Ancestral or Shaking ?

Viewing clips at youku, a mainland site, could be a real pain sometimes, more so when you have my kind of unreliable connectivity.

Did manage to download some interesting clips sometime back and I thought it might be simpler to re-upload to youtube for linking here …… 

Well you know me, anything to do with that “bird” has got priority with me. 

More so if the clip talks about the Fuzhou scene or in this particular case, Fuqing. 

My dad is Fuzhou MingChiang and mom is Fuqing Putien; so I grew up learning both. 

I am sure most are familiar with the “main” Fuzhou Cranes but ignorant that “Zhonghe” or “Shaking/Vibrating Crane” is more “Fuqing”.

And for the longest time, many would go “Zhong” is “Ancestral” which is totally right if you read the Chinese character.

But as explained in the clip, many terminologies in “ZhongHe” are really handed down in spoken “Fuqing”. 

So when writing, they go for nearest sounding characters – so please don’t read too much into the written form. 

“Zhong” is “Shaking/vibrating/shivering” when spoken in Fuqing. 

Or to be more exact, it sounds more like “Choon”. 

Regardless if it’s Fuzhou or Fuqing, when it’s Crane, you can’t miss the standard “whipping” and “shaking” so well demonstrated in the clip. 

Btw, the sound in the clip got screwed when I downloaded it from youku.

No biggie, there’s Mandarin subtitle ……