Archives by Tag 'Chinese language and culture in Cairns'
In Cairns: Mandarin or Cantonese?
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. Any effort we make to understand and appreciate mainland Chinese language and culture will be rewarded by word of mouth recommendations to visit Cairns. China has the largest internet grapevine in the world: satisfied customers will provide more free advertising than we could ever dream of or afford. Most visitors […]
Understanding China: what is Guanxi?
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. Think: Informal networks, using the back door, investing in relationships, calling in favours, underground economy, and so on. Guanxi is all of the above and more. In fact it is a highly sophisticated parallel economy which subverts a totalitarian system and its bloated, politicised bureaucracy. Understanding China: what is Guanxi? […]
A brief introduction to Mandarin: Cairns
Yirong Li (Teacher Li). Assistant Professor, Chinese language & Culture. In Cairns. Mandarin is the official language of mainland China. Note: Mandarin is a Western term for Chinese language. The local term is Putonghua which literally means ‘standard language’. The majority of mainland Chinese people speak Mandarin or one of its sub-dialects. A minority speak Cantonese (mainly […]
Understanding China
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. May, 2010 “We need to ramp up the critical mass of Australians who are China literate… Unless we do so, our relations with China risk being seriously undermined by miss-perceptions and neglect.” Alan Dupont, director of the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, published in The Australian Newspaper, April 12, […]