Chinese spelling bee

[abcdefg]

Turned on the TV today and saw a word-writing 听写 contest in progress on CCTV Channel 10. About a dozen teenage middle school kids were called on one at a time to write a challenging word. The host pronounced it carefully twice and then gave a definition and an example of its use. If the contestant didn't understand part of it, he or she could ask 这个(部分)是什么意思？

The contestant would then write the word on an electronic screen with a stylus. It would be projected large for the judges and audience to see. The host would then say 恭喜你 or 非常遗憾。

The camera sometimes panned to other contestants and some of the adult audience member who were attempting to write the word on their palm with a finger tip. One or two parents would rapidly thumb through thick paper dictionaries, though others were using iPads or other tablets.

The words got progressively tougher and more mistakes were made, leading to the elimination of more and more contestants. The organizers put up rankings and a leader board periodically. When the contest began, I at least knew parts of some of the answers, but it wasn't long before they left me in the dust.

Interestingly, 笔顺 did not seem to matter, just the final appearance of the characters involved. Most were two-character words. Some were historical proper names, such as a certain Tang Dynasty poet or a Ming Dynasty general. A couple of words were for ingredients in TCM cures and towards the end, they even threw in a few chengyu 成语。

[耳耳语语]

I will have a look. I notice that each sequence is dramatized (jury reactions, pre and post interviews) nearly the same way as other TV shows "The voice of China" or "Feichang wu rao".

http://tingxie.cntv.cn/

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%B1%89%E5%AD%97%E5%90%AC%E5%86%99%E5%A4%A7%E4%BC%9A&oq=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%B1%89%E5%AD%97%E5%90%AC%E5%86%99%E5%A4%A7%E4%BC%9A&gs_l=youtube.3..0.169774.169774.0.170144.1.1.0.0.0.0.90.90.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.l9TrmT1li8E

[abcdefg]

Yes, those look like good links to what I was watching. And, you're right about it being dramatized, showing offstage reactions and having commentaries to make it more lively and less dry. I think the competitors were representatives of different provinces. Am guessing this was the national finals.

中国汉子听写大会

[li3wei1]

Can you imagine doing a show like this in English? Maybe on cable somewhere . . .

[abcdefg]

Can you imagine doing a show like this in English? Maybe on cable somewhere . . .

Right!

Tonight there's another round of the same competition. These kids are really smart. I admire them.

The friends and relatives in a back room off camera get so excited. Pretty sure they have been grooming their children for this contest a long time. They sometimes swap mnemonics and tricks of remembering what different parts of certain obscure characters look like. And they give running comments, such as "Lots of people forget the "tishoupang" 提手旁 when they write this or they don't put the "huo" 火 in the right place."

It goes pretty fast, and I find myself wishing they would "dumb it down" just a little for people like me (obviously not their target audience.) For example, I'd like the MC 主持人 to repeat the word again after the spelling attempts have been made.

Nonetheless, I acquired some new Pleco flashcards today, maybe 10 or 15% of them useful. Learned the word for "jaundice," which is 黄疸。

[skylee]

This reminds me of the movie Quiz Show.

[abcdefg]

Yes, the concept is similar to a quiz show, but I hope there is no dishonesty and scandal like in the movie.

Some of tonight's questions are really tricky. The word reader hostess first tries to disambiguate things by very careful pronunciation, but that's often not enough and she has to give additional hints.

One contestant just flunked out by not knowing the difference between the way Yuncheng in Shandong and Yuncheng in Guangdong are written. 郓城 yùnchéng (in Shandong) and 运城 yúnchéng (in Guangdong.)

Another managed to remember how to write "chengzi that was not a fruit." 蛏子 chēngzi, meaning razor clam; instead of 橙子chéngzi, meaning orange.

It's probably a sad commentary on my boring life that I'm spending Friday night at home alone watching this kind of stuff on TV instead of being out in some hip and noisy expat bar telling lies and bending my elbow.

[SuEn]

I love this. I watched the first part after reading about it here a while ago. The only thing I don't like about it is that I think we often don't get to hear the entire explanation. It's like the 主持人 starts speaking before we can hear all of it. Or maybe my hearing is really bad. Did they change that in the next part?

Anyway, there is also another 汉字 writing show, called 汉字英雄, which is nowhere near this hardcore, I watched an episode of it and found it a little boring.

abcdefg, I will spend my Friday night watching 听写大会 as well

[Meng Lelan]

It's probably a sad commentary on my boring life that I'm spending Friday night at home alone watching this kind of stuff on TV instead of being out in some hip and noisy expat bar telling lies and bending my elbow.

No, it's a good commentary of how well you have adjusted to expat life to the point where you don't need an expat environment.

[daofeishi]

Now what would be great is if we could have an wave of American expat kids getting to the final rounds to make up for all the Chinese immigrants who regularly ace the American spelling bees

[skylee]

abcdefg, reading your recent posts it seems to me that you have made a lot of progress with your Chinese. And I agree with Meng Lelan. There is nothing wrong with staying at home watching tv on a friday night.

[abcdefg]

Thanks for your kind words @Skylee and @Meng Lelan.

And @Daofeishi, I agree. That would be really cool. Some 13 year-old Son-of-Da-Shan making it to the finals, only getting wiped out right at the end trying to write an archaic word with 48 strokes that had 5 popular homophone versions.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Now what would be great is if we could have an wave of American expat kids getting to the final rounds to make up for all the Chinese immigrants who regularly ace the American spelling bees

It's usually Indian-Americans (South Asian?-Americans) who win the spelling bees.

I think the Chinese-Americans are better at the science competitions.

I don't think a Chinese-American has ever won the National Spelling Bee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee_champions

It's gotten to the point where they announce who won the Scripps on the local news that I immediately think Indian...and am usually proved right.

Kobo.