Chuck Allanson's Chinglish Handbook

A popular English learning guide on Chinese Internet community was attributed to Chuck Allanson, who claimed to be on faculty of Zhejiang University. The article was supposed to clarify some misuses or casual wordings that were frequently found in translating Chinese into English. However, some obvious misinformation were mixed in.

At the beginning, when explaining the motive of writing the article, Mr. Allanson said he found many Chinese didn't know the native way of referring dumpling was ravioli. I hope he can't be too serious on this, unless he just descended in a tardis traveling from civil war time America. Later he said the correct way for calling noodles were pasta, with a annotate of using noodles being childish.

Among the 20 some 'Chinglish' mistakes which were listed side-by-side with presumed correct way of saying them as natives, about half of them were false or misleading.

Chinese	Chinglish	English	Seagull Comments
欢迎你到...	welcome you to ...	welcome to ...
永远记住你	remember you forever	always remember you(nobody can live forever)	While you do hear 'always' more often, people do use forever. It's just stronger feeling, so that we often say we will love you forever.
祝你有个...	wish you have a ...	I wish you a ...	Mr. Allanson must have been listening too many Christmas songs, but I digressed. I hope you have a good day.
给你	give you	here you are	Among a thousand ways to convey the same message, 'here you are' actually is somehow a creepier one.;-)
很喜欢...	very like ...	like ... very much
黄头发	yellow hair	blond/blonde(there is no saying of “yellow hair” in Western Countries)
厕所	WC	men's room/women's room/restroom
真遗憾	it's a pity	that's too bad/it's a shame(it's a pity is an old way)
裤子	trousers	pants/slacks/jeans
修理	mend	fix/repair	How about mending your fences with fellow expat English teachers?
入口	way in	entrance
出口	way out	exit(way out means crazy in oral English)
勤奋	diligent	hardworking/studious/conscientious	Nothing wrong with saying 'diligent'
应该	should	must/shall	nothing wrong with 'should'
火锅	chafing dish	hot pot
大厦	mansion	center/plaza	This will be determined by the context
马马虎虎	so-so	average/fair/all right/not too bad/OK(so-so is seldom used by Western people)
好吃	delicious	good/nice/tasty/appetizing(“delicious” is used to much in China)	It's crazy to suggest a perfect word be given up because it is used in China
尽我最大努力	try my best	try/strive(“try” means “try my best”)	'Try my best' is good.
有名	famous	well-known/renowned/legendary/popular(“famous” is used too much in China)	These words have different meanings than 'famous'.
滑稽	humorous	funny/witty/amusing/entertaining	Again, the suggested words are of different meanings.
欺骗	to cheat	to trick/to play a joke on/to con/to deceive/to rip off	Is this a Chinglish lesson or a thesaurus exercise?
车门	the door of the car	the car's door	Car doesn't own doors, thus 'car door' would be enough. Or if you want to precise, use 'driver side door' or 'passenger side door'.
怎么拼?	how to spell?	how do you spell?
再见	bye-bye	bye/see you/see you later/later(“bye-bye” is a little bit childish)
玩	play	go to/do(“play” is used too much in China)
面条	noodles	pasta(“noodles” is a little bit childish)	The seagull is horrified by this one. The facial expression will be priceless when you find pasta in the plate, expecting noodles with an empty stomach.
据说	it is said	I heard/I read/I was told	Suggested sayings are of different meanings, and there is nothing wrong with 'It is said'.
等等	and so on	etc.	You 'speak' English like that?
直到现在	till now	recently/lately/thus far	Nothing wrong with 'till now'
农民	peasant	farmer	This can be a tough call, and Mr. Allanson must be very brave to pick them. However, he should not have.
宣传	propaganda	information	Propaganda is not information. In Chinese context, 宣传 really means propaganda. Until recently, the top ministry within CCP named themselves the Propaganda Department for official English name. They have since changed the English translation to Publicity.

The 'handbook' had gone viral through Weibo/WeChat among other mobile platforms. Some could be found on the Internet. It is even listed by the Baidu Collection. It is also re-imported to Canada and the US by Chinese who are learning English.

A little investigation suggested Mr. Allanson was an American, and that he knew how to write English, as demonstrated in his letter to PBS and his self description on promotional materials. The Seagull suspect the aforementioned article was not penned by Mr. Allanson himself. It is probably an excerpt of notes from classroom, with essential context left out, by one of his students--perhaps a student who really hates him.;-)

Spy Catchers

FBI scored one more hit when Chinese national Huajun Zhao was arrested on Sunday March 31, 2013. Zhao was holding two tickets, according to local media coverage, to China on April 2. Zhao was charged with economic espionage.

Zhao's case is strikingly similar to arrestment of Jiang Bo, an ISA contractor working at a NASA facility last month. Jiang was stopped at the Dulles airport holding a one way ticket to China.

From prima facie evidence, there is little doubt that Zhao was up to something. His supervisor Professor Marshall Anderson noticed three vials were missing from his desk on February 22. Surveillance camera mounted in the hallway recorded only one person entered the professor's room around that time. When confronted by campus security, Zhao did not admit nor deny taking the tubes, but promised 'a resolution' in ten days. The stolen material was a compound C-25 being developed at the lab, that is potentially helpful in fighting cancer. Campus security also found tons of files related to the research on Zhao's laptop. Furthermore, campus IT logged a remote access on the day Zhao was suspended at the lab. The cyber invader deleted raw data related to the development of C-25. Campus IT was able to restore deleted data from backup. On the day of his arrest, federal investigators recovered a receipt for a package to China. The missing material is possibility already sitting on a desk in China.

It sounds a typical spy story. However, CIA instructor Walter Burke told us in 2003 movie The Recruit, 'nothing is what it seems.'

History has found spies in many different life forms, singer, dancer, politician, scholar, etc. That's the way it should be, as it makes it difficult to tell. However, there is a clue, they are all smart. No offense to Dr. Zhao, but he is not a winner comparing to his peers.

Forty-two year old Zhao obtained a B.S. degree from Zhejiang University in 1996, which is about 3 years too late for a Chinese and extremely rare nowadays after the great expansion of college admission. If that is still not an indicator, Zhao had been working as senior postdoc at three institutions in the US, but yet couldn't land a real job. It's evident that setting aside Zhao may be a good scientist, he absolutely does not have any street smart.

It is not a great time to be a 'returnee (going back to China after studying abroad)' at this time. China's universities and research institute are increasingly picky and suspicious of the quality of those holding foreign degrees, partially because they already have a very competitive talent pool with advanced skills produced inside China. A foreign degree can no longer buy you any advantage. When looking outsider, Chinese universities are eyeing on specific traits such as English speaking capability to appease students who demand English lectures or past notable award recipients as attractive wall decorations. Zhao must present something valuable to get the attention.

The understanding in the biological field is that any results or discoveries in a research project belong to the sponsor. There is no question that Zhao was stealing something he did not own. However, based on media coverage, it is highly possible that Zhao was stealing something he created, or in the least, jointly created.

Professor Anderson told the media that the intellectual property of the compound belong to his college and University of Cincinnati, where Zhao was employed before he came to Milwaukee. It is more than a coincidence that readers should move their eyes away from. For anyone familiar with biological research, the only plausible inference is that Zhao had been working on this compound in Cincinnati, and that he was brought in to continue this research. Not too long ago, Zhao posted a question on an Internet forum asking how to patent a compound. A researcher in a university will never ask these kind of questions, because there is an army of patent lawyers who will make sure the school secure any such discoveries. Again, for anyone familiar with biological research, the only plausible explanation is that Zhao found something on his own, but haven't reported it to the lab. If so, it is highly unethical, unprofessional, greedy while being foolish, and potentially illegal.

The C-25 compound itself is hardly of any value. In fact, you can say that all biological researchers are working on something that is valuable, or can be valuable. It may be valuable for publishing on an academic journal, or seeking grants, but in this early form, it's very difficult to assess its potential.

It seems that, Huajun Zhao attempted to use results not belonging to himself for personal benefits, which is by definition stealing. However, a charge of economic espionage is a stretch.

Commenting on Jiang Bo's case is tricky. First of all, anything related to NASA could be potentially sensitive one way or another. But more so because Jiang was not caught for doing anything illegal. He broke a rule when taking a laptop back to China without notifying his supervisor. However, that had been cleared by NASA that no sensitive information was on that laptop and the case closed. He was arrested for giving inconsistent answers to federal investigators, but that happened after several hours detention and interrogation at the airport, while he was trying to catch an airplane to China, fleeing from the US. He fled in a hurry because he was named in a congressional hearing which was carried by a local newspaper, as a case for NASA's circumvention/violation of federal laws by allowing Chinese nationals to work at NASA as contractors. It was confirmed later that Jiang did not carry any information with him. In short, Jiang is either a good spy who covered everything well, or an careless but innocent young researcher trapped by political fights.

Chinese in Science, the Golden Dragon Battery

The 'Golden Dragon Battery' has a very specific meaning in Chinese Sci-Fi literature, but that's the other story for another day. For now, Chinese should celebrate a breakthrough in battery technology progress from Georgia Tech for very good reason: all developers are Chinese. As a matter of fact, the first author Dr. Xinyu Xue is a visiting scholar from Northeast University in Shenyang, Liaoning Province.

Unlike all batteries ever known to man, this battery can convert mechanical energy directly to chemical energy, utilizing nano technology. By skipping indeterminate electricity stage, the battery promised higher efficiency and versatile applications - an achievement indeed something we Chinese should be proud of.

What else is a better way to use the Golden Dragon Battery than in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)? Unlike US drones which are controlled by buttons, switches and joysticks, a quadcopter drone developed by Zhejiang University is driven by the pilot's brain.

Although the show is more like a remix of prior arts, such as a $199 mind reading band on sale from the SkyMall and a $200 RC toy, the packaged demonstration is still an impressive show which deserves a standing ovation.

HCI has come a long way since three button mice. However, as everything else in the computer industry, it just exploded in 2005. From Wii to Kenect, it only takes a few years to reach the stage of mind-controlled games. Many early demonstrations, including mind controlled helicopters started emerging in 2011.

Career Party Official Named Party Chief of Zhejiang University

On March 1, 2011, Mr. Jin Deshui was named the Party Chief of Zhejiang University. Zhejiang University the best university in Zhejiang Province and is viewed as a Top Ten in the nation.

The appointment is the first in decades to have an otherwise uneducated career party official placed on the No. 1 post of a major university. Usually the Party Chief of major universities are also scientists, though some no longer active in research.

It is not known whether this is a signal of a broader transition in higher education policy in China. Started from 1966, the Party abruptly suspended all higher education, and sent professors to farms to be re-educated with heavy labor. Mr. Jin Deshui never went to college, and his highest education record was a certificate from the Zhejiang Province CCP Party Committee Training School.

Returnee Committed Suicide

A civil engineering postdoc appointee of Zhejiang University ended his life by jumping over a building on September 16, 2009. Dr. Tu Xuxin graduated from Qinghua University with dual degree in civil engineering (2000) and law (2001) and received a PhD from Northwestern University in Chicago.

In the suicide note, Tu mentioned frustration in promotion process, but attributed the reason of suicide to family violence. Tu complained being abused by his wife Dr. Fang Xin and his parents in law.

A post on the popular Tianya forum alleged that Dr. Fang referred her husband as 'A Triple Void Product': no house, no car, no clout. Shortly after a phone conversation between Dr. Tu and Dr. Fang together with her parents, Dr. Tu jumped.

In Chinese community, a returnee is also referred to as a sea turtle, because the pronunciation of turtle is same as 'return'.