Syntactically they are the same. 地 following adverb can be omitted in spoken language and in many cases, written language too. In ordinary cases, the omission does not change the meaning or the tone of the phrase.

In your example, however, the meanings are different. As the other answer suggested, 慢慢地来 is just an ordinary phrase meaning come slowly; proceed slowly, mostly used in narratives, e.g.

  他慢慢地来了。He came slowly.

Note the above example sounds lack a point. In real life usage, it is more natural to specify the action verb, e.g.

  老人扶着拐杖，慢慢(地)走过来了。Supporting himself with a cane, the old man was slowly coming over.

On the other hand, 慢慢来 is always used for its metaphorical meaning take your time; take it easy. It's mostly used as an imperative instead of narrative:

  没关系，慢慢来。Don't worry, take your time.

  慢慢来，小心点。Take it slowly and be careful! (as when someone is moving an antique for you)

There is a situation where 慢慢来 is used in a narrative sentence and interchangeable with 慢慢地来. They are used as adjective or adverbial phrase as opposed to predicative phrase. Note how the following examples are narratives from 3rd person view, although you can use them to make suggestions to the listener just like using imperative sentences.

  感情的事要慢慢(地)来。Love cannot be forced.

  这种类型的工作要慢慢(地)来。This kind of job takes time and patience.


What is the colloquial Cantonese translation for "还真是"?

'还真是' here is similar to  "It is actually true" in English (agree/affirm to A's statement)
In Cantonese, we would say "噉又係喎"
噉(this) | 又(also) | 係(true) | 喎(final particle: indicate 'agree/affirm')
Mandarin:

A: 他自从遇到车祸以后就不开车了。
B: 还真是，我以为他不喜欢开车呢。

Cantonese:

A: 佢自从遇到车祸之后就冇再楂車嘞。
B: 噉又係喎，我仲以为佢唔鐘意楂車㖭。


Why are there different pronunciations of 复杂？

The reason is simply because it's 顺嘴(for better fluency/flow better).
It could be that we leverage it from old generations.  And then we have been corrected in school.
In practice, we know the correct pronunciation for it, but sometimes most of people still say fu3za2 occasionally because they already get used to it.
I don't think this only applies to the southern areas.  I also find it's been said by people from the north.


Questions on how to talk about specifics, how to talk about things in relation to other things

You can say 这场篮球赛比上周那场更好。or 这场篮球赛比上周那场好的多。


中国人 is the topic of the sentence, which explains its position at the beginning. So, "As for Chinese people, ...".

爱喝茶的 is a nominalisation of 爱喝茶 "love to drink tea": hence "people who love to drink tea".

Finally, 多 is just the stative verb "many".

So, "Among Chinese people there are many who love to drink tea."


Can anyone reccomend me a Chinese female first name?

There are a lot of common nature-themed given names for females. The listed names are all for females if not further explained.
Flower-related: 芳，英，荣，华，芬，莉，萍，梅
Tree-related (mostly unisex): 楠，梓，桐，竹
Weather-related：雪 (often 瑞雪)，晴
Water-related (female are often referred by waters): 溪，汀

In choosing a name, my suggested formula is
surname + Characteristic + noun or surname + noun
The surname can be one similar to your original surname or from a historical or legendary person you admire.
The characteristic is some virtue that you value. Examples for females are，淑，慧，睿，婉，丽，婷，俊
The noun is an object that can represent you, maybe a nature-related object in your case.
For example:
范淑芬 fan + kind and gentle + flower

范丽华 fan + beautiful + flower

范晴 fan + good weather

范瑞雪 fan + lucky + snow

This formula can be used when one has almost no idea of what a regular name should be like. However, there are not many limitations to name choosing. If you have a better idea, you can ignore this formula.


Is 羞辱 a kind of verb after which you put two objects?

In "這一番羞辱" (this one humiliation), 一番 is the counting word and classifier for the noun 羞辱

In "羞辱他一番" (to humiliate him once)  一番 is the counting word and verb classifier for the verb 羞辱

A verb classifier is for counting the number of a verb occurred, for example, 走兩回 (go two times); 斬一刀 (hack once)
As a verb, 羞辱 does take objects
Example:
當眾羞辱他 - Humiliate him in public
這番蠢話羞辱了他自己 - These foolish words humiliated himself


Emptiness and Nothingness.

Now lets dissect the definition:

  谓一切事物从因缘生，唯心所造，了无自性

从因缘生 -- 因 is the inner reason, 缘 is the outer reason, the two combined together, meaning the Ultimate Reason, is the cause of everything. Hence 一切事物从因缘生. You might want to think of it as dialectic reasoning, and you can do that.
唯心所造 says that everything is created by the Heart, the thinking device. It's idealism stripped to the bone.
自性 is the quality or essence of existence itself, since everything is caused by Reason and created by Heart, their Essence is null. Simply put, they don't Exist, hence 了无自性.

Even with a worldview like this, Buddhists still hold the Great Compassion, hence 观於空无而不舍大悲。

Then you ask what is Reason, what is Heart, and what is the Essence of Existence. The Buddha picks up a flower and smiles, and suddenly you reach Enlightenment.

Or you don't, in fact it's one of Buddha's disciples that does. I have friends struggling with these for decades, but still haven't reached anything remarkable, and I daresay, it's a complete waste of time.

As for translation, it depends on what you are translating. If you translate Buddhism classic texts, it's better to use Sanskrit words. If you translate a novel, or some random article with Buddhism references, use the capital like I did, or like Roger Zelazny did in his novel Lord of Light. It's a great book by the way.


"美人只配(被)强者拥有" is  a [(topic) + (comment/ opinion)] sentence.
(this phrase diminish the value of beauties)

It is not an adage

Topic: 美人 (beautiful women)

Comment: 只配被强者拥有 (only worthy of being owned by the strong ones)

美人 (beautiful women)
只配 (only worthy of)
被(by) omitted
强者(the strong one)
拥有 (to own)
The sentence above means "Beautiful women only deserve to be owned by the strong ones"
Substitute the topic and comment:

木棒只配給材民作武器
Topic: 木棒 (Wooden stick)
Comment: 只配給村民作武器 (only worthy of used as weapon by villagers)

~

聖劍只有英雄才配揮舞
Topic: :聖劍 (Holy sword)
Comment: 只有英雄才配揮舞 (only hero deserve to swing it)

"美人只配(被)强者拥有" is different from "只有强者才配拥有美人" (only the strong ones deserve to own beautiful women). Which is a [SVO] sentence

只有强者才配拥有美人 (only the strong ones deserve  to own beautiful women)
(this phrase elevate the status of the strong ones)

[S] = 强者 (the strong ones)
[V] = 拥有 (own)
[O] = 美人 (beautiful women)
只有 ~ 才 ~ is a conjunction  (only)
配 (worthy of) is an adverb for the verb 拥有 (own)


In《命中注定我爱你》when someone calls out 陈欣怡's name, why does she reply 有?

有 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/128/

有

/jau5/ /jau6 /  (jyutping)

/you3/ /you4/   (pinyin)

[粵] jau5 | [國] you3

1 [v] have; own; possess | [ant] 冇
[2] [v] there is; exist; be present

[粵] jau6 | [國] you4

[adv] variant of 又 (e.g. 二十有六)

When she said "有够平凡" (very ordinary), '有够'(have enough) means  非常/真的(very/really)

She yelled "有!"(present!) When people was calling her. Which means "I'm Here!"


Curious structure with 的 in conversation

The link you attached has well explained 是....的 structure.

Basically, 是......的 structure connotes past tense when used in the interrogative sentence.

Say 你什么时候去？ vs 你是什么时候去的: the former means when will you go? The latter means when did you go? or when have you been (there)?

A side note: sometimes 是 can be omitted in colloquial contexts. For example,  你什么时候去的， which is the same as 你是什么时候去的.

Hope this could make it more clear to you.


Maybe this translation would be more understandable:

  We are waiting for the boat to take us to cross the river.


Simplified-traditional conversion; character disambiguation

I'm a native speaker in Traditional Chinese.
I thought that the wiki link in the comment has already provided a good list to what you want.

However, i suggest you to actually find some examples in the usage of traditional chinese.
For example:

籤 (Please refer to your dictionary for the following vocabulary on your own)

竹籤 抽籤
Here 籤 is a long stick.

簽

簽名 簽署
Here 簽 has a meaning of signature.

Chinese is very different from English. English constructs all the vocabularies on the alphabets you have already known, while Chinese requires you to learn many characters. Then Chinese constructs them into some vocabularies.
It might seem a great consumption of time to remember so many different characters in simplified Chinese, not to mention how much time you might spend in traditional Chinese.
However, once you've understand a word, you can guess the meanings of other vocabularies using the same character for most of the time

Since you've already had some understandings in simplified Chinese, the best way to connect it to traditional Chinese is to memorize some traditional Chinese vocabularies instead of remembering the corresponding characters in simplified Chinese.
It should be easy for you to distinguish and recognize those words once you start memorize traditional Chinese.
Always remember that traditional Chinese is the way to understand a character's 部首 and 起源, in spite of the fact that simplified Chinese has less 筆畫.

Hope this will help you.

Finally, a fact of how Taiwanese children learn Chinese is searching every unknown characters in dictionary, writing some vocabularies of that character and memorize it.
Learning Chinese takes time for a native speaker, too. Haha


Geopolitical History of Simplified Chinese

This is a HUGE topic, which I think is impossible to thoroughly cover in one answer here.

As usual, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_chinese is a good start.

As for mainland, the simplification efforts and processes are inherently tied to the geopolitical history of the turmoils and revolutions in the first half of the 20th century and PRC, as language is the foundation of culture, which is arguably more true for Chinese than most other languages and cultures in the world. The simplification of Chinese characters symbolizes and exemplifies the goods and bads toward a "modern" China.

Now for the more specific question, I actually cannot think of an example of a word or phrase with very different literal meanings when written in simplified vs. traditional characters. After all it's just the written form that is simplified. However, traditional characters evoke a sense of historical and cultural heritage, so there can be some subtle perceived differences.


How to distinguish between 吧 and 嘛, 罢 and 嘛

Well, in our normal life, 吧 is usually used for the moments when you are guessing/questioning/acquiring/normal words ending/agree....
吧 can be used in many situations.

But 嘛 is a little kind of "spoiled", totally used between friends and girl/boy friends, also used for acquiring, not used for guessing. It's sometimes used when you are angry. “好嘛，你竟然骗我！”

罢 is a little kind of "compromise", or "have no choice". It's usually used in literature; it's not normal to use it in daily life.


How do you say "I do" as in when you are about to get married?

我愿意.

It has become a fixed idiom for I do.


Does 听说你去丽江玩儿了 imply they are still in 丽江?

A:听说你去丽江玩儿了？那儿怎么样？
B:那里特别美，空气也很新鲜。

From the context, we can deduce that B is currently not in 丽江 because B replies 那里特别美. If B is still there, he/she would say 这里特别美.
However, 听说你去丽江玩儿了 could be interpreted either way you suggested. The sentence only tells you have gone to/arrived 丽江, but it doesn't tell you are currently out or not. Additional information must be required to determine whether you are still in 丽江 or not.
It's clear, in your context, B is already out of the town.
PS. It's also possible that B is still on the train to 丽江, when A is talking to B on the phone saying 听说你去丽江玩儿了. But this is not the case in OP's context.


What is the significance of the phrase “二十五，糊窗户”？

Traditionally, the Spring Festival starts from 23rd December (lunar month), 23rd December is also called 小年 (little Spring Festival)

There is an old saying...

二十三，祭灶官；二十四，扫房子；二十五，糊窗户 (or 磨豆腐)；二十六，割块肉；二十七，杀只鸡；二十八，贴gaga(嘎嘎音，意为贴春联)；二十九，灌壶酒；年三十，包扁食。

Basically, it describes what people do each day from 小年 to Chinese New Year Eve (三十).


What semantic notions underlie 遮 (obstruction) with 辶 (walking)?

One of the meanings of 遮 is "obstructing" - getting in the way of somebody else, thus preventing them from walking. That might be the reason why 辶 (walking) was chosen as the semantic component.
As for the usage of 遮 in Cantonese: It is easy to make a connection between "cover, shield" and "umbrella, parasol" because umbrellas/parasols are used too shield oneself from the rain or sun.  In fact, "para" in "parasol" or "parapluie" (French for umbrella) means "protecting against".


知識分子 - can it be translated as `intuitive person`?

分 - point 子 - son (or person of)

No, '分子' is a compound word. It means 'elements'

You already knew 知識 means 'knowledge'. Most Chinese words are compound words like it.

The literal meaning of  知識分子 is 'intellectual element'

The term 'element' here refers to 'element in the society' which refers to 'people'

'Intellectual'; 'person of intelligence' are correct translation for '知識分子'

When describe the make up of a society, we often group people into fields or classes. For example,  工人(worker) are the majority of the population, therefore we would call them 工人階級(worker class) or 工人社群(worker group). The number of scholars in comparison, is quite tiny. That's why we don't usually see intellectual as a class or group in a population, but rather, as individual elements.

*Similarly, the number of criminals among the population is also very small,  that's why we call them 犯罪分子 criminals elements


Can I use 告诉 to quote what someone has said? Please help!

今年初，我的朋友告诉我他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。
It is correct. You can use 告诉 in this way.

You can add a comma to make it clearer.
今年初，我的朋友告诉我，他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。

BTW, the sentence can be simplified as follows.
今年初，朋友告诉我，他这个学期每周要打工三十个小时。
今年初，我朋友说，他这个学期每周要打工三十个小时。


What are the rules surrounding word order when talking about time (e.g. are 八点钟我想吃早饭 or 我想今天吃早饭 okay)?

I think it's just the same when it is in english:

今天我想吃早饭 - Today I want to have breakfast
我想八点钟吃早饭 - I want to have breakfast at eight

我想今天吃早饭 - I want to have breakfast today
八点钟我想吃早饭 - At eight, I want to have breakfast

All these sentence make sense and are acceptable.


回家后咱们再一起聊聊吧

To me, there are 2 meanings.

 1. After you go to home, we continue this conversation.
 2. After you go to home, we do more conversation.


Can someone identify the characters in this Seal Script? (Characters identified: 江上清風　山間明月)

山 江
间 上
明 清
月 风

“江上清风， 山间明月” from 《赤壁赋》 by 苏轼.
it means：
Breeze over the river and moon between the mountains.

江: river, especially Changjiang river.
上: above, over
清: refreshing
风: wind, breeze
山: mountains
间: among, between
明: bright
月: moon

惟 江上 之 清风，与 山间 之 明月，耳得之而为声，目遇之而成色，取之无禁，用之不竭。

Translation:
(When talking about all the things in the universe), only the breeze over the river and moon between the mountains (are unlimited resources), because when you listen you will hear (the wind), and when you look you will see (the moon). The amount of sound and light are always infinite: they can never be taken away or used up. (They are always there for you to admire.)


What are good resources for Chinese calligraphy?

The best resource is a good teacher who would teach you right and good calligraphy. A book may be convenient, but it would not tell you where you're wrong.


Wiktionary

Verb
撒幣
(derogatory, slang) to invest or give (as financial help) a large amount of money to foreign countries

And:

Etymology
From earlier 大撒幣, a pun based on near-homophone 大傻屄 (“big dumbfuck”).

Both 撒币 and 大撒币 can mean spending large amounts of money while also being euphemisms for 傻屄 and 大傻屄, depending on the context.

E.g.:
NTDTV

相信北京当局在短期内不太可能继续在国际上“大撒币”。


I have a poor English expression level, so I can give you answers in Chinese:

“己所不欲，勿施于人”是指：自己不想要的东西，切勿强加给别人。孔子所强调的是，人应该宽恕待人，应提倡“恕”道，唯有如此才是仁的表现。“恕”道是“仁”的消极表现，而其积极表现便是“己欲立而立人，己欲达而达人”。孔子所阐释的仁以“爱人”为中心，而爱人这种行为当然就包括着宽恕待人这一方面。《论语》中提到：夫子之道，忠恕而已矣。
　　这句话所揭晓的是处理人际关系的重要原则。孔子所言是指人应当以对待自身的行为为参照物来对待他人。人应该有宽广的胸怀，待人处事之时切勿心胸狭窄，而应宽宏大量，宽恕待人。倘若自己所讨厌的事物，硬推给他人，不仅会破坏与他人的关系，也会将事情弄得僵持而不可收拾。人与人之间的交往确实应该坚持这种原则，这是尊重他人，平等待人的体现。人生在世除了关注自身的存在以外，还得关注他人的存在，人与人之间是平等的，切勿将己所不欲施于人。

For example, there is something annoying me, I should not shove it on my friend or other people, treat friends in the way treat myself....


Is the phrase "slot machine" 老虎机 the same in different Chinese dialects?

It is written the same in basically every dialect of Chinese, but pronounced in a very wide variety of ways. It is called "tiger machine" because it, indeed, eats up your cash :P


What does 之下 mean in 加上本来就对空心怀反感的贵族们煽动之下，发生了示威游行?

Answering in context of this edit:
In short
Yes, 之下 means "under (the situation of) ...". A more common form is "在...之下". For example:
在群众压力之下，他最後正式向公众道歉。
Under (the situation of) the pressure of the masses, he eventually made an official public apology.
Additional info
Since some comments have doubt with the grammatical aspect of the sentence, I would like to explain more.
The word 加上 indicates that something happened(有些事情发生了) in previous sentences alongside with the 贵族们煽动. To aid understanding the sentence easier let's try to omit the part 本来就对空心怀反感的 and add 有些事情发生了 at the start. The sentence becomes:
有些事情发生了。加上贵族们煽动之下，发生了示威游行。
Which can be translated to:
Under the situation of (something happened) and the stir-up of the nobles, a march ensued.
A comment suggested that the sentence should be rewritten to either:
加上 (本来就对 空 心怀反感的) 贵族们煽动
(This rewrite removed the cause-effect relationship of the stir-up and the march, which diluted the meaning of the original sentence a bit.) or;
在 (本来就对 空 心怀反感的) 贵族们煽动 之下
This rewrite broken the concurrent relationship of the "something happened" part.
I think the two rewrites can actually be combined together to:
加上 在(本来就对 空 心怀反感的) 贵族们煽动 之下
Which retains both the meaning of 加上 and 之下.
Finally, frankly speaking the grammar of this sentence is not very good, especially the ending part . For me, I would rewrite the whole sentence as:
加上在本来就对空心怀反感的贵族们的煽动之下, 結果示威游行就爆发了。
And by reading more of the original text, it seems that the author is just doing "literal" translations, without much care about the relationship between sentences.


Use of 真的 as adverb: are 我真要走了 and 我真的要走了 equally correct?

"我真要走了" and "我真的要走了" are both good expressions. They are in fact no different at all. "真" and "真的" are both adverbs here.


「偷」has a less negative meaning (than stealing) of finding time (to do something), which is the meaning in this context. For example,「偷暇」means to find a (fleeting) moment of leisure.

「苟且」, in this context, is more accurately translated as perfunctory (doing something to attain minimal standards, or doing something with minimal effort), so「苟且偷歡」is to be content with temporary happiness.

EDIT: Since the OP has posted the context of the phrase as

  王八妻子与单身雄蛇便苟且偷欢

  (My) bastard wife and that sneaky bachelor "苟且偷欢" whenever they can

then Tang Ho's point about illicit relations is the correct interpretation:

  (My) bastard wife and that sneaky bachelor jump into bed whenever they can


How is the Kanji character 豚 related to the chinese 猪 / 豬

豚 is pronounced tun2 in Mandarin and tyun4 in Cantonese.

The only word I know which still uses it is 海豚 hai3tun2 "dolphin". The Japanese reading is ton (on), buta (kun), as I'm sure you know.

豚 was the original character (with the meat radical on the left hand side), while 猪 meant a wild pig (which is suggested by its radical). Japanese borrowings from Chinese happened in waves, as the Chinese language itself changed. Characters which were later supplanted in Chinese were fossilised in Japanese, because they were still current at the time they were borrowed.

This is why Japanese uses characters like 足, 食 and 寝 which have fallen into disuse in modern Mandarin, or lost their identity as free morphemes, or have gained different meanings.

Semantic and lexical divergence from Mandarin is of course also present in Chinese topolects. Hokkien for example, preserves the classical character for chopsticks, 箸, which is also still the preferred form in Japanese rather than 筷. Also, see on the same page that 册, whence chaek in Korean, is still current in Hokkien too.

[1] http://weizhoushiwang.blogbus.com/logs/418660.html


For 敨, what semantic notions underlie 'rap, tap' with 'to open; to unravel; to breathe; to rest'?

I think you're overcomplicating this.

咅 = tǒu = provides the sound
攵 = general movement/action = provides the meaning.

The components of 敨 basically just tell you that it is that verb pronounced tǒu. Seeing that it is used widely in dialects it is even more likely that it is just borrowed for its sound (and meaning of general movement) and used to fit where ever it seems rational.
I have seen other variants of this character in Sichuanese, like: 㪗 and ⿰咅支. I'm not sure if there is an accepted standard set character as many resources disagree.


How to enter pinyin itself under Windows?

Usual IME's won't have that feature... so I think you have two approaches here.

Use a special IME or IME scheme, for example 地球拼音 from 中州韵输入法引擎(RIME). Reference: this Chinese post
Type Chinese first, then search for a Chinese-Pinyin conversion tool/online app, for example http://hanyu.iciba.com/pinyin.


Why is there repetition of the measure words in 一把把小扇子 and 一枚枚邮票?

There is a similar question What does the second "幅” mean in the following sentence?

My answer there should be applicable here too.

  "一幅幅" in "一幅幅美丽的山水画" mainly means 'one after another'

With the same logic,  一把把小扇子 and 一枚枚邮票 means "one small fan after another" and "one stamp after another" (meaning many fans and many stamps)


Wrong 证, should be 症

得了考前放弃症可能无药可救了
get 'before-exam-give-up-sickness' possible no medicine can help

I always get pre-exam nerves and want to give up, it's possible there is no medicine which can help that.

I think your love life is not in danger!


What is the sequence of the Boya Chinese textbooks?

I haven’t heard of this series before, but looking at information from the publisher (Peking University Press) and various booksellers I can see the following:

博雅汉语 = Boya Chinese (1st edition, published around 2004–2009)

初级起步篇I = Elementary starter I
初级起步篇II = Elementary starter II
准中级加速篇I = Pre-intermediate speed up I
准中级加速篇II = Pre-intermediate speed up II
中级冲刺篇I = Intermediate spurt I
中级冲刺篇II = Intermediate spurt II
高级飞翔篇I = Advanced hover I
高级飞翔篇II = Advanced hover II
高级飞翔篇III = Advanced hover III

博雅汉语 = Boya Chinese (2nd edition, published around 2012–2016)

初级起步篇I = Elementary I
初级起步篇II = Elementary II
准中级加速篇I = Quasi-intermediate I
准中级加速篇II = Quasi-intermediate II
中级冲刺篇I = Intermediate I
中级冲刺篇II = Intermediate II
高级飞翔篇I = Advanced I
高级飞翔篇II = Advanced II

In addition to these main textbooks there are various extras, like the Guide books aimed mainly at teachers and Reading and writing giving extra resources.


Is it not correct to use 逗号 (punctuation) in a place where 顿号 should be used?

Technically, 顿号 should be used to punctuate for words enumerating.

As we all text on computers today, it's more convenient to just type a comma, instead of 顿号. Most of time, it's acceptable nowadays unless some would nitpick.

In theory, 顿号 would pause shorter than a comma.


Is there a word to indicate incorrectness?

For a verb with the prefix mis- you can use 错 (incorrectly, wrongly) to express the same thing.

Examples:
I misread - 我看错了（Literally: I read wrongly)

I misspoke - 我说错了（Lit.: I spoke incorrectly)

I made a mistake - 我做错了/我搞错了（Literally: I did it incorrectly)

And for a noun with prefix mis-, one usually use 误 to replace it. While 错 is sometimes also acceptable for nouns, as in the few examples that you gave, I believe that 误 sounds more natural, and in words such as 误解，you cannot replace 误 by 错 at all (错解 is not a word). Note that this is quite subtle, since 错误 as a whole word also simply means "mistake", and 错 and 误 have very similar meanings, but their respective usages are not entirely interchangeable.

Examples:

A mistranslation - 一个误译（“译”=“翻译”=translation）

A misunderstanding - 一个误解（“解”=“理解”=understanding）

A misuse - 一个误用（“用”=“使用”=use）

However, some words cannot be translated this way. For example, "misrepresentation" can only be translated as "歪曲" (which is an entirely figurative translation), but never as "误+something", because Chinese does not have a single character which means "representation“ on its own. （The two-character word ”反映“ means "representation", so one may consider translating "a misrepresentation" as "一个错误的反映". This is acceptable, but not as concise as “歪曲".)


Is the Filipino word "buwisit" really from Hokkien?

《闽南方言大词典》has the following entry on page 127:

  [无围翼] <漳> bo2-6 ui2-6 sit8 倒霉：盖～，佫拄着停电(真倒霉，又碰上停电) | ～甲伊做翁仔姐仔(跟他做夫妻很倒霉)。

So, this is attributed as 漳泉話 -or- Quanzhang Minnan, which is Hokkien - bo ui sit does sound quite similar to buwisit and the meaning (倒霉) does fit as well.

無衣食 does seem to be the more appropriate spelling of bo ui sit.

衣食 means:

  好運天賜食穿無缺。


Better translation for 春节联欢晚会 than New Year's Gala

Meaning no offense, it sounds like you're overthinking this.

The point of translation is not necessarily to go word-for-word. The point is to express the idea in the way it would have been expressed had the original writer been a native speaker of English (in this case). "New Year's Gala" is perfectly acceptable for this.

You could (optionally) choose to use a synonym like "Extravaganza", "Show", "Variety Show", or whatever, but it really doesn't matter much.

Trusting Google translate as the basis to make decisions about translation or translation quality is also not generally a very good idea. It's much better to get in touch with someone who's an actual (professional) live translator, and in this case, a native speaker of English. (Yes, I'm all of those things.)


What is the difference between 欢喜 and 快乐

喜 delight; pleasure
樂 happiness; joy

If you do not know the difference between 喜 and 樂, you can realize it from their antonyms.

It is pretty often to use two opposite words together in a Chinese phrase.
For example, (天地)玄黃, (天地)良心, (陰陽)怪氣, (陰陽)交錯, (緩急)(輕重), (緩急)相濟.

It is the same case in 喜怒哀樂.
There are two pairs of words here, which are 喜怒 and 哀樂.
Since the question mentioned 喜 and 樂 of 喜怒哀樂, let's just focus on this phrase. The antonym of 喜 is 怒 (anger), and 哀 (sorrow) is the opposite of 樂.

I think you certainly know the difference between anger and sorrow, then you should know the difference between 喜 and 樂.

「喜怒哀樂」的出處：《禮記·中庸》

  天命之謂性，率性之謂道，修道之謂教。道者也，不可須臾離也；可離，非道也。是故，君子戒慎乎其所不睹，恐懼乎其所不聞。莫見乎隱，莫顯乎微，故君子慎其獨也。 喜怒哀樂 之未發，謂之中；發而皆中節，謂之和。中也者，天下之大本也；和也者，天下之達道也。致中和，天地位焉，萬物育焉。

《中庸》第一章

上天賦於人的氣稟叫做性，順著本性去做叫做道，修明道的本末無偏私，就是教化。這個道是片刻不可離開的啊！如果可以離開，那就不是正道了。所以，君子在人看不到的地方也要警戒謹慎，在人聽不到的地方也常惶恐畏懼。沒有比隱暗處更顯現的，也沒有比細微處更顯著的，所以君子在獨處時特別謹慎。喜怒哀樂的感情在沒有發動前，叫做中；如果情感發出後都合乎節度，叫做和。中，是天下事物自然的本體；和，是天下人人共行的道路。能夠完全達到中和的地步，天地便可安居正位，萬物便可順遂生長了。


"在波兰，我们充分了解这样的一体化过程所带来的益处。……因此，我们欢迎中国为加强东亚与欧洲之间的经济纽带，并为了沿一带一路的国家创造新的发展机遇所提出的倡议。"

It is called 刪節號 in Taiwan, and 省略号 in China. Both use 6 dots.

In Chinese, the ellipsis is six dots (in two groups of three dots, occupying the same horizontal or vertical space as two characters).


run around on sinister errands, the only one right answer, can not be used in other scene. It's a term of abuse, I'm chinese, trust me.


Why is "marshmallow" and "cotton candy" both 棉花糖?

Yes, 棉花糖 refers to both marshmallow and cotton candy.

Marshmallow is like a cotton boll or a cotton pad while cotton candy is like a loosen cotton boll. Both are cotton-like candies.

It is nothing new that a name refers to two things. People name novelties with their first impression.

It is a very common phenomenon. Look up the definitions of "recorder" in a dictionary. It refers to an recording apparatus, a wind music instrument, and a person who keep record.

棉花軟糖 is a name seldomly used. People use 棉花糖 exclusively in daily life. So do marketers. Marshmallow is a kind of very common commodity while cotton candy not. In daily conversation, if you mention 棉花糖 with no particular scenes or hints, people will recall marshmallow first.


What is the meaning of 當 and 自強 in 男兒當自強?

男兒 is MAN

當 is 應當， which means SHOULD，MUST

自 means 自己， SELF

強 is a verb short for 圖強，here 圖 means FIND WAYS TO DO STH，and 強 means TO BE STRONG.

So 男兒當自強 means A man should find ways to make himself strong


What are the advantages of 人类将如何演变 over 人性会怎么改变?

人性会怎么改变  vs. 人类将如何演变

人性 mainly refers to " human morality". 人性会怎么改变 means "how will humankind's morality be changed by this technology?  We see many examples of technology changes human's behavior and moral value. If it is your main concern, you should choose 人性 over 人类
人类 mainly refers to "the human kind" in a broad sense. That includes biological and mental aspects. If this technology changes not only human's mind, but also body, then you should use 人类 over 人性
会(would) and 将(will) are both valid in this sentence.
怎么 and 如何 means the same, just 怎么 is more colloquial and 如何 is more literary
改变 = change; 演变 = evolve. A technology no matter how advance, it is not likely to change humankind  biologically. 改变 should be the right choice.

Base on your main concern (human morality vs. biological and mental change) you can choose to write:

人性会怎么改变?/ 人性将怎么改变?/ 人性会如何改变?
人类将如何改变?/ 人类会如何改变?

You can replace 将 or 会 with 将会


In IPA transcriptions of Chinese, ying is usually written as: [iŋ]. This is exactly like yin, except with an "ng" sound. However, as you noticed, some people pronounce it a little differently. This paper (page 9) transcribes the alternate pronunciation as [iɘŋ]. Wouldn't really call it an "o" sound, but the vowel is different than that of the yin.


Use of polyphonic characters in transliteration

Yes, there are guidelines. We won't get confused in the 什 example because PRC had long contact with Russia, but we may get confused for some unfamiliar countries.

Note that this guideline is only made and followed by authors and editors in mainland China. Taiwan and Hong Kong all have their own standards due to divergence in pronounciation. Whatsmore, Hongkong-neses prefer reading and writing in Cantonese.

From the table, you can see that we use different characters for different syllables according to which language it is.


She says:

又是全新的一天，963好歌好FM。你好吗？
Yòu shì quánxīn de yītiān, 963 hǎo gē hǎo FM. Nǐ hǎo ma?

It's something like:

It's another totally new day, 963 good songs, good FM.  How are you?


I recognize at two 语病 in this sentence.

First, it should be

  周围的人都很羡慕他

People envy him, not her, his wife.

Second, one should not describe a person with 实惠，实惠 describes a product, which means the product is worth the price. To describe a person, one use 贤惠，and it is usually for a woman, which generally refers to a woman who is diligent, good tempered and etc.


惠州市惠阳区秋长镇白石村朝鲲产业园三态速递

There is no street name given.  Nor is there a province name given (although we can deduce the province is Guangdong).  What is given is:

  Huizhou
  惠州市
  Huìzhōu shì

The 市 here means "city".  We can deduce that Huizhou is in Guangdong Province (广东省, where 省 means "province").

  Huiyang District
  惠阳区
  Huìyáng qū

The 区 here means "district", and in this case it's the Huiyang District; cities in China are broken up into areas called 区.

  Qiuchang Town
  秋长镇
  Qiūzhǎng zhèn

The 镇 here refers to a town and the surrounding areas; or maybe it could be better called "subdistrict" or "residential district" (the Wikipedia page for Huiyang District calls it 秋长街道).

  Baishi Village (White Stone Village)
  白石村
  Báishí cūn

The next level is a "village" 村, but it's not a village as a native English speaker would understand, but rather a "gated community" or an apartment complex.

The closest point I found on Baidu Maps is this village: 白石村.

  Chaokun Industrial Park
  朝鲲产业园
  Cháokūn chǎnyè yuán

The above means what it sounds like.

  Santai Courier
  三态速递
  Sāntài sùdì

This is the company name: SFC.


What's an effective way of explaining the difference between 思想 and 想法?

If you want to express "We share quite a few ways of thinking", you can say "We have lots of similar 观念", which is short for "思想观念"。

Or "观点" / "看法", point of view.

"想法" is usually used in a sentence like "I have an idea to do something",
likely to combine with verbs.

"思想" is a general term.


Search online to try and find sites that provide language exchange. These are a good opportunity to have regular lessons and give at the same time as receiving.
Try and find or organise meet-ups in your area. I know a friend who is learning at the moment and he catches up every Saturday morning with about 3 or 4 others. This was organised by putting up a couple of posters at a local colleges that teaches different languages to adults.
Young Chinese people like to do a kind of "chat roulette" on Skype and QQ. I don't know specific details, but if you are brave!
If you have a China town district sit on a bench and wait. This may sound impractical, but it all depends on your area. Our local shopping district has a high Chinese population and a limited number of public chairs/tables. I can often find someone to chat to while my wife goes to buy meat.
If you live close to a university you will find they have societies and other social groups which have a high number of overseas students such as "Chinese student friendship association" or something similar. Try and get connected with students via your local campus. There are plenty of students looking to share and make friends.
Attend Chinese community social activities. Tree planting, New Years celebrations whatever.


Why does 要 mean "will" and not "want" in 这个星期五晚上我们要去酒吧?

What makes this future tense vs the verb want?

If it happened in the past,  the sentence would be "这个 星期五 晚上 我们 去了 酒吧" - 了 indicates the action is completed

"这个 星期五" (this Friday) apparently refers to the up coming Friday

我们 要 去 酒吧 could mean "we need to go to a bar" or  "we want to go a bar"

We cannot be sure without more context, but with the information of '这个星期五' we can translate 'need to' or 'want to' as 'will'


In terms of meaning, 建筑 is the sweeping term for all kinds of buildings. But its tone is too formal or technical for daily usage.

In daily usage you could just use the counter word and omit the actual noun like your example in 那一棟/家/間. Or you can use 楼 for buildings more than one story of 房子 for one story buildings. But like I said those are as sweeping as you could get in Chinese if you insist using a noun here.


What is the name of the university in this seal?

It reads:

  早稻田
  大學
  圖書

A Japanese Waseda University collection.


What is the name of this traditional Chinese character font?


Here is a simple poster clearly depicting the correlation between what a boat would have looked like during the period when the character 舟 was first penned:

Now of course as it is a pictographic character the orientation can easily be changed depending on the person writing it.


How does 添's 2021 meanings appertain to its semantic component 水?

添 is related to water because 添 is mostly referred to adding/refilling of liquid' e.g. 添酒，添水，添油 (add wine, add water, add oil)
酒 and 油 are not 水 but all characters related to liquid use 氵 as its radical, and 添 is too -- The most common and easy thing to add is liquid
添 = add --> also -->futhermore
Cantonese uses 添 as a modal particle expressing emphasis, which implies  'just remember/  be reminded'
Example:
唔記得買米 = forgot to buy rice
唔記得買米(添) = (oh/ouch/ just remember) forgot to buy rice
冇米點煮飯？ = how can dinner be cooked with no rice
冇米(添)！點煮飯？ = (oh/ouch/ just remember) there is no rice, how can dinner be cooked?
仲唔記得買米 = still/ also forgot to buy rice
仲唔記得買米(添)/ 仲(添)唔記得買米 = (furthermore), also forgot to buy rice

(Taishanese) need to (do something); have to

Taishanese user please answer this part


“吗” is used in "Yes-no questions", which are question that can be answered by "yes" or "no".
With "Under what circumstances"/"在什么情况下", the question cannot be answered by "yes" nor "no". So "吗" should not be used.


Semantically, 在蓄胡子 sounds like the beard is still growing and may not necessarily be very long.
蓄着胡子 suggests that the beard has grown to a certain amount already and still keeps growing.


It shows a server error (503), so you probably can't do anything about it, except using another dictionary.

Try one of these:

LINE Dict Chinese-English
MDBG Chinese Dictionary
Chinese Dictionary


1 - 可以明确的(matter) - (the matter) that one can see clear is...
2 - 我（是）九月份进的 (it's part of a 是...的 structure) - I entered on September...


How to say "Avoid" as in "Avoid going to a place"

"我相信，如果我想要信奉中国文化，我应该避免在中国去麦当劳"

You are correct but "好好" is not necessary in the sentence.  "我应该避免去那儿".


In my mind, most well-educated individuals in China know the meaning of '杯弓蛇影' ，at least they heard about it (even do not fully understand the meaning.)

'杯弓蛇影' appears in our textbook of elementary school.


河岸 = river bank.

畔 means "beside something / near something", not just rivers, e.g. 耳畔、桥畔.

You can take 河畔 as a literary version of 河边.


Does 溺水 only mean "to drown" in relation to water?

Although you can not say 溺可乐, you can say 溺死在可乐中, which is more romantic anyway.

溺于可乐 is acceptable, because now it is not a fixed word but a sentence.


what does 上疾 mean in this sentence (她在网球场上疾如闪电。)

她在网球场上疾如闪电。She is fast as lightning on the tennis court.
上疾 here isn't a word; it's just 上 and 疾 happening to meet at the word boundary.
在……上 is the structure to mean "on" in this sentence.
疾如闪电 is a more literary way of saying 快得像闪电. "疾" has the archaic meaning of "fast; quick", which is rather unproductive in forming phrases and words nowadays, but you can still see it in phrases e.g. 疾如闪电, 迅疾 (a literary way of saying "fast, rapid"), 不疾不徐 (unhurried, unhurriedly; lit. not fast (and) not slow) or 眼疾手快 (agile; lit. quick eyes and quick hands).


It literally means "East Asia West Asia Airlines":

东亚西亚航 - Simplified
東亞西亞航 - Traditional

However, the character for Asia is written the way it is in Japanese: 亜. As far as I know, there's no deep meaning behind the choice of 亜 (or for the bizarre name). It's from an Indiana Jones movie and the airline is fictional. In answering this question, I found the Wikia entry for it!


If we take Guangzhou to represent Cantonese and Meixian to represent Hakka we can get an idea.

Part one:

Isolated-word-intelligibility test

With Hakka as the speaker people from Guangzhou only understood 35% of isolated words.
With Guangzhou speakers Hakka listeners only understood 40% of isolated words.

Part two:

Sentence intelligibility test

Guangzhou speaker were only able to get Meixian listeners to understand 55% of spoken sentences.
Meixian speakers were only understood 12% of the time by Guangzhou listeners in spoken sentences.

The standard for mutual intelligibility works like this:

  If two languages are 80% intelligible (or more) with each other, then they are dialects of one language rather than two separate languages.

These two certainly don't meet the requirements.

It seems that Hakka speakers can understand more Cantonese than vice versa.

If you'd like to know more about the intelligibility tests you can check out this PDF here. Where section 3.1. Isolated-word-intelligibility test goes over table 2 and section 3.2. Sentence intelligibility test goes over table 3.


How does 遥望却间隔 translate to "Look at the distance?

The level of lyric writing is generally bad in Hong Kong compare to the golden era of 70's and 80's.

遥望 - look from afar

却 - but

间隔 - divided. - It should use 相隔 (separated)

The writer wrote "遥望却间隔"  wanted to express "I (can) watch (her) from a distance but we are divided, (therefore I can't get near her) "

"Look at the distance" is the translation of 遥望 only

遥望却间隔 should be translated as "can only look from afar but we are divided" (which is the original meaning, and the phrasing is quite awkward )

A better phrasing is 可望(而)不可即 (can watch but cannot get close)


就 has the sense of 依从 (to yield or accommodate oneself to) by itself as in 半推半就, 迁就.
Colloquially, we have a word 就手(儿) which denotes a similar sense. E. g.  我就手儿把这事办了。


Why is 持 in the sentence 这些持反对意见的员工表示，……?

持, here, is shortened form of 持有.
持 has a definition on MDBG that reads:

to hold

持有 is defined on MDBG as:

to hold (passport, views etc)

You, correctly, translated it as with, which also works here.

Another term that might help you wrap your mind around this term and usage is the word:
持方
CedPane defines it as:

side (in debate)


Are 南瓜小米粥 (nánguā xiǎomǐ zhōu) and 小米南瓜粥 (xiǎomǐ nánguā zhōu) the same thing?

I think they're different.

南瓜小米粥 is 小米粥 with 南瓜: as you said, it's millet congee with chunks of pumpkin in genaral.

小米南瓜粥 is 南瓜粥 with 小米; it's more like pumpkin puree, with millet grains.

Of course what the name means indeed largely depends on the restaurant.


Although the current usage of 怪兽 is dominated by the Japanese 'kaiju' concept, the word is probably not a Japanese creation.

Sima Xiangru (司马相如) used it in one of his works, 封禅文 (2nd century BC):

  然后囿驺虞之珍群，徼麋鹿之怪兽，䆃一茎六穗于庖，牺双觡共抵之兽，获周馀珍、放龟于岐，招翠黄、乘龙于沼。

The modern word 怪兽 was probably reintroduced into Chinese by Japanese filmmaking, as this word only shows up in Chinese after the late 1930s, which coincides with the emergence of the Japanese kaiju movies.

Google Ngram and Wikipedia:


Why was 異 (uncommon; to distinguish) adopted to mean the chemistry prefix of iso- (equal)?

Isomer is "同分异构体", which briefly written as "异构体".
"异" emphasizes the "slightly difference" of the arrangement of the atoms.
"同分"(same number/type of atoms, and majorityly same arrangement) is often omitted, so "iso-" is "异(異)-". For more types there is "新-".
Some other examples like "顺(順)-" and "反-": 順-2-戊烯/反-2-戊烯, 順式脂肪/反式脂肪.


What do the 可 mean in 可现在想起来可真是记忆犹新呀 and 我可要出点丑了?

可现在想起来可真是记忆犹新呀！

The first 可 is the abbreviated form of 可是, meaning "however":

The phone was intalled a few years ago, however, I still remember it as clearly as if it's yesterday.

The second 可 is used to emphasize 真是. This 可 can be omitted.

我可要出点丑了！

Here 可要 is used to draw more attention from, or to give heads-ups, warnings, or threats to the listeners. 可要 can be reduced to 要.

出丑 means to reveal something shameful or private about oneself to others. 出点丑 simply reduces the amount/intensity of the 'shame' being revealed.


The main grammatical difference, which hints to the usage difference, is that 些 is indeed a classifier.

This implies 些 gets involved when you're counting stuff. Now you say: but 些 is supposed to mean "some", I'm not really counting anything!
Well nevertheless you are, even though you are not expressing a precise quantity.

Now, let's add a piece to the puzzle.
As you may know, classifiers in chinese are also used to determine a noun, i.e. they replace the determinative article in English. That's why 那个苹果 can be translated as "that apple" but also "the apple", that one apple we talked about earlier in the conversation.

Our 些 in turn carries the same semantic value.

一些苹果 some apples

那些苹果 these apples / the apples

Therefore 些 is used when you're talking about a narrow topic, something circumscribed to a pool of common knowledge between you and your interlocutors.
Whereas 有 means "there is" and 有的expresses a general existential trait, as in 有的人喜欢吃苹果 = "there are people who like to eat apples" = "some people like to eat apples".

Tl;dr

些 particular, unspecified but possibly finite number

有的 general


Chinese stroke order diagram styles resources

This site is quite good. It doesn't contain any ancient Flash or Java components, and displays the character in complete stroke order in one single static image, or animation if you prefer.

https://strokeorder.com.tw/

Although the interface is in Chinese, it's easy to understand, you put a character in the text field and click the magnifying glass button to search.


How do I say "damn!" or "bloody hell" in Chinese?

May I suggest checking out the ChinaSmack glossary? They have a huge array of colorful language, and there is sure to be something that meets your needs in terms of a curse word there.

Just to add, I always hear Chinese girls saying 讨厌 (taoyan) when they are annoyed or frustrated, but it's not exactly the most masculine of statements. 烦 (fan) also seems to be a common expression amongst both genders, although not exactly the meaning you are looking for.

Hope that helps.


How and when to consider 面子 when speaking Chinese?

A mistake I make often (but sometimes it's kind of fun) is connecting peoples names to bad things.

Like:

A: 我姓刁。

B: 哦，是刁难的刁，对吧？

People seem to be kind of offended by this kind of stuff. Try not to connect it to 'bad' or 'negative' 'non-positive' things.

edit: oh yeah - also don't use 以小人之心，度君子之腹 with people [that is including the person you are talking to into the saying] even if you think it's a perfect fit for the situation - people will just assume you are calling them a 小人...


How to say catcall in Chinese? “Catcall” 怎么翻译？

It's going to be some form of 挑逗.

For instance, wolf-whistle, which is one of the most common forms of catcalling that I can think of, is rendered as:

(挑逗地)吹口哨

or

朝…吹口哨挑逗

【超模中槍】Catcall是性騷擾？受害者：像背後解開比堅尼般羞辱 defines catcalling as:

「Catcalling」街頭挑逗

although it does also mention

「Catcalling」，要是翻譯為「街頭挑逗」，其實也不夠傳神。

勇于向街头骚扰说“不” writes it as:

布鲁克林（Brooklyn）的一个禁止“挑逗搭讪”（catcalling）的标牌。


Without the context its kind of hard to know which definition you're looking for, but Oxford gives us two definitions with explanations:

NOUN
1 地下陵墓 tomb chamber

Underground tomb/mausoleum

2 地下藏经室 underground shrine housing Buddhist relics

Buddhist sutras collection room


Is it allowable in Mainland China to use Traditional Characters?

some tidbits as i known, or heard:

calligraphy must be in traditional chinese, no matter in which scripts (cursive, regular, or seal)

so, signboards, billboards could be in traditional chinese, such as:

it used “報”, instead of “报”; anyway, it’s mr mao’s handwriting  no one dares to change it

classical / literary text should not be changed into simplified chinese, any reprint of “old books” (古籍) must be in traditional chinese.

there was an incident, quoted in the book “毛澤東晚年過眼詩文錄”: that in 1973, during cultural revolution, books complied for mr mao’s reading were printed in traditional chinese

another “incident” is, from 2003 to 2018, the book “全宋筆記”, 102 volumes, are also printed in traditional chinese.
back to your question:

people using Traditional characters in Mainland China just because they prefer it an no one cared. Is this true?

yes, most of the time, no one cares.

would I get weird looks or come off as odd/eccentric for using them in daily life such as to text a friend, colleague, etc. or write a document for someone

most likely, just tell them that you were/are learning chinese language in traditional script
edited.

niche, or revelation

the logo of the some universities in mainland china:

these are in traditional chinese, so, the interpretation of such phenomenon would be . . .
replying to a “disinformation” comment:

The company seal or personal name seal must go with simplified Chinese in mainland cn

even the national seal (國璽) of mainland china is in traditional chinese:

it’s “華”, not “华”; “國”, not “国”
it’s mentioned in another thread: Why are traditional and simplified different in such small manner?
the “Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language” (中华人民共和国国家通用语言文字法)

第十七条　本章有关规定中，有下列情形的，可以保留或使用繁体字、异体字：

　　(一)文物古迹；

　　(二)姓氏中的异体字；

　　(三)书法、篆刻等艺术作品； (art works, such as calligraphy and seal carving)

　　(四)题词和招牌的手书字；

　　(五)出版、教学、研究中需要使用的；

　　(六)经国务院有关部门批准的特殊情况。

seal must be in traditional chinese


这样真的容易累成胖子

Getting tired like this (making me) turn fat easily.

这样真的容易... > ... like this really easily ...

累成胖子  > Getting tired makes fat.

verb + 成 + noun >  doing something (verb) then produces the result (noun)

BTW: What sort of tired thing making people fat other than thin?


Basic sentence: "I have lost my... (camera/keys etc"

我丢失了我的相机 is the formal way to say I lost my camera, whilst 我把相机丢了 or 我把相机弄丢了 is more colloquial.

There are some differences between 丢失 and 失去.

丢失 means you lost something.

失去 means you can not keep something precious(often abstract things, like your love, someone's trust and kindness, etc.) any more because of some reason behind. For example, 你失去了你的爱人，meaning you can not get the hold of your lover. There should be some reason why she left you. It might be she wouldn't love you any more.

In short, 丢失 means you lost something you don't know where it has gone, whilst 失去 most of time you know where it has gone and also the reason why.


How can I type bopomofo on Windows without converting to hanzi?

Use your own IME:

1)

2) Make sure that your IME is:

3) Choose "Phoetic" and directly input what you want.


How did Chinese people know in the past the pronunciation of words?

The pronunciation of characters was glossed using the Fanqie (反切) system, which uses two existing characters whose pronunciations are known to determine the pronunciation of the unknown character.

Suppose that I wanted to know the pronunciation of「東」. Looking this character up, I'd see that it was phonologically glossed in dictionaries as 德紅切, which means to take the onset (basically the initial consonant) of the first character, in this case「德」, and the "final" (which really is everything after the onset) of the second character, in this case「紅」. In Pinyin,「東」is dong, and reconstructing this syllable with the fanqie system we'd get the initial of「德」(Pinyin de) and everything after the onset of「紅」(Pinyin hong) to get dong.

Note, fanqie dictionaries were compiled by scholars in consideration of all the varieties of Chinese, not favouring any particular topolect, which means that they work equally well for all these varieties. In addition, they also work for Sinoxenic pronunciations of Chinese-originated vocabulary in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. This is possible because the two characters used to construct the pronunciation are not phonetic symbols like alphabet letters, but have their own unique pronunciation in all the varieties of Chinese (as well as Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, due to centuries bordering on millenia of cultural and language diffusion across East Asia). The caveat is that the phonology guide is a good approximation but not always an exact match, as the sound evolution of the different varieties of Chinese from the ancestral language is not always consistent everywhere.

This requires the reader to be somewhat literate already, of course - but then again, which dictionary in any language doesn't?

Demonstration that it is a good approximation for other languages which have used Chinese characters:

東, 德紅切:

Japanese: 東 (tō), 德 (toku) 紅 (kō)
Korean: 東 (dong), 德 (deok) 紅 (hong)
Vietnamese: 東 (đông), 德 (đức) 紅 (hồng)


How can I translate 中國傳統社會屬父系社會，以男性繼承世系血脈 into English?

中國傳統社會屬父系社會，
Chinese society, traditionally, was/is a patrimonial society,
以男性繼承世系血脈。
where the bloodline is passed down through the men.
Has anything changed?


How can we translate 不是……胜似 into English?

I prefer "Not a geek, but more than a geek"

Example, This man has profound knowledge of ancient China. he is not a professor, but I think he is more than a professor.


上的: What is it function in 中国历史学上的夏、商、周属于考古学上的青铜时代?

You have made a wrong pause in the sentence……

It should be "中国历史学上的|夏、商、周|属于|考古学上的|青铜时代。".

It is "in Chinese history". "in Chinese history" = "中国历史学上的"


http://www.rongshuxia.com/chapter/bookid-5909417-chapterid-77641.html

In this context, it literally means that the speaker wants three cats to stroke his feet. Perhaps he is barefoot, and it would feel great to have smooth cat fur caressing the feet.


Difference between 到, 到了, and了 to indicate completed action?

想 is the verb

到 is the result complement in 想到 ('think and successfully recall'/ 'think and successfully come up with')

想到 does not indicate what tense the action is in. E.g. 將會想到 (future tense); 此时想到(present tense); 曾想到 (past perfect tense)

了 indicates 'completed' action (but not an indicator of past tense)

想到 indicates a successful action (you think and come up with something)
想了 indicates a completed action (you thought but might not had came up with anything)
想到了 indicates an successful and completed action (you thought and recalled or  came up with something)


The second one you have, could even be

雨天骑自行车，车轮打滑，还好我反应快，一把把把把住了！

You have to be the champion to be honored this prize.

这个奖品，想获得得得到第一名。

According to Carbon Carbon bond energy, could we negate theorem one or theorem two?

根据碳碳键键能能否否定定理一或定理二？

I almost missed the shuttle to Shanghai if I were walking too slowly.

多亏跑了两步，差点没上上上上海的车。

If you poison a venomous snake with poison, would it be poisoned to death?

用毒毒毒蛇毒蛇会不会被毒毒死？

I got this one even better.

Ming Ming does know Bai Bai is wasting time having a crush on him, but he would not say.

明明明明明白白白白白喜欢他，但他就是不说。

A granny from Netherlands drinks six bottle of durian milk in Rio de Janeiro.

里约热内卢的荷兰老奶奶喝了六个榴莲牛奶。

You could find more from this link.
Ok, now get ready for this one, you have to be good in ancient Chinese to read the following

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始实食是十狮。食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。试释是事。

There are more of these here.


Are there other similar Mandarin Chinese radio plays?

Try 新闻酸菜馆

For some reasons, mainland Chinese do not have much existence on podcast, but you can find tons of fine broadcasts on another app, 荔枝FM (you have to search in Chinese with that though.).


What is the exact meaning and etymology of 拜年？

When Chinese new year comes, families will go out to visit their relatives, friends or seniorities. According to this page from Baidu Encyclopedia, at earlier time, the kids should kowtow(叩头, the same as 拜) to salute. In return, the elders will give them pocket money in red envelop. Nowadays kids don't have to kneel, but pocket money is still a tradition.

And you can say "pay a New Year call" in English.


I think what your Chinese friend said is pretty much right.

In my opinion, 还 denotes the sense of "further more" or "to a larger extension". Well, 也 connects the two things with the same level of importance, severity, priority and etc.

E.g. 我喜欢唱歌，也喜欢跳舞. can be simply paraphrased as 我喜欢唱歌和跳舞. 我喜欢唱歌，还喜欢跳舞. sounds like I like singing and moreover/furthermore I like dancing as well. Or Not only do I like singing, but also I like dancing. as your friend suggested.


踱 is a bit formal. 走来走去 or 晃来晃去 will be more colloquial.


Alright, to me, 起床 means the end of sleep and getting up. 下床 means the opposite of being on the bed, as in your example, two elderly people 从来不下床 may mean that they have health problems so they have to be lying on the bed, but they may not be asleep when they are on the bed.

上床 can be used to refer to the action of going to bed, like 我一般晚上 11 点钟上床。(I usually go to bed at 11 pm.) Also 上床 is the common saying of having sex.


What these means in chinese language, during uninstallation of OSTOTO hotspot?

It says "Please don't leave me. You said we'd always be together".

The left orange button means QQ support.

The right green button means official forum.

the left small grey button means "continue".

The right small green button means "give another chance".


Are there any dictionaries that show the relative frequency of 多音字?

As far as I know, there is one dictionary for this: 《现代汉语频率词典》，1986，北京语言学院出版社.

However, this dictionary is a little old and difficult to find. What's more, some of the readings are outdated, because 《普通话异读词审音表》 was published after the dictionary gathered the data.

The Unihan database contains the kHanyuPinlu field which is from 《现代汉语频率词典》. For example:

和:

kHanyuPinlu     hé(9513) huo(38) he(24) hè(9)

乐

kHanyuPinlu     lè(283) yuè(54)


在一篇关于墨尔本疫情的文章里，作家为什么先写“爆发”再写“暴发”？

如其他答案者指出，该文章的作者可能打错字了。
实际上，「暴发」和「爆发」两个写法基本上通用，意思为「突然发作」。不过，跟「疫情」搭配的话，则「暴发」更恰当。

暴发：指突然发作，多用于山洪、大水或疾病等具体事物

中文网站中能发现被多次引用的这篇解释：http://www.chinaqw.com/hwjy/2020/03-16/249584.shtml
MDGB 也提示，「暴发」与「传染病」尤其搭配： to break out (of disease etc)
Google 搜索结果也显示，在新华网文章中，「暴发」与「疫情」一起出现得多一点：

site:www.xinhuanet.com “疫情暴发” 7000多个结果
site:www.xinhuanet.com “疫情爆发” 1000多个结果

世界卫生组织 (WHO) 也采用「暴发」这个写法。


How might 'pidgin' have represented a Chinese pronunciation of 'business'?

I'm a native speaker. This is my speculation, but I believe more or less it's the truth.

First, "business" was a little difficult (as it had three syllables) for most Chinese people at that time, so they would like to miss the third syllable, only pronounced it like "busin".

Second, both Mandarin and Cantonese (no matter now and then) did not have the exact /z/ sound, so we would transliterate it into the /tɕ/ sound (aka j in pinyin) – similar situation for Japanese, they say ビ(bi)ジ(ji)ネ(ne)ス(su) for "business" – Unfortunately, the /dʒ/ sound followed the same way because there's no /dʒ/ in Mandarin and Cantonese either. So, even today, when I hear "the letter /tɕiː/" from a Chinese native speaker, I have to ask whether it's a G, Z, or even J.

Finally, the Chinese people at that time would pronounce "business" like /ˈbɪtɕɪn/, and then Europeans could not distinguish it from "pigeon" with a similar Chinese accent (the reason for /b/ to /p/ might also be the influence of the "Wade–Giles system", which transliterated the b sound in pinyin back to "p". Peking vs. Beijing is a perfect example): as a consequence, "pigeon" and later "pidgin" was used for that pidgin word.


In novels, what would be a good english translation for "師祖"?

If you're going to go with a romanization of the English such as "sifu" you should probably go with standard Pinyin (i.e. Shizu）, rather than some other lesser-used romanization system like Wade-Giles or Yale. Perhaps "Grand Masters" of "Founding Masters" might work well in English. The term seems to be plural (although I have no context) so make sure you use the plural form.


The Pinyin for 蒙古 is written like this in ABC:

Mẹ̌nggǔ

Notice the dot under the letter E, this is an indicator that this word is read with tone sandhi. The tone sandhi rules dictate that meng3 gu3 be read:

meng2 gu3 (méng gǔ)

Another factor that may add to your confusion is the fact that the standard pronunciation in Taiwanese Mandarin is different. For instance, if you check MoE's entry for 蒙古族 the pinyin for 蒙 is clearly written as:

méng

蒙 is never read měng in TW.


This Chinese text is ok.

◎ 结交 jiéjiāo
[take up with] 与人交际往来,联络友谊

Basically, 结交 means get close to someone, contact and communicate to improve the relationship. Becoming friends is just the result of 结交.
In another way, 结交 is not just making friends. In the following sentence it's hard to say 结交朋友 for me.

清 纪昀 《阅微草堂笔记·滦阳消夏录四》：“实则布散徒党，结交婢媪，代为刺探隐事，以售其欺。”
茅盾 《昙》二：“父亲是早已想利用她来结交权贵，姨太太又乘机构煽，他们都顶着礼教的大帽子来坑害她。”


Meaning of 甜-Z (Z is the upper-case English letter)

甜Z is likely the result of imperfect OCR (optical character recognition) for "5Hz". The machine probably sees "5H" as "甜".

It's usually seen in Google's OCR for Chinese patents. If you need to search for original patent text for clarification, you can go to  http://epub.sipo.gov.cn/gjcx.jsp and search the title.


V 还 V 不来呢 can mean out of someone's mind or out of someone's ability.

"有人" = someone

"請" can translate to invite , which means someone think you are capable to do or you are a great candidate.

Under the respondent assessment(feeling), he does not think this way, or respondent think chance just wont happen on himself.


How bad does a sentence with an inicial 了 sound here?

他们请经理吃了饭- subtle emphasize what they eat, but not necessarily.

他们请了经理吃饭- to emphasize who they buy dinner for

There's another possible way to say this:

他们请经理吃饭了- subtle emphasis on the thing happened, but not necessarily.

It really depends on how you say it, your tune can change the emphasis too. They all have the same meaning. The second one probably has stronger effect.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.


Why is “的” used instead of “了” in this sentence?

To put it simply, the difference is:-
If you want to say -- "Have they arrived already?", you use "他和她一起来了吗?" -- meaning you are just inquiring as to whether they have arrived, nothing more. The "了" here indicates "already?", i.e. "completion"
But if you want to say -- "Did they arrive together?", you use "他和她一起来的吗?" -- meaning you are inquiring as to whether they arrived together and not one-at-a-time or separately.
The "的" is for inquiring "together?" This is the reason for the suggestion of putting the "是" in there, which would make it to read ""Did they actually / really arrive together?", i.e. "affirmation"


How can I write my cat's name, TK-421, in Chinese?

TK-421, as a serial number, is ok in Chinese. But pronounce differently from English.


It's Mandarin transliteration by Portuguese Jesuit Fr. Inácio da Costa (17th century).

Partial text:

“大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善”

Ta hio chi dao, cai min min te, cai cin min, cai chi yu chi xen


Why do some parents pronounce 妹妹 as měiméi instead of mèimèi or mèimei?

The pronunciation of 妹妹 (mèimei) could have been mixed up with that of 美眉 (měiméi) due to the popularity of Taiwan TV dramas where the Taiwanese cast tend to pronounce 妹妹 similar to that of 美眉, for example, in shows such as 《星星知我心》.

美眉 (or MM in short) is a term used to describe young and pretty women. This term is to 妹妹 what 葛格 (gége) is to 哥哥 (gēge). The 美眉 article on Baidu explains this:

  现在美眉作为常用语流行起来是因为八九十年代在大陆风靡一时的台湾电视剧（例如《星星知我心》）里面带台湾地区口音的国语“妹妹”的发音和“美眉”的读音十分相似，听起来柔婉可人，给听惯了标准普通话（在台湾地区又称“北京国语”）的大陆观众留下深刻印象，用美眉就能惟妙惟肖地反映出这个发音特点，当时70-80年代生人的年轻人不约而同地使用了这个词指代年轻美女，并借网络和新文学的力量使“美眉”的使用慢慢得到社会主流的认可。当然“美眉”也还同时表示原有的意思：“妹妹”，同理“葛格”就是“哥哥”。


一个词在不同的语境下会有不同的意思，我用厉害造句，每个句子里厉害的意思都不一样，你感受一下:
1.美国篮球明星迈克尔乔丹是一个很厉害的人
   乔丹打篮球很厉害
     awesome,awesome,excellent,Illustrious

2 数学老师是一个很厉害的人，我们都怕他
   fierce

利害:
利，有利的:advantageous,beneficial,profitable
害，有害的:detrimental,
所以利害这一个词包含了两种相反的方面。

他是一个很喜欢帮助别人的人，从来不计较利害得失
得:得到
失:失去
跟利害相似，得失同样是一个词包含了两种相反的方面


What's the relationship between 炮 and 砲?

Usually, people use 炮.

According to the dictionary [http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/] : 砲

  同「炮」。 (砲 is the same with 炮)

We can say 砲火連天/炮火連天, 砲響/炮響, 馬後砲/馬後炮, 弩砲/弩炮, 開砲/開炮. Boths are acceptable and interchangeable.

炮's meaning involves fire but 砲's meaning involves stone.

The early cannonballs (sling) were made by stone, so people use 砲 to describe it.
With the time past, fire was much counted so 炮 was derived from 砲 to describe gunpowder and the bullets. Therefore, 炮 appears and become more commonly used.
You can find some relevant sentences in the ancient chinese books:

【集韻】【韻會】【正韻】披敎切，拋去聲。俗作"砲"(name as 砲)。機石也(are just the stones of a slinging machine)。
 About the slinging machine :
【前漢·甘延壽傳】投石(sling)拔距絕於等倫。
【張晏曰】《范蠡兵法》:飛石(flying stone)重十二斤，爲機發(from a machine)，行二百步，礮蓋出此。
【後漢·袁紹傳】曹操(Cao cao)發石車(slinging machine)擊袁紹，軍中呼霹靂車。【註】卽今拋車。
【魏略曰】諸葛亮(Zhuge Liang)起衝車，郝昭以繩連石磨壓之，衝車折，卽礮事。
【唐書·李密傳】以機發石(sling a stone by a machine)，爲攻城械(is a machine for attacking)，號「將軍礮」。又通作「拋」(commonly used as "throw")。

明朝方以智《通雅》: 「象棋始於唐，周武之《象經》，非今之象戲也。」
.................: Xiangqi is from Tang Dynasty...............
From Wikipedia : 象棋 (chinese chess / Xiangqi)

Gunpowder is also from that time but slinging machines were still used in military aspect. Therefore, 砲 was used in Xiangqi until now.

In fact, not every Chinese can tell the difference between them. Nowadays, people are more familiar with 炮. So if you write 砲, some people may think it's not so proper.


Is there a comprehensive list of separable verbs (离合动词) anywhere?

I agree with the earlier answer, but I had the same question!

So if it can help, I found an interesting information at Chinese Grammar Wiki's list of separable verbs
and especially at “Separable Verbs” – A Misleading and Unnecessary Concept.


synonyms/phrases/poems related to: 情深恭敬少

The so call " poem" itself is not very polished. I suppose the person who wrote "情深恭敬少 " was thinking an idea along the line of " 熟不拘禮 " ( being so close, there's no need for formalities" )

For 知己談笑多 which is not a convincing statement because 酒肉朋友 談笑 more. Anyway, a phrase "酒逢知己千杯少" (It is such a joy to drink with good friends, one can forget how much he has drunken.) is from a famous poem that depict heartfelt interaction between good friends.


user3306356 provided a good answer for the language, but you need to know that written Chinese and oral Chinese can be quite different.

  A Mandarin speaker might say yī, a Cantonese jat1, and a Hokkien chit, but all three will understand the character 一 "one". -- from Wikipedia

Also I want to answer more on the Cultural aspect. For Chinese as in Chinese people, that's really complicated.

Historically, the Chinese culture influenced many others such as Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. so you may see Chinese characters, traditional clothing and buildings in their culture. The modern China split into different "areas" (I can't say country because it surely will stir up a political debate), mainly mainland China and Taiwan which ruled by 2 different political parties, the Communist Party from mainland calling itself the "People's Republic of China" and Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party) stayed in Taiwan calling themselves the "Republic of China". There are also Hong Kong and Macau, I recommend to watch "Are Hong Kong & Macau Countries" on YouTube for a better understanding. These four areas have different cultures while the core is the same. Most Chinese there use Mandarin while "dialects" are also used (some see those dialects as separate languages. Spoken Cantonese being one which used by people from Hong Kong, Macau and many from southern China.) There are also Tibet and other "minorities" which got their own dialects/languages.

For "some" ("many" depends on your view) people from Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, they think they are culturally different and should be called differently (e.g. Hongkonger, Taiwanese), so Chinese, AFAIK, are mainly refer to mainland Chinese while it can also refer to ethnic Chinese in some occasions.


Are there any chengyu or xiehouyu that only mean their literal meaning?

I think all chengyus should have their figurative meanings.

xiehouyu  usually has two kinds:

  逻辑推理式 // logical type, For example, 哑巴吃黄连, 有苦说不出.
  谐音 // homophony, For example, 外甥打灯笼, 照旧(舅)

泥菩萨过河 should fall into logical type. So, there are lots of that type if you go Baidu.

Couple of links for your reference:

  逻辑推理式

  谐音


Is referring to Mandarin as just "Chinese" problematic?

Are non-Mandarin Chinese speakers offended by referring to Mandarin Chinese as simply "Chinese"? Is that a politically-fraught term?

As a native Cantonese speaker, I do not object people referring to Mandarin as 'Chinese' because it is the official language of Mainland China, and Most Chinese do live in Mainland China

On the other hand, Cantonese and other Chinese dialects are Chinese too. Canadian Government treat Mandarin and Cantonese as equal. When Canadian ask you "do you speak Chinese" and get an answer "yes", they do not automatically presume you are a Mandarin speaker, they would also ask " Mandarin or Cantonese?"  because the population of Mandarin and Cantonese speakers are roughly the same here.

  How do I differentiate between the dialects when speaking/writing in Chinese?

Dialect is a spoken language, there are hundreds of different dialects in China, most of them are not mutually intelligible. It is hard to differentiate between minor sub-dialects even for Chinese, I can only tell the difference between Major dialects like Mandarin and Cantonese and some Cantonese sub-dialects

All Chinese write in one standard language system. (Standard Written Chinese - SWC)

People who speak different dialects in China are expected to communicate with each others using the official dialect Mandarin in speech and the standard written Chinese (SWC) in writing.

Base on this practice, foreigners should be able to presume someone who speak "Chinese" can speak Mandarin, therefore, referring Mandarin as Chinese should not offend non-native Mandarin speaking Chinese.


剾洗

剾洗
khau‑sé
又
khau‑sué
ㄎㄠ　ㄙㄨㆤˋ
動
諷刺、挖苦人家。
伊誠共人剾洗。
ㄧㄐㄧㆩˊㆣㄠˊㄍㄚ˫ㄌㄤˊㄎㄠㄙㆤˋ
他很會諷刺人家。

The proper spelling would be khau‑sé and not kao se unfortunately.


Frankie's answer is good, but I want to make a clarification on 孤 and 寡. Both of them mean "only one" here, and I don't think "single" is good in this situation since it could mean "unmarried".
example:
you and a female friend of yours are taking in a  club, in a room with the door closed,(of course, I don't recommend this :-)  ), unfortunately, your wife finds you here, so she would high suspect that you have affairs with your friend.You try to explain, but she retorts,

你们孤男寡女，共处(chŭ, to stay in )一室，你还有什么好说的？
one man, one woman, and one room, how could you explain?(I won't believe!)


What are compound words called that are composed of words with similar meaning?

You've asked an interesting question that the answer heavily depends on the example in your question.

When you see 磨蹭 as 'dillydally, stall', i.e. not a simple add-up of the characters, it is 联绵词 (binomes, see Baidu, Wikipedia). 联绵词 are words consist of two characters that are similar in pronunciation and/or meaning, but the meaning of the word is different from the individual characters (exceptions exist like 蝴蝶). You can find more information in the link. Some examples for verb binomes: 徘徊, 犹豫, 挣扎, etc.

When you see 磨蹭 as 'to rub' i.e. rhetorical repetition, it is 同义复词 (synonym-compound, see Baidu). Note 复词 means 'phrase' instead of 'word', usually they are created on demand (although idiomatic 'set phrases' exist) and dictionary doesn't list them. This type of phrase has no grammatical significance over other types of phrase.


Example of grammar difference between Cantonese and Mandarin?

It is 畀我 (give me/ to me) not 被我 (by me)

畀我 is the Cantonese equivalent of 给我 in Mandarin

  Is this a difference in grammar between Cantonese and Mandarin?

Most grammar structure are the same in Cantonese and Mandarin

"而家 唔好 打電話 畀我"  (Cantonese) = "Don't make phone call to me now"

"现在 不要  打电话 给我"  (Mandarin) = "Don't make phone call to me now"

~

"现在 不要  给我 打电话 到警察局" (Mandarin) = " Don't make phone call to the police for me now"

"而家 唔好 同我 打電話 畀警察局" (Cantonese) = " Don't make phone call to the police for me now"

There are some exception:

'给我 打电话' in Mandarin can mean 'give me a phone call' or ' make phone call for me'
'同我 打電話' in Cantonese can only mean ' make phone call for me'

If you want to say 'give me phone call'  in Cantonese, you can either say '打電話 畀我' or ' 同我 通電話' (it is rarely used)

There are some unique Cantonese grammar structure that's not found in Mandarin (mostly involve final particles that do not exist in Mandarin) .

Example:

"而家 唔好 同我 打電話 畀警察局(住)" = " Now, don't make phone call to the police for me (yet)"

Since Mandarin doesn't use the final particle '住' for 'yet' , the same phrase in Mandarin would have to be "现在 (先) 不要  给我 打电话 到警察局"

Edit:

  In Cantonese, 俾 and 畀 are often regarded as variants of each other. However, some people suggest that 俾 means "by (passive voice)" whereas 畀 means "give".


What does 一 + verb/noun + 一 + verb/noun mean?

In this particular example 一步一步 basically means "step by step"; it emphasizes how it's gradual and slow.  More generally it means "little by little", and the repeated character indicates what is occurring gradually.

  Aside from just meaning "one by one," when 一 (yī) is used with a measure word that is a unit of time like "day" or "year," the meaning changes to "little by little" ("day by day," "year by year") or "gradually."
  Expressing "one by one" with "yi": Used as "Little by Little", Chinese Grammar Wiki

I found the relevant passage from 活着 and it's:

  凤霞走后，有庆不干了。起先凤霞被人领走时，有庆瞪着眼睛还不知道出了什么事，直到凤霞走远了，他才挠着头一步一步往回走。我看到他朝我这里张望几下，就是不过来问我。他还在家珍肚子里时我就打过他，他看到我怕。

Here's my rough, somewhat literal translation:

  After Feng Xia left, Youqing stopped.  At first, when Feng Xia was taken away, Youqing's open eyes didn't know what happened, and when Feng Xia was far away, only then he scratched his head and step-by-step walked back.  I saw him face me here peering for a bit, but did not come over and ask me.  When he was still in Jiazhen's tummy I beat him, and he saw my fear.

And a professional translation:

  After Fengxia left, Youqing stopped listening to us.  When Fengxia was taken away, Youqing just watched, not knowing what was going on.  Only after Fengxia had gotten far away did Youqing scratch his head and slowly make his way home.  I saw him looking over at me a few times, but he didn't come over to ask what was going on.  When he was still in Jiazhen's stomach I had hit him, so he was scared of me.
  To Live: A Novel, Yu Hua, translated by Michael Berry


The book is "说文解字", shorten as "说文".
汉 here means the time when it was written, the Han Dynasty; but not Chinese(汉语/汉文). People may refer it to "汉·说文" or just "说文".
You can get details here: Wikipedia/Shuowen_Jiezi


What is the difference between 会 and 说 in 你会英文吗？ vs. 你说英文吗？

This is exactly what I stuck in at the very early stage of learning Mandarin!

会 is usually used as an auxiliary verb (mean "can", "will", etc...) and thus take a verb after that, but it can also function as a verb, to mean "know" or "understand".

That's why in your example, both mean "Do you speak English?".

Also, if you want to use 会 as an auxiliary verb, you can also say "你会说英语吗？".


What tool allows a fast translation from Chinese that is both scaleable and exportable?

There are several ways to look up characters without knowing their pronunciation.

In printed dictionaries, you need to identify the character's radical (or at least one of the character's radical components), consult the dictionary's radical index (where characters with that radical will be ordered by number of strokes) and thus find the character's pronunciation. You can then look up the character in the normal way, i.e. by pinyin. (Some dictionaries also offer other ways to look up characters, but this example should be sufficient.)
Since this way of looking up characters is slow and frustrating (see e.g. Yes, it really can take a year to learn how to look up a Chinese character), there are digital alternatives:

Looking up the character through its radicals in a digital/online dictionary such as MDBG.
Looking up the character in an online dictionary that supports handwriting recognition (e.g. MDBG: click on the paintbrush button) or an app. There are several apps that support handwriting input. See for example Pleco, How to use Chinese handwriting recognition on the iPhone/iPad and Best Android apps for Chinese handwriting.
There are also apps that support character recognition based on optical character recognition (OCR).


林 is a common Chinese surname. It means "forest"

惠 means "kindness" or "virtuous"

妃 is a royal title refers to 'lady' or 'princess' (prince's wife) e.g. Princess Diana (戴安娜王妃). It was also referring to 'imperial concubine' in olden time.

the word 妃 is now commonly used for female name

So your Chinese first name 惠妃 roughly translated to "lady of kindness" or  "virtuous lady" (you can ignore the meaning of the surname 林)

You are named 惠妃 /Huì fēi/ because it kind of sounds like 'Ritchie'


before 清 dynasty (1644-1911), the calendar system in china used 平氣, solar terms lasts 15 days+ (it's roughly 365.25 days / 24).

then, the 時憲曆 changed the method to 定氣, that 360° div 24 = 15°, upon people observation, when the sun "walks" 15° on zodiac, solar term changes.

so, your question would be answered, it depends on which dynasty, and / or which seasons. eg, in 2018:

the 夏至 (summer solstice) is on 21st june, the 小暑 (lesser heat) is on 7th july. so, the summer solstice lasts 16 days :)

http://www.weather.gov.hk/gts/astron2018/Solar_Term_2018_uc.htm

have fun :)


I think 点蜡烛 is more common as it is more used in daily speaking. 点燃蜡烛 is more formal to me and sounds like written Chinese.

I come from HK so I am not sure the usage in other places.


Why do Malaysians have Cantonese surnames?

Historically, there were waves of emigrants from Southern China to Southeast Asia since 明 dynasty (1368-1644). So, their descendants shared the same Cantonese, Hokkien surnames with people in Southern China.

Then, the British empire acquired Hong Kong & Malaysia in the 18th century. Both governments used the same / similar romanisation scheme to register people's names in English. That's why Malaysians with Chinese origin would have a Cantonese / hokkien surname, as those in Hong Kong.

As far as I know, there are subtle differences:

陳 - Chan (hk), Tan (my)

黃 - Wong (hk), Ong (my)

Edited, adding info:

Several books, in literary Chinese, had info about Southeast Asia & China:

東西洋考

西洋番國誌

瀛涯勝覽

星槎勝覽

Read between the lines, you'll grasp the ideas :)


It is a currently popular Internet slang in mainland China.

壕 => short for 土豪 noun => "local tyrant", someone who has much money.

壕/土豪 is used in a joking occasion, it doesn't mean the person it describes should actually have much money.
Example

A: 我昨天买到了iPhone 5S！ I bought iPhone 5S yesterday!
B: 土豪土豪我们做朋友吧！ Tuhao tuhao, let's make friends! (Note: A and B are already friends. That B says so is just to make fun. It is like another expression "你真有钱啊！". But it doesn't mean B really thinks A has much money.)

EDIT
百度百科【土豪】 has well summarized this word:

指“暴发户”。It means "nouveau riche".

指网络上无脑消费的人，也可以引申到其他领域（网络游戏、电子设备、动漫ACG等）。如某网络游戏中的人民币玩家被称为“土豪”，有时也会简化为“壕”。 It means someone who spends money mindlessly on the Internet. And its meaning can extend to other areas ([mindlessly spending money on] online games, electrical devices, or Animation/Comic/Game etc). For example, in an online game, the P4W (pay-for-win) players are called 土豪, sometimes using the short form "壕".

用于讽刺那些有钱又很喜欢炫耀的人，尤其是通过装穷来炫耀自己有钱的人。该意义衍生出“土豪，我们做朋友吧”等句子。 It is used to satirize those who have much money but like showing off -- especially those showing off by pretending to be poor. For example, "土豪，我们做朋友吧".

土豪的思想境界文化水平一般都不高，知识面却异常宽泛，但都是了解皮毛之辈。 Generally, 土豪 have low ideological and educational level, but broad scope of knowledge.

有些人把比自己肯花钱的人都称之为“土豪”。 Some would call those who are more willing to spend money than themselves "土豪".

土豪说简单点就是很土的富豪。 In short, 土豪 is rustic but rich people.

As an Internet slang, 壕/土豪 is very informal and its definition cannot be rigorously stated. So it's better to use it only in spoken language or on the Internet.


積雲如果迅速地向上凸起，形成高大的雲山，群峰爭奇，聳入天頂，就變成了積雨雲。

If the cumulus bulged quickly forming huge mountain clouds, the peaks fight for their exquisiteness way up to the sky's zenith, they then become the Cumulonimbus.


comparing the original text, with the english version you provided; i would say, most meanings, details and metaphors are lost.
the scenario that "mother of wood" was caught, and recused by "mind ape" is paragraphs 9 - 11 https://ctext.org/xiyouji/ch63/zh
rant about the translation:

When the mother of wood was taken by the water monster

the monster is a (nine-heads reptile "九頭蟲")

One used his secret skills to open the locks

well, the "mother of wood" was tied on the pillar (那獃子綁在柱上). later, mind-ape cut the rope by bite (行者四顧無人，將拑咬斷索子叫走). no locks lah.
such translation, is like, "middlemarch", or "pride and prejudice" in 500 words.

what is mother of wood meaning? yellow-wife?

first of all, the book "journey to the west" is full of taoism metaphors.
then, there're two main groups of taoism, alchemist (外丹) and internal alchemy (內丹). further, over thousands of years, there're many sects, which explain taoism literatures in completely difference ways.
yellow-wife should be "黃婆", a more precise term should be yellow matchmaker (黃 + 媒婆). the metaphor is:
a matchmaker let males and females to get married, intercoursed, producing offsprings. he/she should never be part of the "children production".
yellow matchmaker (黃婆) means the element earth (土), which has the colour yellow.
in 悟真篇闡幽, stated

眞土又名黃婆
調水火而和金木者也

the original text is longer, with more metaphors. here's a brief explanation for beginner.
the yellow matchmaker (黃婆) is to mediate between other four elements: water, fire, metal and wood; it do nothing by itself.
back to the journey to the west, the third disciple (沙僧) always was the mediator between the first and second disciple. that's why the author assigned the nickname yellow matchmaker (黃婆) to him.

what is mother of wood meaning? yellow-wife?

mother of wood is 木母, this nickname is assigned to the second disciple (豬八戒). i can't get the rationale at this moment.
frankly, if you have knowledge of taoism, this book is more funny :)


If your language is English, try 'sue joe' both first tone.


"the leaf always falls down on its root"

落(fallen)

葉(leaves)

歸 (go back to)

根 (the root)

落葉歸根 means "fallen leaves always go back to the root"

It is a metaphor for "a person come back to his birth place to settle". It is considered a fulfilling event.

The thinking is a traditional one. Nowadays, the tie between a person and his birth place is nowhere as strong as in olden time.

Hong Kong is my birth place, but I am happy to settle in Toronto until the day I die.


Let's start by answering all four questions, and we'll look at the actual meaning of the title.

  What is the meaning of 大兵小将 , character by character?

大 means big when looked at alone, however in this phrase, it also has the meaning of important

兵 means soldier

小 means small, but in this phrase, it also means unimportant

将 means General(将领) like Tang Ho said

  What is the "will" character for?

It's for 将领. (This 将 character has two pronunciations, one of them means "will do something", the other means "commander/General". In this title, since it's used with "soldier", we'll know it's taken the latter.)

  Why are "little" and "big" on different sides of "soldier"?

The "big" is for the 将, not for soldier.

  Isn't "Big Little Soldier" translation as correct as "Little Big Soldier"?

Yes. But this is not relevant to this movie title (given the correct translation).

  Then what's the correct translation?

First we need to know that there's a traditional phrase 小兵大将, using the exact character by character translation above, we get "unimportant soldiers, important General". Made more readable, it becomes "(In the field,) one good General is more important than (the number of) soldiers."

This phrase is used to emphasize the vital affects a commander will have on a war.

With this in mind, we look at 大兵小将, which is the reverse of 小兵大将. The main character in this movie (Jackie Chan) is a soldier, so this title is a twist of the traditional phrase, meant to emphasize that "soldier(Jackie) is also important".

Last bit of information: popular movie/song/shows sometimes use something derived from slang/proverbs/ancient stories, and it can be hard for Google to translate the correctly. (Similar example in English: Zootopia -- Utopia)

Hope this helps!


意思 could mean: meaning; ; intention; idea; thinking

"照你的意思" in this context means "According to your idea /thinking"

(意思 synonym 想法)


How to speak more naturally / like a native Chinese speaker

This question equals to How could a Chinese speak more naturally / like a native English speaker. When I was learning English, someone gave me two hints. Now I'd like to translate them to you:

About the grammar. Forget your mother language, do not try to every English sentence directly into Chinese. Think as Chinese people do, then you'll speak in the way they do.
About the accent. Watch Chinese movies, talk with native speakers. Just mimic the way they speak.


Does the job title 弼马温 really signify 辟马瘟 'avoid horse fever'

The ancient Chinese did keep monkey in their stables,

But they actually keep female monkeys, as they believe their menstruation can prevent horse fever (馬廄畜母猴辟馬瘟疫,逐月有天癸流草上,馬食之永無疾病矣)

By assigning Sun Wu Kong to a female monkey's title, it is probably a subtle joke from the author.


At what situations should I leave out 话 in "~的话"

This sentence seems to use "~的话，..." phrase, but omit the 话. (Let me know if I'm wrong but I proceed with the assumption that it is correct).

I think it omits 人 here; i.e. 有兴趣的 refers to 有兴趣的人 (people who are interested in). Using 人 makes the sentence more formal and polite, without it makes the sentence simpler and the meaning is still clear enough.

BTW ~的 is a common structure used instead of the referred people or things.

  〈代〉 pron. 附着在词或短语之后,构成“的”字结构,代替所指的人或物。如:卖菜的;吃的


What is the correct pronunciation of 辫发？

According to Xinhua Zidian, the only admitted standard pronounciation currently for 发 (in Mainland) is

fā, various meanings e.g. "to send out, to dispatch", "to start", "to grow, to expand", "to open, to reveal, to invent", "to show", "to produce, to happen"; and
fà, meaning "hair".

As 发 in 辫发 refers to hair, it should be pronounced biànfà in Mainland China. This is also how I pronounce the word (native speaker).

In Taiwan, as indicated by the other answer, fǎ is correct.


What is the meaning of the sentence 字了一?

This is a good question.

字了一 should be understood as:

  (and his) 字 (is) 了一

Thousands years ago, many people in China have a special name besides their first name and last name though nowadays most of Chinese don't have one. And this special name is often described after '字'. For example: 刘备，字玄德.

According to some reference in Chinese, 字 sometimes can be changed. For example, 关羽 was using 长生 as his 字 but then changed to 云长 (which is mostly known by all Chinese)

字 can be given by a person himself/herself or his/her friends, mentors. While ordinary names were mostly given by the parents.


What is the difference between 看来， 看起来， and 看出来 ？

Obviously, this is a tricky one.

I know these three phrases have some same words and looks no differences for foreigner, but they are very different! If I give you one example for each phrase, you still will get confused when you meet a different one, so I'm gonna show you how to fishing instead of just give you a fish, in another word, master those three 'bastards'.

看来: mean looks like or seems. This phase usually stand for an quick and dramatically attitude change, like it or not doesn't matter. Example: "I told you so (我告诉过你)." the other person most likely say "looks like you are right. (看来你是对的)"  despite that he/she didn't want to admit it. Or he/she admit it after learned by his/her own experience, example: "the lung exam show there are cancer cells in there, looks like I should quit smoking. (肺部检查显示那里有癌细胞，看起来我应该戒烟)"

看出来: mean figure out, get some results. I give you some thing, some entity, some person, some question, some being, some creature, some machine, you look closely, study, research, do stuff, and I come back, ask you "你看出来什么门道儿了吗？(Did you figure out something yet?)", it means I want get some results, some answers from you, those information go in and through your brain, you process them, and you need to produce something, give some output.

看起来, mean (it/he/she/thing) looks like or seems. When use this phrase, it means whatever the subject or object is, it usually not taking too much effort, or no need to get a closer look, or a deep digging, the answer is easily observed from the appearance of object or direct message from the subject/matter. Example: "It looks like our suspect's get away car just get away without him." "看起来我们嫌疑犯的逃脱车没带他就跑了。" and there is one more, in the US movie/television show, when a cheating scene get caught, the character usually say "it(thing) is not what it looks like." you shouldn't translate or express in Chinese with "这(件事)并不是看起来的那样。", because this is better "这(件事)并不是看上去的那样。", there you go, you just learn another one.

And, by the way, you really should register a stackexchange account!


Apple Tablet Dictionary that Supports Drawing Input

This Youtube video shows how to enable iPad's builtin system chinese hand writing keyboards. Once you enable one of them, you can use it not only for Pleco but also for any apps.


, as @songyuanyao expressed, is called 竹字头, 竹: bamboo.

篇, a quantifier, 一篇文章(an article), 一篇报道(a report), 一篇诗歌(a poem)

In ancient China, just as people of the other parts of the world did, used something instead of modern "paper" to write on, bamboo is frequently used as writing materials, it's cheap and easy to keep for a long time, people split bamboo into thin pieces, and join them together with lines, then engrave on those pieces and form a scroll, an unfolded scroll is 一篇, so that's why there is a "bamboo" on some characters like 篇.


迹 is not a simplification of 蹟. 迹 is a simplification of 跡, though.

蹟 is a variant character of both. It can be used in either script, as one pleases.


犹 carries the meaning of 'like'
如 also carries the meaning of 'like'
From my answer to another question:

Put two characters with similar meaning together and create a compound word can remove ambiguity. It is very common in coining Chinese words . For example: Both 刚 and 才 carry other meanings, (刚 also means 'hard'; 才 also means 'talent') but '刚才' can only mean 'just'.

'犹如' is a compound word of two characters that carry the meaning of 'like'; 'as if'

有
have/ possess
'有如'(possess the similar quality) = 'like' ; 'as if'

The two terms seem to be interchangeable, different only in etmology
Examples sentences:

犹如把錢扔進大海 (Like/ As if throw money into the sea)

有如把錢扔進大海 (Like/ As if throw money into the sea)


厚重= thick and heavy
厚重感 = a thick and heavy feel
The most direct translation would be "a thick and heavy feel". It implies the air is filled with some sense that you can almost feel it's thickness and weight.
In the context of the quotes, 厚重感 can also be translated as "a substantial feel" or "a feel of immensity"

substantial (adjective):

of ample or considerable amount, quantity, size

of solid character or quality; firm, stout, or strong

~

immensity(noun):

vastness; enormous extent:
the immensity of the Roman empire.


我和书中的人物产生了共鸣：I am able to empathize with characters in the book.

  我对学中文产生了浓厚的兴趣：I have got strong interest in learning Chinese.

  牛顿的著作对自然科学的发展产生了深远的影响：Newton's great works influence the development
  of natural science significantly.

So many examples I can give since there have been so many nouns that can be the target of the verb 产生.

I would recommend you try to pick up that list of nouns.


The most literal translation is 常行指示 ('standing instruction'). It is seen used in HSBC and Standard Charted documents. BOC uses 常設指示, which is similar.
定期/按期 (regular; periodical) + 付款/支付 (payment) are also possible, perhaps more idiomatic, translations of standing order in banking (see here), but they are not literal. They also do not specify if the regular payment is pre-instructed by a bank account holder.


Yes, it would be grammatically correct but wouldn't sound right.

However,

Using (ba) which is called a tone softener is used to add causality or make the language sound less severe; adding it on to a sentence such as 'Let's get killed' would sound funny, almost jokingly.

For example:

你看书吧。meaning: Read. To make this seem more polite, consider adding 请.

你看书。（！）Read(./!) normal severity

你现在看书！Read now! extreme severity


Difference between alveolars and alveolo-palatals in Cantonese

In essence, palatalisation of the alveolar fricative and affricate consonants occurs before front rounded vowels /y/, /œ/ and /ɵ/, with the effect strongest with /y/. It is weakly palatalised in front of /œ/ and /ɵ/, to much less of an extent than Mandarin Pinyin j-, q-, x-; however, there is some variation among speakers. See Matthews & Yip (2014) Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar, page 474, as well as this article from Zee (1997).

It used to occur with the front unrounded vowel /i/ as well: see the entry of palatalization in Bauer & Benedict (1997), so I'd imagine some of the older generation would preserve this form of allophony. I'm not sure if there's anything in the literature as to variation in this part of diachronic Cantonese phonology!


What is the difference between 突然 and 忽然?

They are identical when used as an Adverb.

  天空突然/忽然下起了大雨。

But 突然 can also be used as a complement of a verb.

  这雨下得太突然了。

Where you can only use 突然。


图画：drawing， CAD drawings/blueprint/construction drawing .etc
绘画：painting，Art painting/oil painting/literary sketch/photographic painting .etc
画画： “画画是一种在二维的平面上以手工方式临摹自然的艺术”，nowadays,its more for kids.


In 那个是我工作上的东西, what is the difference between 工作上 and 工作?

上 here means about（相关）.

Try to understand it like this: 那个是我工作相关的东西

If you omit 上, it'd be understand as the item used for work rather than about.

那个是我工作的东西 sounds a bit like 那个是我工作用的东西.

Anyway, both are rarely spoken for native Mandarin speakers. You'd better provide more context.


What's the difference between 恭喜發財 and 恭禧發財?

The correct way to write the phrase is「恭喜發財」. This phrase is made up of two words:

「恭喜」, meaning congratulations;
「發財」, meaning to make a fortune.

In contrast,「恭禧」is not actually a word. At most,「恭禧發財」can be viewed as a pun which emphasises the fortune aspect of the phrase, as「禧」(good fortune) is a homophone with「喜」.


What is the polite/proper way to address elderly whom I am not familiar with?

For an elderly woman, 大妈，大娘，大婶，阿婆，老奶奶 -- what's best really depends on what they are using locally and the age difference between you and the person.

You can always just say: 您好, if you are not sure what word to use.


Does 来 show fruit on a tree or ripening corn?

很有趣。
Very interesting.

我到今天才知道「來」有這個意思，而且是它的本義。
I didn't know that 來 has this meaning until today, and this is even its original meaning.

「來」的本義是「麥」，也就是「麥」的上半部。
The original meaning of 來 is "grain or corn", which is the upper part of 麥.

《說文解字》說：「來」的意思是「周所受瑞麥來麰也」。
《說文解字》 explains that 來 means 周所受瑞麥, 來麰也.

《說文解字注》解釋為：
《說文解字注》 interprets it as follows.

在周武王時代，天空降下「麥」，故稱之為「瑞麥」，而其名字叫「來牟」。
In the era of King Wu in 周 dynasty, the sky rained down 麥, so it's called the "lucky 麥". Its name was 來牟.

「來牟」原先只有「麥」的意思。
The original meaning of 來牟 is only 麥.

直到《廣雅》才說「來」是小麥，「牟」是大麥。
Until 《廣雅》, 來 was interpreted as "wheat", and 牟 as "barley".

《說文解字》接著說：「天所來也，故為行來之來。......凡來之屬，皆从來。」
《說文解字》 then explained that 天所來，故釋為行來之來。凡來之類，都用"來"。

《說文解字注》解釋：
「自天而降之麥，謂之『來麰』，亦單謂之『來』。因而，凡物之至者，皆謂之『來』。......皆引伸之義行，而本義廢矣！」
《說文解字注》 interprets these as follows.
The 麥 fallen from the sky is called 來麰, also simply called 來.
Thus, all things that come to us can be called "come".......
These are the cases that the extended meanings are used and the original ones are abolished!

注：此處，來＝麳＝䅘；牟＝麰＝；屬於假借字。
Note: Here, 來＝麳＝䅘；牟＝麰＝. These are phonetic loan characters.
Some users may not see . It's  .


The character is 安 (safe; secure; content).  By itself, it is innocent enough.

However, "安" is also the last character in the name of a notorious Hong Kong Triad gang "新義安"

In short, this  tattoo reminds me of this particular crime syndicate, consider it is on a bicep-- a body part that represents power and strength...

If the owner of this tattoo is a Hong Kong Chinese, I would stay clear of him, just in case.


Is there a difference between 凡事 and 所有？

First, a little background: Most of 鲁迅's writings  were done in the middle of 白话文运动--to write with plain Chinese instead of arcane literary Chinese. Unfortunately, 鲁迅's way of using plain Chinese was not as influential as chairman Mao's, most of which actually have Huananese origin. From today's point of view, 鲁迅's "plain Chinese" is rather idiosyncratic.

凡事: Under most/all circumstances.

凡事，指不论什么事；所有的事。语出前蜀 魏承班 《谒金门》词之二：“愁倚画屏凡事懒，泪沾金缕线。”

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/3066308.htm

所有: 整个;全部；一切。有时也指一定范围内的。All, all within a scope.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/1006583.htm


What's the correct translation for 1.5 months? Is it "一个月半" or "一个半月“?

Technically 一个半月 is better and more common in written scripts. Although I don't understand why 一个半月 returns few results in Google, but those mentioning 一个月半 seem to be mostly related to infant raising. I'd say both is okay if you want to use in informal speeches.


I want to understand if I can use 做 instead of 当？

当 is grammarly correct, it means "to be"
当...（职业）is the correct expression. for example:
当老师，当医生，当科学家, and it cannot be replaced by 做.
做, means "do", is to ask someone's occupation. for example:
你是做什么的？what you do for a living? it cannot be replaced by 当.
so 我一毕业就去上海”做“律师？ is a strange way to say but we also understand.
BTW, I think most of the problems asked in this Chinese Language section is simply because you guys don't have the context or not familiar with the convention.


No.

A quarter in a sports game is usually translated as 节. For example, fourth quarter is 第四节. The first and second quarters are collectively referred to as 上半场 and similarly, the third and fourth quarters are referred to as 下半场. A sports season is usually translated as 赛季．

季度, when tranlated into English, only refers to a quarter of a year, as you have noted.


What are these Chinese character stamps?

The stamp in the first picture says

  郭顯德

It is a person's name, and if you prefer simplified Chinese, it would be

  郭显德

The stamp in the second picture says

  烟台 · 長老傳道會

The first two characters is the name of a city in Shandong province, while the rest is the name of a club.


Which edition of《杜骗新书》contains modern parallels?

《江湖奇闻杜骗新书》(lit. Weird Things in the World: New Collection of Frauds) is written in a mixture of Classical and Vulgar Chinese. The Vulgar Chinese lately evolved into Modern Chinese in early 1920s (as the Government of ROC abolished all Classical Chinese textbooks in schools in 1922). Therefore, for a Chinese speaker above high school level, it is not a challenge reading this book. I guess that you can't find a Modern Chinese version because the book is written in a language that most Chinese people can loosely understand, if not completely, thus translation into Modern Chinese is not needed.


I tested in WPS, added several bullets, saved the file in UTF-8 text, then opened the pure text document in Word, and with the "Atl-X" shortcut I found the Unicode code point for these bullets: F0D8, F06E, F075, F06C, etc ...

They are in the PUA (Private Use Area, E000–F8FF). Characters there are not assigned by Unicode, but deliberately left unassigned. Different companies, organizations can use them in different ways. This then raises a possibility that there can be a conflict with two parties using them in different ways. Here the conflict would probably be your problem.

As what the characters actually are, I found  (201E4) through zdic, as you can easily look it up by radical. And in the Unicode Chart around it, I found another of them, like (201D5) (This first pic in your post). There are also similar characters to some others of your pictures. The characters found are in CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B.

On zdic, there is absolutely no explanation of the characters. They are ancient character or character variations that are not used today.

BTW: I don't know if you can see the characters in the post. The linked pages in zdic use pictures.