Mini-story (no. 2) with Chinese characters at HSK2 level

王小姐一个人在咖啡馆看书。忽然一位先生走过来，想要请她喝茶。她说：对不起，我并不认识您！先生说：我想我认识你！你是王医生的女儿，对不对？王小姐：对不起，我现在必须回家了！先生 说：没关系，我们下次见！再见！

王小姐在去火车站的路上给她的朋友打电话。“今天一位先生认出我，不过他以为我是我叔叔的女儿。可是我不认识那位先生。太奇怪了！你问我为什么我不问他的名字?我也不知道。我觉得他是个怪人，所以我就马上走了！”

王小姐坐在火车上看了一下她身上还剩多少钱。她住在火车站附近，她能走路回家，但是今天天气很冷，还下雨。 她想坐出租车回家。

王小姐下了火车，叫了一辆出租车。当她打开车门时吓了一跳。她看到咖啡馆的那位先生正坐在出租车里！

咖啡馆 / kāfēiguǎn / café

忽然 / hūrán / suddenly

位 / wèi / counting word for people

过 / guò / to pass by

对不起 / duìbùqǐ / sorry

并不/ bìng bù / not at all

必须 / bìxū / must

认出/ rènchū / to recognize

以为/ yǐwéi / to think, to believe, to suppose

叔叔/ shūshu / uncle (younger brother of the father)

可是/ kěshì / however

太奇怪了! / tài qíguài le! / very strange!

怪 / guài / strange

马上 / mǎshàng / immediately

剩/ sheng / remaining

她身上还剩多少钱 / tā shēnshàng hái shèng duōshao qián / how much money she has still on her

附近/ fùjìn / vicinity

辆/ liàng / counting word for vehicles

当/ dāng / when,while

吓/ xià / to startle

跳/ tiào / to jump

Cups - made in China, made of china

Bēizi (杯子) can mean cup but also can mean drinking glass. While production of glassware started late in China compared to ancient Egypt and the region of Mesopotamia where glassmaking originated from, ceramics were known much earlier in China and the refinement of manufacturing eventually led to the development of porcelain. Chinese porcelain was new and unique to travellers from Europe in the 13th century, explaining why porcelain is even today still called “china”.

Not knowing this type of ceramics, Marco Polo described it as “porcellana” when he first discovered it, according to the Italian name of the cowrie sea snail, the shell of which was the closest in resemblance to the white, translucent appearance of porcelain he knew.

The fascination with this new mysterious material let Chinese porcelain become a highly demanded luxury good in the west. Porcelain was imported from China and additionally western alchemists started to attempt producing this new material themselves. In contrast to myths about porcelain manufacture that were still in circulation in the 16^th century, such as Scaligers assertion of porcelain being made from powdered shells, porcelain is made of the clay mineral kaolinite together with varying additional components. Kaolin is a white clay that forms by chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals and owes its name to the place Gaoling in the province Jiangxi (高岭 / Gāolǐng / “high mountainous ridge”, close to the city Jingdezhen known as China’s Porcelain Capital), from where samples of this resource were brought to Europe in the 18^th century by a French missionary.

Before porcelain production eventually succeeded in Europe in the 18^th century (1708 in Germany), the demand for the “white gold” was met by Chinese potters who started to produce specifically for export. Porcelain was produced for export to Europe and North America between the 16^th and 20^th century and was different in style from porcelain that was produced for the domestic market, being painted with decorations that did not contain the symbolic meanings that were common for the domestic market and decoration even contained patriotic American or other countries’ motifs as a consequence of personalization for customers. Unfamiliarity of Chinese potters with the foreign motifs and customs even led to unique mistakes, such as upside down painted Portuguese royal arms. However, not only decoration but also the shapes of export porcelain were adjusted to western commodities, such as mugs or candlesticks, which were not used in China and which were replicated in porcelain from models that had been sent from Europe.

Porcelain was traded among tea, silk and many other goods in ships, where it was stored at the bottom of the ship due to its weight and because other goods needed more protection from water and moisture than porcelain. Today the longevity of porcelain is invaluable in maritime archeology for determining the origin and probable destinations of shipwrecks. Porcelain found in a shipwreck in the South China Sea, for instance, was painted with a goddess from Chinese folklore or showed a woman with a hairdo like a flower that was fashionable among noble women in late Ming dynasty, pointing to an Asian destination of the ship such as Japan.

What could better show the colors of Chinese tea to advantage than a cup made of white porcelain? Or do you prefer to drink some liquor now? In the latter case: 干杯！(Gānbēi! / literally: empty the cup, meaning: Cheers!).

杯子/ bēizi / cup, drinking glass

Sources and further reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Chinese_glass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_glass

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/glassmaking-may-have-begun-egypt-not-mesopotamia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

https://www.britannica.com/science/kaolin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaolinite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_export_porcelain

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ewpor/hd_ewpor.htm

http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat7/sub40/item258.html

http://archive.archaeology.org/1109/features/south_china_sea_ming_dynasty_shipwreck.html

Aspects of Ceramic History: A Series of Papers Focusing on the Ceramic Artifact As Evidence of Cultural and Technical Developments, Gordon Elliott, 2006, ISBN 0955769019, 9780955769016

Degenhardt, J. H. "Cracking the Mysteries of “China”: China(ware) in the Early Modern Imagination." Studies in Philology, vol. 110 no. 1, 2013, pp. 132-167. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/sip.2013.0003


- the word 杯子/ bēizi is part of HSK1 -