QQSRX: list of episodes

[somethingfunny]

You're the man.

[Luxi]

(Last attempt to post the message, I've now deleted the link to QQSRX home page)

 

I don't know if it's a temporary glitch, my set-up, or Google and Mozilla finally zapped Adobe Flash in their browsers. The videos at the main QQSRX page stopped working in Firefox (v.41) and Chrome  since this morning. Clicking on a video leads to an error page. They are however working in Microsoft's Edge.

 

And for those as thick as me who are still looking for the transcript for the latest episode: while the video is playing, you should see some dialogue lines (like subtitles) on the right of the video screen. Clicking on any of those lines (they're actually links!!!) opens another browser tab with the whole transcript - often in several pages, look at the bottom. 

 

I spent hours clicking ALL the obvious links on the page and translating and re-translating buttons!  Is it my set-up or everybody else has the same? I use Firefox, Chrome and now also Edge, all were the same for me.

Edited October 11, 2015 at 01:57 PM by Luxi

[Luxi]

Posting problems.

 

... looks like it might have been the link? Puzzled.

[Guest realmayo]

I've had problems opening videos recently on the http://phtv.ifeng.com site, but have a workaround which I was going to post: in firefox: simply open the page in a 'Private Window'. For me, videos open without fail this way.

[somethingfunny]

What exactly is the deal with this show?  Where is it filmed?  Do the guests have a particular political slant (like they would in the west)?

[imron]

I believe it's filmed in HK.

The guests are from all over, so you get a variety of political slants. The show isn't overtly political in nature though so there are plenty of episodes where there is little if any discussion on politics.

The host is from hebei, but they're not afraid to talk about issues that wouldn't see the light of day in a mainland run show.

The best advice I can give is to just watch a few episodes.

[somethingfunny]

Yeah, originally I thought it was mainland, but then I saw a lot of traditional characters about, and then they started saying some stuff that didn't seem very 'PC'.

 

It's really good hearing people talk so openly and freely in Chinese, with real sarcasm and irony.

[somethingfunny]

I watched one of these recently and I'm wondering if anyone else saw it as well.  It was the episode where they were discussing the news story about a man on the Shanghai subway who spat on the floor and then someone told him he shouldn't and it escalated from there.  Anyway, I watched it a couple of times and then didn't really think about it much until the other day.

 

On the show the guy on the left (sorry I don't know any of their names, I think he's from Shanghai, or went to university in Shanghai) starts talking about how foreigners view spitting on the floor.  Now, we all know that this is a big deal and there have been concerted efforts to reduce the amount of spitting on the floor (the show discusses a few, like what happened before the olympics) and it seems to me at least that the younger generations in particular now take a similar view on spitting in public as most foreigners would.  What was interesting though was when he started talking about why people don't like spitting.

 

He basically argued from a Chinese perspective that people spit because their saliva is 'dirty' and keeping it in their body would be 'unclean' or 'unhealthy'.  He joked that actually people who spit would have originally been considered to be 'clean' people because they are removing waste from their body.  He then continues that foreigners object to spitting on the floor for the same reasons - because it is 'dirty'.  We therefore essentially have a situation where the Chinese viewpoint and the non-Chinese viewpoint are basically just different degrees on the same scale of opinion.  The first being: it's dirty so I should spit it out, the second being: it's dirty so I should spit it out into the bin.

 

I'm now going to speak from my own personal experience.  I don't believe people ('foreigners') object to spitting on the basis that it is unclean.  I object to people not cleaning up dog-s**t (smell) and throwing waste food on the floor (attracts rats) based on ideas of clean and unclean because they have obvious consequences.  However, while it is obviously not clean, I don't think it is actually that dirty to spit on the floor.  The real objection comes from the symbolic action of spitting.  Where I come from, to spit at someone's feet, or to even spit in their face, are some of the most offensive non-violent actions a person can take.  Spitting is, plain and simple, a sign of disrespect.  As there is rarely any other situation in which one is required to spit, any spitting action will immediately invoke the emotional response related to it as a sign of disrespect.  Whenever someone spits near me I never think "Oh my god thats so dirty!", I think "Oh my god, that person has no respect for me!"  Or something along those lines.  Add to this the fact that the sound associated with public spitting in China is fairly unpleasant and we have the full reason for why people object to spitting.

 

Now, you might read this and think "gee, thanks somethingfunny, thanks for telling me a bunch of stuff about how I feel that I already knew."  But the point is that none of this was discussed in the show.  The guy on the left basically rationalised non-Chinese people's views of spitting through Chinese people's views of spitting.  Again, you might think, "well, he's Chinese, what else is he supposed to do?"  I guess it just really bothers me that, in my opinion, he was way off the mark on this one.  Especially because, although I enjoy his contributions, I do find that he tends to affect that air of authority that a lot of Chinese people do from middle-age onwards, the old "because I'm older I'm an expert on everything and you'd be well advised to just listen carefully to what I have to say regardless of how intelligent you or I actually am."

 

(I thought of another example of the difference between something dirty and spitting.  Imagine you step in dog s**t, are you going to be more annoyed about getting it off, or the fact that someone didn't clean up their dog's mess?  Now, imagine someone spits on you, are you going to be more annoyed about getting it off, or the fact that someone just spat on you?)

[imron]

I didn't see the episode, but I don't think he's way off the mark.  I object to spitting because it's unclean.

 

I agree that spitting at someone is highly disrespectful, however most of the spitting you see in China is not spitting at people.  Imagine I walking 30m behind someone and I see them spit randomly on the ground.  They didn't even see me, and I didn't even hear much of the hawking - but I'd still object to it (unless they were spitting in a bin or something) because it's a nasty thing to do.

[somethingfunny]

I'm not saying that a Chinese person is disrespecting other people when they spit.  I'm saying that's the association with spitting I have in my mind.  I don't like spitting, not because its dirty, but because its not a nice thing to do.

 

If someone throws their plastic bag on the floor it annoys me because its an eyesore.

If someone drops their used kebab sticks on the floor it annoys me because it attracts rats.

If someone spits on the floor it annoys me because I associate it with disrespect.

 

Man, I need to stop being so annoyed.

[roddy]

QQSRX is a great show, but often the guests have little idea of what they're talking about, particularly once you get onto anything involving "the West"

[Guest realmayo]

Happened to see that there is newish, similar show hosted by the same guy and with lots of the same guests: 圆桌派.

It appears to be produced by youku.

 

No transcripts, as far as I can see. But there are subtitles (hardcoded).

 

Four people chatting not three, for longer.

 

First episode seemed a bit stagey but still a nice change from 锵锵三人行。

 

On youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLpmB4OOrdY

On youku: search for 圆桌派

[somethingfunny]

Does look a bit staged.  I'm also not sure how interesting some of the topics look - seems to be more general discussion rather than current affairs.

 

I'll probably check out an episode or two over Christmas and report back.