National Day – 國慶節 – guó qìng jié

Today, The People’s Republic of China celebrates it’s 60th National Day, 國慶節 – guó qìng jié, the equavilent of the Independence Day in the U.S.

Besides the military parade, and the flag raising ceremony, the government has planned a huge fireworks display in Beijing, the capital city. It is said that this year’s fireworks will be twice as large and grand as the one showcased during the last Olympic, also in Beijing. Be sure to check out the Wall Street Jounal blog for up to date updates of this historical event.

The average Chinese citizen, however will not be present for the parade, most try to take advantage of the mandatory 1 week vacation to travel around the country. So bear in mind, do not visit China during the first week of October where all the hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions are over crowded unless you have to be in China for a reason. Of course, if you like crowds and wish to experience what 1.3 billion people feels like, this will be perfect.

Museum – 博物館 – bó wù guǎn

In honor of the reopening of The Museum of Chinese in America in NYC, I thought we should learn what museum is in Chinese. Visiting museums is always a big hit in my family. My kids love the Childrens Museum for all the hands on exibits, they also love the Museum of Natural History for that big Dinosaurs display. Even at the Museum of Modern Arts, they were able to amuse themselves with the big helicopter inside. We will be going to this newly reopened MOCA soon. I am sure they will take pride in knowing all the famous Chinese Americans!

To learn more, you can also read a review in today’s NY Times.

Mooncake – 月餅 – yuè bǐng

Mooncakes are a MUST when it comes to Moon Festival.  Mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy on this occasion, and are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival.  This year, Moon Festival will be on October 3rd. 

There are many folktales, stories, and tradition we will talk about over the next few weeks for Moon Festival.  However, I always think about food first.  So we will begin this festive celebration with learning how to say mooncake in Chinese.  Traditional mooncakes come in lotus seed paste, red bean paste, or mixed nuts.  The more delicate ones come with salted egg yolks inside.  Nowadays, mooncakes are offered in various flavors such as Green Tea, Durian, Green Bean, Taro, Date, and Pineapples. 

We are proud to partner with a NYC bakery this year to offer you some fresh baked mooncakes!  Please visit our shop for more information.

Grandfather – 爺爺 yé ye, 外公 wài gōng

Grandparents Day is coming up soon, September 13th this year to be exact.  Let’s make sure that we all know how to say Grandfather properly. 

爺爺 yé ye is for the paternal grandfather, while 外公 wài gōng is for the maternal grandmother.  Don’t forget to make sure your kids say it with a kiss, they will love it.  We all need to stock up on those free babysitting vouchers.

School Bag – 書包 – shū bāo

Over here in the Northeast, some schools will be starting school next week already, before Labor Day!  Chopsticks starts kindergarten next Thursday.  He is my first son, so it’s almost more difficult for me than him.  All the paperwork to fill out, oh my gosh!  He is now required to carry a school bag, and I just went online and bought him one after many debates.  The debate was of course about practicality vs cute-o-meter.  I ended up buying one from LL Bean, but I must share these with you.

Taking the kids on a plane for your summer vacation?  What’s your trick to calm them down?  Lots of toys?  Benedryl?  Portable DVD Player?  For my little toddler, I started talking about the airplane ride, and showed him some books about airport to get him excited, and then I prayed for a miracle. (or a smooth ride)

I found this book, Busy Airport, and it was just perfect.  Not only did I get to introduce him with concepts of airport and taking a plane, it also provide lots of activities for them with all those pulls and tabs.  This book was originally published in English, then translated in Chinese.  I especially love the translation as it really captured the essence in English.  To check out more details, please click here for our website.

Aunt – 姑姑 – gū gū, 阿姨 – ā yí, 伯母 – bó mǔ, 嬸嬸 – shěn shen, 舅媽 – jiù mā

In one of my previous posts, I talked about the very specific way in referring one’s relatives in the Chinese language. Today, I will tackle Aunts. As you can see from the title, it’s rather confusing.

姑姑 – gū gū is a generic name for father’s sisters. Variations can also include 姑媽, gū mā, which refers to father’s older sisters.
阿姨 – ā yí, again is a generic name for mother’s sisters. 姨媽, yí mā, is for mother’s older sister if one wish to be extremely proper.
伯母 – bó mǔ, refers to father’s older brother’s wife.
嬸嬸 – shěn shen, refers to father’s younger brother’s wife.
舅媽 – jiù mā, refers to mother’s brother’s wife.

For a more detailed outline of the various titles for your relatives, you can refer to the last page of the book The Day I Got Up Early, by Lai Ma, available on our site, at www.mypandapaws.com. Happy Reading!

Beach – 海灘 – hǎi tān

I was never a beach person, but more of a pool person.  However, now that I am a mom, I really enjoy watching the kids playing on the beach.  There’s something really tranquil about that.  I am planning on taking the kids this week, will this picture inspire you to do the same?

Grandmother – 奶奶 – nǎi nai – 外婆 – wài pó

Chinese families have historically been rather large, hence the 1.2 billion, which would have been even higher if not for the one child policy for the past 30 years. This large family structure led to a rather complex nomenclature to clearly distinguish familial relationships. While, for example, we use the same set of terms for both maternal and paternal grandmothers (i.e., grandmother, grandma, etc.), the Chinese have different terms – nǎi nai (奶奶) and wài pó (外婆) for paternal and maternal grandmothers respectively. If you think this is complicated, wait until we start discussing aunts and uncles.

Television – 電視-diàn shì

My youngest, just shy of 18 months, has a rather limited vocabulary of 2 words, mā mā (mommy) and chē chē (cars in babytalk, which generally involves doubling up the word). I had mixed feelings when he recently debuted his third word sequence, kàn diàn shì [看電視], or watch television. I couldn’t quite make out the utterance until he handed over the remote and proceeded to point to the television set in my room. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. But of all things, television? I guess it’s not unexpected, certainly in line with the first two brands that my oldest started recognizing when he was a baby, McDonalds and BMW. We live in an age where children are preternaturally adaptable to technology and media.