China, Hongkong, Taiwan - The Greater China Desk

China, Hongkong, Taiwan - The Greater China Desk

Posts 1-10 of 31
  • Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz
    Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz    Group moderator
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    Introducing fortune cookies in China
    Just stumbled upon this video on introducing fortune cookies to China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp4IGgQoVQE Do you think there is any business in importing fortune cookies to China? I don't think the testers really liked them...
    • 30 Mar 2009, 12:10 pm
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  • 祥东(Xiangdong) 姚(Yao)
    祥东(Xiangdong) 姚(Yao)
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    Re^2: Introducing fortune cookies in China
    Maybe it is a good business in China for those who would like to try new ..
    • 31 Mar 2009, 12:18 pm
  • Niall Murray
    Niall Murray
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    Re^3: Introducing fortune cookies in China
    That video is actually from the TEd conference website from jennifer Lee, who works at NYT.

    It is great talk. Fortune cookies are from Japan!

    The hunt for General Tso Chicken

    Check the full videocast here.


    http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_...

    The fake foreign business to be infor China are Tea restaurants (Taiwanese import faking western cafes) and Cognac and Brandy that you only can buy in China....!
    This post was modified on 31 Mar 2009 at 01:37 pm.
    • 31 Mar 2009, 1:34 pm
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  • Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz
    Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz    Group moderator
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    Re^4: Introducing fortune cookies in China
    Thanks for posting the TED link - it's really a very entertaining talk and should be shown at every China restaurant outside China...

    (The original Japanese fortune cookies look much better than the American version, btw.)

    I think that the fortune cookie story represents a great example for all the misunderstandings in Western perceptions of China. It also shows you that you always should look behind the story when you are doing business in China.

    Concerning the language: I am not sure how Chinese dialects can be seen in Chinese characters...
    • 01 Apr 2009, 09:31 am
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  • Niall Murray
    Niall Murray
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    Re^7: Introducing fortune cookies in China
    Yes Ma'en. That is correct. I just wish I could read that Cantonese slang as fluent as anything else. It is a different world in written form.
    As far as I know though, no other dialect in Chinese has such a vast array of genuine characters you cannot find in putonghua....So it would not work well for Cantonese!

    I just wish I could some day read the articles about the HK triads (in local slang) fluently....
    It is my long-term Cantonese goal....makes also for an interesting learning experience. As you might know learning Chinese from communist propaganda is very boring, the language never changes!
    It is the big difference for Cantonese language learning – at least you get triad stories instead of party declarations – but of course now with the internet things are much different....I am probably old school, learning by reading newspapers!
    This post was modified on 01 Apr 2009 at 08:13 pm.
    • 01 Apr 2009, 8:10 pm
  • Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz
    Prof. Dr. Christian Schmidkonz    Group moderator
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    Re^8: Introducing fortune cookies in China
    Niall Murray schrieb:
    Yes Ma'en. That is correct. I just wish I could read that Cantonese slang as fluent as anything else. It is a different world in written form.
    Well, first of all my comment wasn't really serious. Of course there are no dialects in written Chinese. But there is slang, that's right. There are some interesting books available in China about slang (and you can find it all over the Internet).

    I just wish I could some day read the articles about the HK triads (in local slang) fluently....
    Haha, and then beeing able to talk like them...

    It is my long-term Cantonese goal....makes also for an interesting learning experience. As you might know learning Chinese from communist propaganda is very boring, the language never changes!
    This is actually why I still don't really understand why not everybody goes to Taiwan to learn Chinese. OK, you have the traditional characters, but it's much more fun to learn Chinese there. Great books, great newspapers to read, very pure Chinese, etc. etc.

    But this has nothing to do with fortune cookies any more...
    • 03 Apr 2009, 09:34 am