John Pasden of Sinosplice alerts us to the brand new Shanghainese portal on Dict.cn which will help you master shanghaihua! more ›

Nearly 15 years after Hong Kong was returned to China, the Wall Street Journal reports that the new census results show the former British colony is now replacing English with Mandarin as the city's most commonly spoken second language. more ›

Yesterday on Line 8, a rebellious metro driver decided to ignore the Metro authority's provisions to give announcements only in standard Mandarin, and instead used Shanghainese to announce the stops. more ›

The video's featured luminaries speak about what French means to them, saying it's a colorful, beautiful and romantic language, all in order to promote the Year of French Language in China, which curiously only lasts nine months. more ›

"I would like to sincerely apologize for using a sentence in Shanghainese during your language class to answer your question, and for disturbing order during class. There are provisions in the code of conduct for primary and secondary school, where Putonghua must be used. I not only failed to strictly comply, making such a serious mistake in such a serious language class, but also wasted almost 30 minutes of you and your students' valuable time in having this problem addressed. " more ›

Tencent, the Chinese Internet giant that is known for its instant messaging software QQ, has apologised for describing Apple's new CEO Tim Cook as a "sufferer of homosexuality" ("同性恋患者") in a recent article on its content portal. more ›

This is one helluva recommendation letter that someone wrote for her ayi. One wonders if she got the job?
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Hilarious: more ›

From TechWeb via TheNextWeb Asia comes the news that Sina's going to launch an English-language version of Weibo in less than three months to compete head-on with Twitter. We hate to be a party-pooper but we really don't see this working out -- why would anybody out there in the free world want a heavily censored microblogging platform? On the bright side, those of you looking for a way out of your English-language teaching jobs can now look forward to being part of Sina Weibo's English-language moderation team. more ›

Thanks partially to the inability to express criticism on the internet, it seems that a new style has emerged - a new feature of internet slang, to rant about their dissatisfaction. It's called paoxiaoti (咆哮体), or "the roaring mode of writing". more ›

Spotted in a Shanghai hotel by the guys from Engrish.com: "Foot-soaking in spring time will strengthen Yang and reinforce vital energy, in summer it will dispel disease caused by heat and dampness, in autumn lubricate intestines and in winter warm the pubic region." more ›

We already know of a few really great Mandarin learning sites and dictionaries but Lexicalist is our latest fancy. It's a Chinese/English dictionary and those we have a'plenty. However aside from the denotation, it also shows you how the usage of the character fares by province and by gender. more ›

Well, here's something we didn't know: Education First (EF), better known through their subsidiary English First here in mainland China, is also in the Chinese language business. And they want you to learn the language with them in Beijing. Check out this nice little commercial created for them by the Stockhom-based production house Camp David. more ›

Just before the turn of the year, Xinhua announced its list of top 10 Chinese internet catchphrases for the year 2010. Now Baidu has announced its own list, which differs somewhat from the Xinhua list: more ›

The list, according to the all-authoritative Xinhua: more ›

The silencing of Shanghainese was one of various schemes - see also: banning pajamas, banning Chinglish - authorities tried to push through pre-Expo. Like the others, it didn't quite work out. Though, unlike the others, it was probably due to a widespread backlash that made Shanghainese even more popular. One of the people who've helped more and more Shanghai residents is Qian Nairong, Shanghai University professor and Xinmin's resident "Shanghainese" columnist. CNNGo has a great profile piece on him that just went up today - I recommend you read it, even if you can't tell your 侬(nong)s from your 我(ngu)s. more ›

Sleek, fast car, check. 3G capabilities, check. Attractive people (one male, one female, both not Chinese), check. A clear jingle? Er.... more ›

For part two in a series that may never end, we're calling attention to two culinary delicacies that are said to be specialties in Sichuan province. Our question is not so much about the usage of lung in cooking - a quick dip in a hot pot makes anything taste good, after all - but rather if the lung "cold tablets" come in a choice of "husband" or "wife," or if you get a little of both. What do you think? more ›

Shanghai city planners and business owners are primping and polishing for the Expo, but they can't control all of this massive country, after all. We've been traveling around China and thought we'd share some of our findings with you. Enjoy today's special - a grade-school girl's shirt found in a Ren Ren Le supermarket - and be sure and check back each day for the next little while, because we all know what China's official second language is. more ›

OK, we exaggerate, but she did start speaking in a Chinese accent -- that's according to a report by the UK's Daily Mail. Doctors believe that Sarah Colwill, who has long suffered from rare sporadic hemiplegic migraines, has Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition which damages the part of the brain that controls linguistic ability, and is so rare, there are only 60 such cases documented in the world. Said the 35 year old from Plymouth more ›

According to a blog called 24/7 Moms, this Chinese language learning game was one of the hottest toys at the recent 2010 International Toy Fair in New York. Called Kingka, it teaches "54 basic Chinese characters and over 1000 words." Wait, weren't characters and words more or less the same thing? more ›

According to Huang Youyi, CPCC member and director of the China International Publishing Group, the Chinese language is facing a new invasion: by the English language. Huang feels that no good can come of the popular use of English words and acronyms (such as GDP and CEO) in published Chinese articles and everyday conversations. He told China Daily: more ›

We find a lot of interesting things in our daily romps around the internet. Some of them are more exiting than others, but the ones that really get us pumped are interesting Chinese language blogs. We usually just browse through sites like nciku or ChinaSmack's glossary for kicks, and we've certainly enjoyed the literal translations of Chinese phrases from Those Crazy Chinese, but we hadn't realized that Shanghai Daily has it's own word blog until recently. Check out some of their pretty great content: more ›

And he got the characters right. 冠軍 means "champion" (he's using traditional characters). The other side says "Chatty." According to Artest's Twitter page, Chatty is the name of a friend who passed away. On Twitter, Artest also says he flew in Boogie the barber from Orlando for the cut and paid him a hotel room plus $20. Artest and the Lakers begin their quest to prove the left side of his head correct at 10:30 am Shanghai time against, fittingly, the Clippers. Source: Ball Don't Lie more ›

Shanghai's on a mission to silence Shanghainese before the World Expo comes to town. According to the South China Morning Post, Shanghai authorities are pushing forth their 12th annual Putonghua Promotional Week, a week-long Mandarin campaign that hopes to stop instances of people talking only in the Shanghainese dialect. Besides the Week, the government has also broadcast tv and radio adverts in recent months that portray Shanghainese as "uncivilized or backward." The Global Times outlines some of the reactions to official efforts to wipe out Shanghainese, pointing out that it's disappearing on its own anyway and that something precious will probably disappear along with it. "Once the dialect is lost," says Ma Lili, deputy chief director of the Hu Opera Theater of Shanghai, "the culture will surely follow." more ›

石室诗士施氏，嗜食狮，誓食十狮。适施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。试释是事。 more ›

A Chinese character has finally been created for the new equine breed -- caonima (草泥马) or "grass mud horse" -- that's been galloping amok on the Chinese interwebs much to the chagrin of the Net Nanny. The 艹 radical refers to 'grass' (草), 尼resembles泥 and both are homophones, while 马is the character for 'horse'. The new character even has a recommended pronunciation -- Jia4 or Yu2. [h/t to Isaac Mao] more ›

Danwei recently wrote an excellent post an on a new graphic novel we would love to get a peek at called Tibetan Rock Dog by rock star, Zheng Jun. Zheng Jun, combines his interest in animals, cartoons and music to create a graphic novel that he hopes will "give ourselves the decent childhood we missed, a deluxe childhood that a healthy, happy individual ought to have." Zheng Jun sees the graphic novel as a medium for adults to "enjoy the storied benefits of childhood." more ›

Youku Buzz points us to this video of Chris Pereira singing The Star Spangled Banner in Chinese. We must say this impassioned rendition of the US anthem brought a single tear to our eye. And this guy is not even American — he's Canadian. more ›

Biology student Xu Peng from Shanghai's Fudan University has emerged winner of the CCTV Cup English Speaking Contest, China's top English-language oratorical competition. more ›