A little game…?

[presumenothing]

It's already TGIF where I am, so 我们来玩玩游戏吧！

Since languages are all about connections, and everyone sees different patterns in the chaos:

Post a bit of vocab below, and I (plus anyone else who wants to play!) will reply with other bits of vocab that feel related to it!

Any shape or size of vocab goes – whether a single character or an idiom, your favourite word or one you just learned.

If you're responding, feel free to add why these words seem related to you! "They're the same shape/sound", or "it's a valid answer to 接龙ing the above", or "it came up together in one line of this show"… anything goes! 放飞创意吧！

Comments

[grayswandir]

Oh, I just recently learned a bunch of 天文学 vocab from a sci-fi show. :D (Didn't learn Pluto, though!)

I really like the word for nebula, 星云.

[trobadora]

What show, if you don't mind me asking?

星云 is lovely. :D

[grayswandir]

A very old Hong Kong show with no English subs, which I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend even if you were into any of those things. XD It's called 天降财神 | The Superpower. Chow Yun-Fat as a very earnest and confused alien was great, but sadly even he and Tony Leung together could not save the plot...

I enjoyed all the sci-fi vocab, though! Another one I loved was meteor shower: 流星雨. Also, alien babies came from test tubes: 试管!

[trobadora]

Oh, Chow Yun-Fat AND Tony Leung? A shame they couldn't save the plot, but it sounds like you had fun with it anyway. And yay sci-fi terminology! :D

(What I really want is a Chinese space show set IN space, on a spaceship or something ...)

[grayswandir]

(What I really want is a Chinese space show set IN space, on a spaceship or something ...)

Same, I would love that! For movies there's The Wandering Earth, which apparently was hugely popular, but I watched it and really wanted to like it and... did not. :P

There's supposed to be a sequel out in January, though, so maybe its popularity will eventually lead to some shows with IN SPACE settings...

[trobadora]

Oh, that reminds me that I've been wanting to watch The Wandering Earth for literal years! I was looking forward to it before it became available here, because the trailer looked super relevant to my interests - and then when it did, somehow I totally failed to actually watch it, LOL. *puts it at the top of the list*

Fingers crossed for IN SPACE as a new trend!

[grayswandir]

I'd love to hear your thoughts about it if you watch it! To be fair I did see it under less than ideal circumstances, so I may have been too hard on it. ;D It at least definitely has a lot of IN SPACE in it, and I did find the premise interesting even if wildly implausible. XD And the CGI is great!

[trobadora]

Will do, absolutely! No idea when, but hopefully still this year. *g*

[reshiel]

(What I really want is a Chinese space show set IN space, on a spaceship or something ...)

Seconding the mention of The Wandering Earth (including the caveats; I liked it, but there were things that didn't land for me too.) The Three-Body Problem is getting a TV adaptation too!

[trobadora]

Thanks muchly! Any particular warnings about The Wandering Earth?

I haven't read The Three-Body Problem - is it set in space after all? My impression was that it waas very much Earth-based ...

[reshiel]

Nothing that warrants a warning haha, just some character choices I personally didn't vibe with (little sister who exists mostly to be protected, main character is a hero with dad issues, people seem to die for the angst of it, things like that.) I did like it as a sci-fi story, especially the setting/premise, the central problem and how they fixed it, and the visuals/effects. And it's one of the first Chinese sci-fi films targeting a global audience on this scale so I respect it for taking that path and doing it well.

You're right 3BP is mostly on Earth, there are also a couple subplots that take place on spaceships and different planets, so I am keeping fingers crossed they keep those in!

[trobadora]

Thank youn for the details! Like I said in another comment, from the trailer it looked VERY relevant to my interests, so I'm not sure why it dropped out of my head and I haven't watched it yet, LOL. Definitely looking forward to it all over again now!

And I do hope they keep the spaceships and different planets in 3BP! More of that, please!

[reshiel]

星云 so elegantly describes what a nebula is! I love it.

天文学 is fascinating, isn't it? Apparently the historical Chinese constellations are quite different from the Greek ones, although there is some overlap too e.g. Big Dipper/Orion/Pleiades.

Following the 天文学 theme, 动如参商 - 'as Orion and Antares', eternal separation.