David Moser, of the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, has written a wonderful article entitled “Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard”. A short excerpt on learning classical Chinese:
“Whereas modern Mandarin is merely perversely hard, classical Chinese is deliberately impossible. Here’s a secret that sinologists won’t tell you: A passage in classical Chinese can […]

A short, silly essay.
什么是苹果？按照词典，苹果的定义是：“落叶乔木，叶子椭圆形，花白色带有红晕。果实圆形，味甜或略酸，是普通水果”。我平时对《现代汉语词典》的定义没有什么不同意的，但在这种情况下，我必须表示我不满的感觉。词典的编者哪儿有权利把这么美妙的水果称为“普通”水果？大概是因为编者没有意识到这个小水果跟我们“普通人类”有多么长的历史，多么强的关系。
什么是苹果？当然是词典所说的，但除此之外它也是人类最古老的同伴之一。据西方的传说，第一个人吃的苹果给他怎么分别好和坏的知识，但也是人类从人间乐园放逐的原因。这样一来，苹果给我们带来了辛苦的生活，但也使我们凌驾于真正的“普通”动物之上。知识是苹果赋予我们的大负担和大赠礼。
什么是苹果？是使我们健康的一种食品。苹果不但是世界最流行的水果之一，而且是富于营养的食品。苹果有几百个种类，有甜的，有酸的，一个人无论有什么偏激，都能找到适合他口味的苹果。由于苹果的普遍性，苹果平时不是特别贵的，每个人都买得起苹果。可以说苹果是“大众之食”。
什么是苹果？实际上，我也不敢妄下评论。但我的感觉是苹果既然赋予我们那么多利益，我们都应该以更理解它重要性的角度回报它所给予人类的。什么是苹果？苹果就是人类的老朋友。

(translated from a Chinese conversation textbook)
Mary: Teacher, what is a “dagongmei”?
Teacher: A “dagongmei” is a young woman who comes from the countryside to the city to do part-time work.
Mary: Is their work always very hard?
Teacher: It is relatively hard, but compared to being in the countryside, it’s a bit more relaxed. Actually, they don’t […]

To celebrate the fact that I have finished the last paper of my undergraduate career (barring an unforseen but entirely possible disaster), I present what is possibly the least useful diagram I have ever seen, discovered during research for my penultimate paper, which had hopefully better formed sentences than the one I am currently writing, […]

I am not updating this website because I am hard at work, as this picture illustrates:

Also, some work has been done on non-public parts of this site that may yet become public.