Excuse me, I'm proselytizing. Always loved these girls and their clever song... watch first lower res video with translation Admit it, you smiled at least once whilst watching these !
I smiled because it's silly . I was more focused on trying to understand what I could from 3 years of Mandarin 30 years ago. From the traditional characters I would assume they're based in either Taiwan or Hong Kong, maybe Malaysia or Singapore though.
It's fun and interesting that they are so happy that the people learn their langauge LOL. I thought that Taiwan and their own language.
It actually puts me off learning Chinese, to be honest. It's got far too many echoes of the bad side of nationalism and the wrong side of pride -- "aren't we great".
A lot of Taiwanese speak the language of Fujian Province across the straits from them, i.e. Fujianese/Min/Hokkien/whatever (lots of dialects). But Mandarin is an official language and where lots of westerners go to learn it.
A lot of mainlanders fled to Taiwan to escape the communist revolution, including the entire government. For some time after the revolution, the international community recognised Taiwan as the legitimate Chinese nation. This obviously had an effect on language use locally, as the incomers wouldn't have been speakers of the Min language group, and Mandarin gained the upper hand.
I take it as a joke. I believe you're hearing it wrong. The noodle, qipao, and huqin references don't a trend towards the amazing Chinese make. You didn't smile. I owe you a beer. How about a 新疆黑啤 ?
In my experience, Taiwanese people aren't like this at all, but Chinese are. So the lyrics surprised me a little too. I think it's all in good fun, or the song writer is from the mainland.
Ahhh good ol' S.H.E. ... heard a lot of them back in the day! A little too cutesy for me, but still good practice nonetheless!
