民情 in English?

[tooironic]

Is there an equivalent in English for 民情?

 

My dictionary lists two senses:

①[名]民间的生产、生活、风俗习惯等情况。
了解地理民情
②[名]民众的情绪和意愿。
体察民情

 

I would translate the second sense (民众的情绪和意愿) as "popular sentiment", but I have no idea if the first sense can be translated easily. Wenlin translates it as "condition of the people", but this sounds meaningless to me. Any ideas? Cheers.

[fanglu]

I actually think 'conditions of the people' isn't too bad, if a little meaningless.

 

What about 'everyday life of the people' (that covers life, production, customs, right?).

[Michaelyus]

I have to say that I'm not really familiar with the first use of 民情; the second is what springs to mind first. (For what it's worth, I don't think I have ever used this turn of phrase in Chinese).

 

Looking through Linguee, I see the following examples:

 

 

生于宁夏；1986年毕业于宁夏艺术学院；何学升的油画作品以描绘黄土高原为背景，讲述他熟悉的西北地域风俗民情。

 

其实，教育系统的确立与发展的环境，深受经济、国情、特别是当地民情的影响，也深受民主化方面局限而类同的要求的影响。

 

他最喜欢的题材是老式的传统台湾建筑，曾遍游台湾各乡镇寻找灵感，其画作充分表现台湾的风土民情。 

 

There's considerable crossover into the second sense, but most of these would be translated with alternative strategies (although Linguee usually gives "nativising" translations, at least with Chinese <> English). E.g. "customs and traditions", "context of [people/nation]", "inspiration".