This character, pronounced chāng, means “The ghost of somebody devoured by a tiger who helps the tiger devour others”. It is also present in the chengyu 为虎作伥 (wèihǔzuòchāng), which means to help a villain do evil.

A Q&A with two foreign contestants on a Chinese dating show

The latest invaluable pensée from Global Times is "If you are the foreign one". It’s about foreigners on the TV dating show Fei Cheng Wu Rao. “They are too frank and say things inappropriate for match-making talk, which makes them seem alien,” is one choice quote. Perhaps this is the reason why “the worship of foreigners has ebbed”, and “it is common for foreigners on the show to pass through many rounds but still leave without finding a girl.”

Some interesting words I’ve learned lately:

忐忑 (tǎntè): Comprised of 心 (xīn, heart) with 上 (shàng, up) or 下 (xià, down), it’s easy to remember that this means perturbed, mentally disturbed, fidgety.

旮旯(儿) (gālá(r)): This means nook, corner or out-of-the-way place, but I have no idea why. Both characters, neither of which are ever used alone apparently, are made up of 九 (jiǔ, nine) and 日 (rì, sun), which doesn’t help much.

Taking in Guizhou from the tinted windows of an Audi A6

I came to Xiaohuang village in Car No. 2, an immaculately clean Audi A6 that Mr Qian kept temperature controlled at 22.5ºC. He and his wife were on holiday from Guangzhou and, in the spirit of adventure that travelling through rural Guizhou inspires, were sight-sighting as part of an eight-sedan caravan of friends. Each car was equipped with a walkie-talkie, so Car No. 1 would often radio back the scenery and road conditions up ahead.

如鱼得水 (rúyúdéshuǐ), “Like a fish back in water”, is so close to the English expression “A fish out of water” but means the opposite, to be happy to be back in one’s natural surroundings.

To me, looking at how different languages coming from vastly different cultures still depend on the same basic imagery to describe feelings and situations, it shows how similar we all are.