Chinese Names to Know

[heifeng]

陈世美 chénshìměi = 负心汉~Basically an ungrateful/unfaithful husband/man, a man w/o a conscience.

came across this name while (still) reading one of my novels listed on the 'what are you reading thread':mrgreen::

那时的公安民警离婚，要单位签署意见后，街道办事处才会办理。局领导说了， 你现在刚提为副科长，要注意政治影响，不能当了领导干部就要变成陈世美吧？

Edited December 10, 2009 at 03:43 PM by heifeng
el typo

[doraemon]

梁山伯 和 祝英台. It's basically referring to China's verson of Romeo and Juliet.

[kongli]

ah procrastinating....

How about 仓颉 (cang jie) supposed to have invented the chinese writing system.

also 屈原, for whom the dragon boat is celebrated, wrote the li sao 离骚，famous chinese rhapsody 赋 from the jiu ge 九歌。

[heifeng]

Time to dust this thread off!

Today in this article I came across 宋美龄--- aka Madame Chiang. See below for context in article and a brief intro....

走遍台北大街小巷，她發現台北的學生妹不算最漂亮的，台北的阿嬤才最美！她在台北常看到穿著打扮得體的阿嬤，「覺得她們是民國風的阿嬤」，風格像是從電影中看到的宋美齡那樣。

宋美龄（1897年3月5日[注 1]－2003年10月24日）又称蒋夫人，中华民国前第一夫人，中华民国总统及军事委员会委员长蒋中正的妻子。中国国民党中央评议委员会主席团主席、中国国民党中央妇女工作委员会指导会议指导长、辅仁大学复校第二任董事长及名誉董事长。宋美龄在近代中国历史与对美关系具有深远的影响力。

Soong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang (traditional Chinese: 宋美齡; simplified Chinese: 宋美龄; pinyin: Sòng Měilíng; March 5, 1898[1] – October 23, 2003) was a First Lady of the Republic of China (ROC), the wife of Generalissimo and President Chiang Kai-shek. She was a politician and painter. The youngest and the last surviving of the three Soong sisters, she played a prominent role in the politics of the Republic of China and was the sister-in-law of Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Republic of China preceding her husband.

[poleag]

观世音菩萨 （Guan1 Shi4 Yin1 Pu2 Sai4 ): is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female.

Example from 北京爱情故事:

Context: Over the course of two days, a guy saves two people's lives. One day, he convinces his female friend not to jump off of a building. The next day he saved a kid on the road who was about to get hit by a bus. Because he was so busy saving lives, he shows up late to an important business meeting. His boss is not happy about this:

Boss:

昨天是英雄救美，今天是路见不平.

你的生活真是丰富多彩啊？

两天你就救了两条命

你比观世音菩萨你还神通啊?

Guy:

胡总，我说的都是真的！