.[/quote]
Sure, Taiwanese shows aren’t a copy of Jerry Springer, but I still think he was the inspiration for whacky “reality” talk shows. The Taiwanese simply localized the concept and brought it to a different plane of existence.
I don’t agree. He treated foreigners much worse than Taiwanese guests. Why any foreigner would go on his show is beyond me.[/quote]
Hmm…maybe I have the wrong impression because I can never sit through an entire episode (plus I’m not in the habit of watching his show 綜藝大哥大). Foreigners go on for the Mandarin practice of course! I wonder how much they get paid…
I have been watching 白色巨塔 (The Hospital) recently, it can be found on Youtube. The last Taiwan drama I watched was It Started with a Kiss, but I think the vocabulary used in the Hospital covers ground better than in Kiss, like some other teen love dramas is shallow and deals with pretty basic matters. The hospital at least gets them out of high school, and into a professional setting, where they aren’t jibbering about passing that test anymore.
I used to watch a few Japanese series when I was over there. It was a good way to improve listening comprehension, if only I had studied harder. I don’t seem to have time to get into any shows here in Taiwan, and I never liked soap operas anyway. But I have learned a few words from Dora the Explorer.