Tag: chinese

2025 Chinese Calendar – Monthly in PDF

Chinese calendar with lunar dates, monthly, January, graphics manipulation by Don Tai

Chinese calendar with lunar dates, monthly, January, graphics manipulation by Don Tai

We were looking for a simple 2025 Chinese calendar, a single page per month, but could not easily find one. There are a couple of Calendars that have special Chinese calendar dates written on the bottom of the actual calendar, but did not show the Chinese lunar dates 农历 within each day box, which is not good for us.

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How to Add A New Emoji to QQ

Chocolate emoji: I could not find an appropriate chocolate emoji for QQ, so I shrunk a larger image down to 32x32 saved in png format, transparent background, and imported it into QQ. Original large image.

Chocolate emoji: I could not find an appropriate chocolate emoji for QQ, so I shrunk a larger image down to 32×32 saved in png format, transparent background, and imported it into QQ. Original large image.

I’m on QQ, Chinese social media and messenger, and wanted a different emoji that I could not find. Here’s how I added one.

You’ll need to edit your original graphic. The file format size is 32×32. Save your file in .png so you can have a transparent background. You can reduce the size of the image of your choice, but the simpler the better, as at 32 x 32 px almost all details will be lost. I have sized existing QQ emojis and they are 28x28px or smaller. This is a more appropriate size.

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QQ International Version is dead: Learn Chinese or Use WeChat

If you are using QQ, the Chinese social media platform, on a PC and want multi-language capability, or at least a language other than Chinese, your days are numbered. The PC program was last updated in 2014 and has been slowly degrading in functionality. There is no foreseeable new version planned. The best you can do is to learn more Chinese and install the Chinese version, or use the Android international version on an Andriod smartphone.

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qnreading from Chinese Social Media QQ: Unknown Protocol

I am a QQ user, which is part of Chinese social media. From Tencent 腾讯 in China, QQ is a simpler messaging and social media ecosystem than WeChat 微信. In the past couple of months I have been noticing more content is blocked to me here in Canada. More concerning is that China is beginning to use new protocols on the internet that are unique to China.

Geoblocking is regularly used by Chinese stores. I search for their products on Baidu, find images but cannot go to their web pages because they detect that I am not in China and block me. While this is annoying, at least I can understand the technical mechanism. They do not want Western eyes looking at their web pages, and that is their prorogative.

This is a preview of qnreading from Chinese Social Media QQ: Unknown Protocol. Read the full post (623 words, 8 images, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Language Differences for Passwords: English vs Chinese

No doubt that Western and Chinese language and culture are very different, so it should not be surprising that passwords will also be very different. Here’s an interesting article about some of the language differences.

Password cracking hack software often uses a master password vocabulary file, but usually in a single language. If you know multiple languages and use them in your passwords it will be even harder for hackers to crack your sites.

I hope these researchers keep up the good work.

Permanent link to this post (84 words, 0 images, estimated 20 secs reading time)

Quoting Wordsworth: English to Chinese to English

A Chinese friend was having difficulty with an English phrase and its translation, and asked me to help. An out of context English phrase, translated to Chinese and then back to English, its meaning would surely be lost in translation. It was.

To me the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears
在我看来，最卑微的华朵 都是思想，深藏 在眼泪达不到的地方
zai wokanlai, zui beiwei de huaduo doushisixiang, shencang zaiyanlei dabudao de difang

华兹华斯 hua zi huasi Wordsworth

From the Chinese I translated to:

From what I see, the most humble blooms are thought, deep and hidden far beyond tears

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Chinese Washing Machine, English Translation

Friend David is in China, struggling with the washing machine. Here’s some help! Many of these words are not commonly used and are specific to washing and clothing.

Chinese washing machine translation

Chinese washing machine translation

漂水 piao4shui3 = bleach
脱水 tuo1shui3 = dehydration, damp dry
排水 pai2shui3 = drain

带预洗 dai4yu4xi3 = prewash
棉麻 mian2ma3 = Cotton and linen
节能 jie2neng2 = energy saving
快洗 kuai4xi3 = fast wash
冷水 leng2shui3 = cold water
混合洗 hun1he4xi3 = mixed

化纤 hua4xian4 = chemical fibers, man-made
樱儿服 ying1er2fu2 = baby
运动服 yun4dong4fu2 = sportswear
精细 jing1xi = fine
窗帘 chuang1lian2 = curtain
手洗 shou3xi3 = hand wash

羊毛 yang2mao3 = wool

准备 zhun3bei4 = prepare, start
结束 jie3shu4 = end

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Chinese Meme: There are so many

People in China are very crafty at using the Chinese language to express themselves, particularly for political topics. I can’t remember them all.

正能量 zheng neng liang, positive energy

Now positive energy has developed into a catchphrase in Chinese society where people approach life with optimism and confidence.

Things associated with positive thinking such as optimism, frugality, hardwork and things that are inspiring are called “positive energy”.

Now Chinese people are hailing social development and spreading positive energy, which highlights the public’s hope and desire for the betterment of people’s livelihoods on the road toward a moderately well-off society. source

Permanent link to this post (101 words, 0 images, estimated 24 secs reading time)

Wei and Wuwei: Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary, Commercial Press, Oxford university Press

These entries are from the “Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary”, 3ed, 2004 from Commercial Press and Oxford University Press， for David

为 （為）Wei4： pp520 (介词, preposition) 1. [indicating the object of one’s act of service]: ~ 人民服务 ~ ren2min2fu2wu4， serve the people, 2. [indicating an objective]: ~ 方便起见 ~ fang1bian4 qi3jian4 for the sake of convenience. see also wei2

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Saving PSB Images from Chinese QQ QZone Wall

Chinese QQ QZone's photo image display javascript gets in the way of saving large images

Chinese QQ QZone’s photo image display javascript gets in the way of saving large images

On Chinese QQ QZone people have walls similar to FB. QZone uses an image display script in your browser. If the image is large when you right click and you can save the image as .PSB or .JPG, but it will not render in your browser, as .PSB is an unknown file type. I believe QQ’s javascript manipulated the image so you can zoom and move around, but this gets in the way if you want to see the original pic and zoom for yourself.

This is a preview of Saving PSB Images from Chinese QQ QZone Wall. Read the full post (341 words, 2 images, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)