Feb. 15
2019

ISSUE
No. 154

AMS Weekly Newsletter
Dedicated to the development of the future stewards of U.S.-China relations
Words of the Year (年度汉字)

2019 and the Year of the Pig are already well upon us, but it's not too late to reflect on the 2018 Chinese Characters of the Year representative of China, Taiwan, "Cross-Straits," Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macau. The chosen 汉字 summarize the main events, thoughts, and attitudes of 2018 throughout the Asia Pacific region, and informs their trajectories into 2019. 
Weekly Readings

This week we are taking a look at Russia from a Chinese thinker's perspective. "Russian Road" 【俄罗斯道路】by Wang Kang (王康) is compiled from a series of speeches he delivered at Peking University about Russian geography, politics, history, religion, literature and nationality. Although the content of his speeches was heavily edited by Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite TV before being broadcast to the world, Wang Kang's thoughts still provoked strong reactions. 

The text is divided into six parts and includes updates by Wang Kang. "其内容之弥旧返新、意义之薏味深长,毋庸赘言,读者阅后自明。"


俗语 in Xi Jinping's Speeches

骨肉天亲
gǔròu tiānqīn
 
Meaning: One's flesh and blood; kin. 
骨肉:骨和肉,比喻至亲;亲:亲爱。比喻父母、兄弟、子女之间相亲相爱的关系。
Also written as: 骨肉至亲,骨肉之亲
 
In honor of Valentine's Day, this week's phrase from Xi Jinping's speech on January 2, 2019 conveys love and closeness between family relations. Xi used this phrase to evoke a sense of kinship between China and Taiwan. 
 
Original:  广大台湾同胞具有光荣的爱国主义传统,是我们的骨肉天亲。我们坚持寄希望于台湾人民的方针,一如既往尊重台湾同胞、关爱台湾同胞、团结台湾同胞、依靠台湾同胞,全心全意为台湾同胞办实事、做好事、解难事。

 
 
Video of the Week 

Director Tian Zhuangzhuang's 1993 movie "The Blue Kite"【 藍風箏】comes highly recommended  by Chinese language instructors and movie critics alike. According to Roger Ebert, the film is "nothing less than the attempt to show what it was like to live in times of ideological madness."

Watch the full movie on YouTube with English subtitles or Chinese subtitles.
Beijing Commas 

Chinese punctuation 101 refresher: the difference between  逗号/ d òu hào  and  顿号/ dùn hào. 
While 逗号 is the standard comma used in English, 顿号 is an enumerated comma unique to Chinese writing that is used when listing things in sentences. 
For example: "中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席习近平出席纪念会并发表重要讲话。"

To type (、) on your keyboard with Chinese input use the backslash key ( \ ) .


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