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黃中 = being employed as an imperial government official/having a career in the imperial government?

Many Chinese clans have a "昭穆", a kind of poem from which each generation of the clan picks a successive character as a prefix to given names, so we can easily identify people from one generation to another. For instance, I am of the "性" generation…
Kal
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Resources for learning classical Chinese

I have a very strong interest in classical Chinese (文言文), but I am unable to find any ressources for learning it that don't assume Chinese is your mother language. Can anybody give me some pointers?
FUZxxl
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What tone is 杆 in 扶杆？

According to pleco 杆 in the third tone means shaft or arm, while in the first tone it means pole or staff. 扶杆 is in one of our exercises. It is not contained in any of the pleco dictionaries I own (PLC, CC, TL, UNI) and seems to mean armrest. I…
Ludi
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Is the "shi" in "jin tian shi ji hao" optional, and can I ask "jin tian ji ri?"

I learnt to ask weekday as Jin tian xing qi ji? with an optional "shi" after jin tian. I want to know if the shi in "Jin tian shi ji hao?" is also optional. Also, can I say, "Jin tian ji ri?" using ri for date?
Isabel
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What's the English equivalent of "闺蜜"

闺蜜 in Chinese means two girls have very good relationship, and much closer than normal good friends but they are not lesbians. The best I can get is the term intimate relationship, but it could be used to describe lesbians. Any other good…
dan
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Why does 他没看书 use 没 and not 不 in this dialogue?

I was reviewing some old Anki cards that I created from HSK Standard Course 1 by Jiang Liping and I came across this dialogue: A: 喂你在做什么呢 B: 我在看书呢 A: 大卫也在看书吗 B: 他没看书。他在学做中国菜呢 A: Hello, what are you doing? B: I'm reading A: Is David also reading? B:…
JBentley
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What is the etymology of 居然?

Usually X+然 has some kind of meaning related to X, especially archaic usage. However I do not see any relationship between 居 "to reside" and "unexpectedly". Are there any historical sources that explain where this expression came from?
HAL
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Is it acceptable to say 我的名字是……?

I only remember seeing 我的名字叫…… Would 我的名字是…… also be an acceptable choice?
Enrico Brasil
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Why is 肯德基 (Kěndéjī) = Kentucky Fried Chicken not called 肯德鸡 (Kěndéjī) when it's pronounced the same and 鸡 means "chicken"?

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Chinese is 肯德基 (Kěndéjī), which seems to be an approximate transliteration of "KFC". It surprises me that they opted for 基 (jī) instead of 鸡 (jī), which is pronounced the same but means "chicken" and is therefore…
Becky 李蓓
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Is the use of a conjunction between the second-last and last word in a list (A、B和C) a natural Chinese construction?

Is the use of a conjunction between the second-last and last word in a list a natural Chinese construction? Sometimes the construction feels like an Anglicism: I do not hear it in daily speech that often and, I have a feeling, it appears more often…
MunHo
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How to say "small cat", when 小猫 is "kitten"?

I would like advice on how to properly say phrases like "little kitten", "small cat". While I can say "小猫", as I understand it that either means "kitten", or is ambiguous. And to me saying "小小猫" seems like it could be a little weird (And it also…
Aster
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The origin of 鸡贼

I speak Mandarin Chinese, but it is the first time that I stumbled upon the word 鸡贼. According to 百度百科 (Baidu wiki), it means being stingy. The wiki page also says that it comes from the Beijing dialect. Can anyone tell me what the origin of this…
EllaChan
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How to politely ask someone to please be quiet

There are particularly loud Chinese fellows working together in the university study room I'm working in. How do I politely ask them to quiet down? I found a literal translation on Google Translate (能否请你安静), but I don't know if it has a rude…
CodyBugstein
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How much did the Cultural Revolution change the Chinese language on the mainland?

I've always had an inkling that the Cultural Revolution drastically changed the Chinese language (think: TW 国语 vs. mainland 普通话). [Some even claim TW doesn't even have the concept of 书面语 pk 口语, it's not hard to buy into either]. Then today I came…
Mou某
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How similar are Hakka and Cantonese?

I refer to this map (also shown below), which depicts that Yue and Hakka variants of Chinese are geographically very close to each other. If we take Hong Kong for example, how similar would the language be to the Hakka spoken in the neighbouring…
udidosa
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