First Episode 29: 走向共和 (Towards the Republic)

[roddy]

I finally finished this!

Good work! Glad to see you're finding so much to agree with me about as well

Renzhe, when are you planning to watch this?

Edited January 13, 2010 at 11:45 AM by roddy

[Tangmu]

Sorry to bump an old thread..I know this not a recent series, but by all accounts reccomended.

I have had the DVD of this series for a while (I probably ordered it way back when when I first read this thread!). I have seen the first epsiode and I think it is ok for my level now. Anyone want to join in? And join for some historical discussion along the way?

I'm going to start watching and posting vocab etc. as I move along in any event.

PS - Roddy et al, if you want to post this anywhere else you think more appropriate just let me know, thanks!

[roddy]

Not at all, bump away - that's what they're there for, and it's great to see this old stuff coming in useful.

If you're fairly sure you'll make it through a decent number of episodes and you are so inclined, you could perhaps start a new topic to try and attract people and post vocab lists and so on. But that's up to you, either way works for me.

And er... Renzhe... hate to be a nag, but...

[rob07]

It is great to see this thread alive again. Court dramas have their own specific vocabulary which is obviously a challenge. But I think the other side of the coin is that because the actors don't speak like that normally, they say their lines more slowly and clearly than they would if they were speaking the way they usually do, often with every syllable distinctly pronounced. So there is a silver lining there for learners and court dramas are worth making the effort with, even if you disregard that (a) they are probably what CCTV do best and (b) Chinese history is obviously very important to Chinese people.

I think this was the first of two Qing court dramas recommended by Skylee. I just committed to the second recently, 雍正王朝, about one third of the way through.

[skylee]

Re 雍正王朝, the show was a phenomenon when it was first aired partly because before that people quite generally considered 雍正 to be quite evil because of the story of his illegitimate ascension to the throne and his cruelty to the people who were against him. The drama changed that view considerably. And it was so well-written and the acting was so good, etc. 加油 and enjoy.

[renzhe]

And er... Renzhe... hate to be a nag, but...

Lol, life gets in the way sometimes, just came back from a week-long meeting.

Tell you what, if Tangmu starts watching it and posting vocab in here, I can't promise that I won't get dragged into it starting from June...

But don't forget that I also have Portuguese series to watch (high-school vampire hunter series -- I sure know how to pick the good stuff!)

[HusbandOfWuhan]

I have watched this twice through and loved it that's why I am planning to watch it a third time. It's too much of a classic!

I'm an avid Chinese drama watcher who has watched loads of these dramas yet and I still believe this is one of the best!

奴才 means "servant-slave". It was how the servants of the monarchy used to refer to themselves so that they would always be

seen to be under the superior imperial authority of the monarch.

江山社稷 - basically means "the whole country and society". It's used when the monarch has a political agenda and he/she

is doing it "for the country". It's equivalent to the US president doing something in the name of national security or national interests

or for the people etc.

[roddy]

Just happened across this old topic. Shame Tangmu and Renzhe haven't watched it yet, that's all I'm saying...or have you?

[renzhe]

Who is renzhe?

I don't see anyone like that here.

[Steingletscher]

Where can I download the uncensored version? Just give me a PM. I'm fairly new at looking for Chinese shows outside of PPTV/Youku.

[roddy]

You could start here and see what you find. Good to see someone about to start watching this...