I read the Chinese word for compass 指南針 and thought how many things in Chinese culture are backwards of Western thing.
I’d expect Chinese think the same (they notice Europeans do, say, etc in a manner opposite of Chinese) if they travel to Western countries, eg Europe Canada Australia
Have you not thought of this? I’ve thought if it many times but a) thought I should list the examples and categorize if possible b) as foreigners before wife because Chinese might get defensive
Han Chinese were a northern race so explored to the south. It’s not rocket science.
but the Europeans are also a northern race? Or did they borrow the compass from the Arabs?
Anyway, does the word compass imply it points north? Also, does it really matter, since if it points north it must also point south at the other end of the needle?
I’ve always thought the Chinese word for compass was stupid, and they claim to have invented it. But compasses point to magnetic north, no? I guess if it’s a needle balancing on a thing and pointing north, the other end would be pointing south…? (Edit: this was just said above. Sorry I was skimming)
The sun was a precious resource in Northern China, so they always wanted to know where the southern exposure was.
Yeah I have no idea what the OP is on about. As a southerner it’s all just northern bias.
That would be a very probable reason, since the old naming system for cities and places are always based on ying and yang, e.g. 咸陽, 安陽, 阜陽, 貴陽, 汾陽, 漢陽, 襄陽, 南陽, 桂陽, 山陰, 淮陰, 濟陰, 華陰. Places south of a mountain and north of a river gets the yang designation, while places north of a mountain and south of a river gets the yin designation.
Places with yang as a part of its place name gets much more developed because most mountains and rivers run in a west to east direction. The sunlight in the northern hemisphere mostly suns from the south to the north.
As a result, places north of a mountain, or south of a river, which usually also means it’s north of a mountain, gets significantly less sunlight.
If they were so concerned about the amount of sun they get, to the point they named almost all imported places by how much sun it might get, then I guess they might name the compass “south pointing needle” because they want to know where to point their house to get the most sunlight.
Dunno about the compass thing, but most Japanese saws cut on the pull stroke (unlike European saws), and I believe something similar evolved in China. Most likely one nation copied the idea from the other. A pull saw usually works better because it doesn’t flex on the cutting stroke.
The compass was just one example, as already indicated by how many things.
In Chinese culture There are many things, ways, phrasing etc which are the reverse of Western. I can’t be the only be with this question.
nope, not the first, nor the last. perspective is actually quite fascinating! all sides can learn a lot via looking through another person’s lens 
for example, Mandarin pronouns, in spoken form, completely void the entire western issue of pronouns. if only western style wasn’t backwards.
The introduction of 她 and 妳 was supposed to “make China more open, like the west, because you know if you’re talking about a man or a woman”. This makes me laugh so hard considering how complex family terms are, but only with male family members. Early 20th century Chinese really feared being sexist…
hence my.point of spoken mandarin. written becomes the same as the west, but with less cultural Fs given about the newly classified genders. this may change, but my worry is the west then also changes and adopts the Easts extremist attitudes on class and titles. the day I start calling people boss or teacher in english is the day Columbine becomes a moral high ground.
People used to use this in the West. Go watch any midcentury tv show. That then evolved into “Mr./Ms./Mrs. (Surname)” and now we just use first names.
Still used in prison when talking to the screws.
ya, that about sums up my reluctance to voluntarily call people a thing to intentionally give them unearned power over me and others.
a cold day in hell.
In Taigi the third person pronoun for any gender is still just 伊 without someone stupid making words like like 𡛂 or something… wait, that’s actually a character? I hope I’ve not started a trend.
As people are trying to come up with a gender neutral pronoun in written Chinese (what the fuck is wrong with 他? It’s literally a 人), I really don’t think you’re going to start a trend going in the other direction.
I thought this thread was gonna be about the people who hike walking backwards
I actually thought it was a rehash of the parking backwards thread.
Is there a good reason for the different tones in Mandarin and Taiwanese?
Why, for example, are third-tone words in Mandarin, such as hao (好), in the equivalent of the fourth tone in Taiwanese? Always thought that this makes learning either language unnecessarily more difficult. And it feels like it is deliberate.
