How Good is Simu Liu's Chinese? Do Chinese People Hate Shang-Chi?

Support my work: paypal.me/chinesewithjessie?c...
Keep watching:
Shang-Chi Movie Review: Cast, Language, Plot, Mythical Creatures, Costume, Set Design...
• Shang-Chi Movie Review...
Chinese Reacts to Fresh off the Boat (Only in Mandarin Clip)
• Chinese Reacts to Fres...
Chinese Reacts to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Characters Speaking Chinese(May, Skye, Jiaying, Ward)
• Chinese Reacts to Agen...
You can also find me at:
Instagram: @jessie_the_dreamer
/ jessie_the_dreamer
TikTok: @Jessie Z
www.tiktok.com/@jessiez87968?...
For business inquiries: [e-mail]
00:00 Clarification
1:28 Simu Liu's Chinese Review
10:26 My Thoughts on Shang-Chi & Simu Liu
14:39 Simu Liu's Q&A on Weibo

[@lucassantiago697]

For pete's sake. She's a teacher, she's supposed to correct and point out errors. Using celebrities is the best way because it's relatable. Besides, there's a saying: A regular person learns from their mistakes, a smart one learns from other people's mistakes.

[@selenaluong3607]

Very nice 👏👏👏

[@LysanderSheng]

@TravelerPat The singer's Mandarin is almost perfect. If I didn't know he's Thai first I would think he's a Chinese with a LITTLE bit of south accent, telling from a few non-standard "zh" "ch" "sh" and "r".

[@EndoftheBeginning17]

@John Fischer The racist aspect comes from Marvel's depiction of a character called Fu Manchu.

[@AndSoWeLaughed]

Completely agree! But I’m not sure how celebrities are relatable!

[@SalvableRuin]

Celebrities are "relatable" haha

[@DestructiveMage]

Basically Simu talks like someone who is translating the conversation in his head from english to chinese. But his pronunciation is awesome

[@MaximSupernov]

That's not true

[@Bllue]

Agreed, I think my spanish is similar. I grew up speaking it but my academic and professional life has been entirely in English, so if I don't wanna look bad i might use a translator to make sure 😂

[@comochinganconesto]

So... kinda like all of use that speak more than 2 languages because we were born in a foreign country and were raised in North American :P

[@SoranPryde]

Make sense, he migrated to Canada at the age of 5. Any Chinese language influence he had before that in Harbin, China would have been simple at best

[@SL-se8rq]

I totally agree, he sounds indistinguishable from someone who grew up in China and his grammar is fine, but the vocabulary and specific sentence construction give it away. Still impressive that his pronunciation is so good though, that's hard to achieve!

[@kwatro9729]

Seeing people coming for her on the comments, just chill. She made it clear from the very start that her intention with this video was to only GIVE US AN INSIGHT ON HIS CHINESE. She isn’t criticizing him nor talking sh*t, and tbh she was mostly complimenting him on his skills. Her video also gives us really good educational tips on expressions and how to sound more fluent, so why the need to be toxic??

[@fearlesssfcappuccino]

Yes!!! All of this!! I was surprised to see that in the comments too and had the same thoughts you've just listed out. Well said and agreed!!!

[@okwatever3582]

❤❤❤👍

[@zookytar]

The movie is largely about the Asian American experience specifically. The scenes in Asia are through an Asian-American point of view. It's about Americans in Asia, who just happen to have Asian faces and background. People who are trapped between two worlds trying to find their place. As an Asian American I felt it really spoke to my experience.

[@akunbuangan2992]

As Oversea Chinese from South East Asia I agree with you. Oversea Chinese have different historical background that our Mainlander counterpart don't usually understand. The only Oversea Chinese that can speak perfect Mandarin are Malaysian Chinese but in the cost for being bad Malay speaker. Singaporean Chinese now start to lost their Mandarin proficiency thanks to heavy use of Singlish in daily life.

[@guitarisfood]

Yes I agree with your observation. The only relatable scene was when we meet Katy grandma and Tony Leung. Other than that, it's Hollywood version of Asian culture.

[@XiahouDun1225]

@@guitarisfood Not...Really. It's actually really close to the Asian American experience.

[@bupegasus]

100% agree, I was always jokingly called a twinkie/banana/school bus by friends for being yellow on the putside and white on the inside 😅 My parents are Vietnamese immigrants but I was born here and thus spoke English fluently/grew up with American culture, but brought my Asian food for lunch throughout all grade school. So White friends thought I was so Asian while Asian friends thought I was so White lol

[@lilm00]

As a korean living in europe, i also felt it was really realistic..

[@rhocassiopeiae]

Seeing him speak Chinese just made him 100% more attractive.

[@oliviaolivia3326]

@Pat Lance Simu Liu doesn't even look Han Chinese, he looks Mongol and Manchu influenced. He looks weird wearing Hanfu

[@moichol938]

@Pat Lance that was 7 years ago. 7 years is a lotta time for a change in outlook.

[@Whoareyouwatchingthat4643]

@Pat Lance 7 years ago

[@Xilladan093]

@Pat Lance quiet u clown

[@Xilladan093]

@@oliviaolivia3326 racist

[@lolaopal8884]

One of my favourite parts of the movie was when Katy and Shang-Chi where in China and Katy had to explain that she couldn’t speak Chinese very well and the guy responded with “it’s ok, I speak A B C”. Got a good giggle out of me both times I’ve seen it

[@PenneySounds]

That's kind of a double entendre, because on the surface level it sounds like he means ABC like the alphabet, to refer to English, but he's really saying "I speak American Born Chinese" Also, that was Ronny Chieng, I've been watching him on The Daily Show for years, he's hilarious. I love the one where he went to New York Chinatown to ask people what they thought of a guy from Fox News who went there and did a really racist segment.

[@Souledex]

@@PenneySounds Yeah I've seen a lot of folks not get the joke

[@belle132]

Ngl I'm slowly turning into a Simu Liu stan. Seeing how he respects his fans from China is so heartwarming ❤

[@notstevelam]

too bad no one in china can even watch this movie lol.

[@liynne]

too bad simu is a piece of sht

[@TalaySeedam]

@@notstevelam The movie simply doesn't promote the Revolutionary Culture of Socialist China.

[@angeliquewu8318]

Why is respecting fans from China supposed to be heartwarming? I thought that was just decent respect from an actor to fans. No one ever says, "Seeing how this British guy respects his fans from America is so heartwarming" No hate, just kind of confused why you find it heartwarming

[@angeliquewu8318]

@@notstevelam The less you know....

[@karthurh]

I don't get why people get mad when she points out the mistakes and grammatical errors, like that's the point of the video my dude, learn through mistakes.

[@exxiyya4855]

Exactly, I'm learning my native language and love when people correct me. How should I learn otherwise?

[@amytheorangutan]

Hi Jessie, this is so interesting and helpful looking at what's going on in Chinese social medias. So good to share these especially for audiences from outside of China who don't speak Chinese or even the ones who learn Chinese, not only for the language learning purpose but also for the cultural understanding. I watched the movie and they rewrote the role of Shang Qi's father, he even has a proper name now 文武.

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you! And it's good to know that they've made changes!

[@nehcooahnait7827]

so 斌 then lol. It’s my dad’s name ehhehe

[@ilive4anime.]

From one language learner to another, the types of videos she does are really quite educational.

[@critterfritter69]

His Mandarin is way better than this Toronto Chinese. Also as a Chinese-Canadian who has seen it 3 times (so far), I assure you that not only is Shang-Chi not racist, it went out of its way to counter Hollywood racist cliches about Asians.

[@thecheekychinaman6713]

I disagree. While it does have progress, Asians stereotyped as martial artists has existed since the dawn of cinema. Not saying that's bad mind you, it's part of our heritage, but it deffo gets stereotyped

[@jessicawold]

@@thecheekychinaman6713 dont want to overstep, but what alternatives would there be? shang chi is an action movie in a superhero universe so it makes sense to use martial arts in it right? its not all they used for combat scenes either

[@thecheekychinaman6713]

@@jessicawold you'd have to change the source material to avoid this. Again, I don't think it's a bad thing at all, I'm pointing out that this isn't a total win over stereotypes. Stereotyping is a necessity. If you want to see something that is really mould breaking, check out Tony Leung's earlier work.

[@AndrewDeng]

@@thecheekychinaman6713 I think a good way to put it would be that the movie indulges in some stereotypes it needs to in order to garner a larger general audience (which we want bc that helps with representation), but it puts in the effort to make sure they surpass those stereotypes and to define the characters as more than just a conglomeration of quirks and traits that western pop culture has deemed 'Asian' and instead treat these characters like normal characters any other Hollywood blockbuster film would.

[@thecheekychinaman6713]

@@AndrewDeng that's a pretty good conclusion, the film does baby steps. The fact that it had Brad Allan choreographing the action made it reminiscent of Jackie Chan's later work, which itself is now a stereotype. On the topic of stereotyping, that's something Jackie Chan has spoken about several times - only being offered action roles, when he'd like to "sing in Mamma mia, kiss the girl" (I quote). That's why work such as Leung's earlier Infernal affairs or In the Mood For Love are so great, the stories are utterly unique, and the genres less concrete.

[@LateNiteBreaks]

In terms of the movie I think there is a lot of Mandarin being spoken throughout. The first week in this came out in America I watched it twice and a lot of the people who are not even Asian have taken a liking to this movie. I appreciate your video and how you objectively could rate Liu Simu And I hope that mainland China doesn't ban the movie from being shown. It's a very beautiful movie with a lot of different aspects of Chinese cinema.

[@hierophantpurple5163]

In Shang-Chi they changed who Shang-Chi's father is because they didn't want to use the racist Fu Man Chu character. Instead they used little bits from that character like him running a criminal empire and bits like the ten rings from the mandarin and created an original character named Xu Wenwu played by Tony Leung

[@fahriandikadir5799]

@@CoryPchajek no shit sherlock

[@hierophantpurple5163]

@@CoryPchajek yeah of course lol

[@yutakoh]

@Pat Lance I don't think either of your conclusions were his intent. He said that sexual preference is genetic, and he believes the belief that pedophiles can be changed through therapy is as misguided & wrong as believing homosexuals can be changed through conversion therapy. His wording and comparison are clumsy (calling both a mutation of a genome, true as it may be, can be taken negatively), but I didn't see malicious intent.

[@Ponakalaranjit456]

@@fahriandikadir5799 Yeah

[@SantomPh]

Fu Man Chu is also heavily copyrighted, he cannot be used in any other productions. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics even had to omit his name altogether in one of the series because of this. The Mandarin is also a product of the Yellow Peril era (like Radiation Man) but since he's an Iron Man character ,easier to slot into the MCU. Xu Wenwu even said "that's not really my name (The Mandarin)"

[@KK-ww6uw]

I’m ABC who speaks mandarin with my parents everyday and I’d say that it’s normal for us (ppl who speak mandarin with their parents) to speak perfect in mandarin, although mainlanders could find it unnatural for some sentences because our parents are speaking in old-style mandarin, they don’t really know new modern words

[@TaitLawton]

Perhaps this is like the CBCs I've bet that still say 你好吗 instead of 你好. :)

[@BeckytheEnthusiast]

I like how she tells us that Liu Simu is speaking accurately, like from the book or translator, and how to say it more naturally. The parts where she tells us some differences between dialects is helpful, too.

[@Maddie-rv6sp]

As a person who immigranted to Canada at a very young age (just like SImu Liu! Actually me and Simu have a few mutual friends haha), your videos is realllllly good for me! I use awkward easy words in my conversational chinese as well, so you give really good tips on how to use more natural words that I already know, but just cannot readily pull out of my brain to actually use.

[@darkpharaoh542]

This is an awesome video. I never felt like I could learn Mandarin, but watching this very encouraging. Thanks for this.

[@ayemunaymessiah598]

Great video as always. Nice for the everyone learning to see the little mistakes here and there to help us speak more authentically. His Mandarin is ridiculously impressive and he can sing even better. I remember seeing Simu Liu in Kim’s convenience and he was definite of my favourite characters. I can’t wait to see the movie, haven’t gone to see it yet but I’m so excited.

[@KongSiXin]

LOVE THESE VIDEOS, Jessie! Speaking as a 菜鸟 with a little over two years learning Mandarin, and having traversed through many KZbin accounts, your channel stands out as very educational, fun, and fresh! You’re one of my favorites on here. And you don’t come across as disrespectful. To be honest it’s frustrating to see a video every other day with a BS title like “White Guy from Boston BLOWS the minds of everyone in Shanghai with his Absolutely Flawless Chinese.” By the way, your English sounds wonderful.

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you, that's really sweet ❤

[@sunmile3901]

Your opening with sincere acknowledgment about "Not being perfect" makes me so released to myself and then YES, SUBSCRIBE!

[@SalvableRuin]

"released to myself" doesn't make sense. Do you mean "relieved about myself"?

[@sunmile3901]

@@SalvableRuin you got me!

[@rifyrafi]

I've wondered how Simu Liu sounded like to a native speaker. This is very educational. Thank you.

[@ekaterinabobrova6053]

I watched the movie and really liked it. Hadn’t expected the characters to use Chinese, but it was like around 30% of the movie. Enjoyed 💜

[@birdiewolf3497]

I was pleasantly surprised. I get annoyed when characters speak English when the setting does not call for it.

[@wolfprime]

@@birdiewolf3497 Dude, 47 Rōnin.

[@gustavorubio3638]

Aww I love the comment you made at the beggining about your English (combined with the background music), your English is really good and I appreciate your reaction to Simu and his speaking ability in Chinese, I feel like I learned a little bit about language and pronunciation. Thank you! Also, you seem like a really nice person!

[@wayk3585]

Simu's Chinese is actually really good. Considering how well his English is, I didn't expect his Chinese pronunciation to be this good.

[@meiliamy]

loved this in-depth video and how it was structured, Jessie! i kept bugging my mum with videos to get her opinion haha so thank you so much for all of your research and breaking it down for us all

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you Amelia! 我会加油哒！

[@notalot22]

I really enjoyed this breakdown! Entertaining and informative to me as a Chinese learner. One small critique for your English (since you asked) is I noticed when you said "these" it sounded more like "this". I think it's a common thing for foreign speakers, and it would probably never cause any confusion, so not a big one at all. Also, I really enjoy hearing people's accents when they speak English.

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you Zach, I'l definitely work on that!

[@derekeano]

Her intonation is so good though, and rhythm and intonation are actually arguably more important in spoken language than pronunciation. It’s why we can enjoy content like Uncle Rogers and understand him just fine.

[@AnandTumurtogoo17]

They overhauled Fu Manchu and Mandarin characters in this movie, and I would say the movie's high points were Tony Leung's (Wenwu) character in this film. I would say because of Tony Leung's portrayal of Wenwu (Mandarin) the character will probably see a resurgence in the comics based on Tony Leung's character.

[@tarmaque]

I agree. Also Wenwu is a representation of what Marvel learned about really good villains. He isn't evil in the heart. He's just broken, and making bad decisions. This is true of other villains like Baron Zemo, and Eric Killmonger. Even Thanos isn't evil, just wrong and insane. Other villains are evil. Like Hela, or Ego, or Red Skull.

[@MiguelEMG]

@@tarmaque I find it’s good to have a mix of both, I hope they keep it varied and spiced up

[@dfruitziga2543]

Thank you for the insight on Fa Mulan/Hua Mulan. I was also baffled that she was referred to as "Fa" in the latest Mulan movie, while I always knew from any other movie that Mulan's surname is "Hua". Back to Liu Simu, I guess just like in a normal Asian immigrant family, he seemed to get a good upbringing from the family. Simu looks like a well-educated, knowledgeable person that makes him super attractive and respectable. His parents probably signed him up for some Mandarin class, and he grows with Mandarin as the second language instead of first, therefore his accent is not so solid but his words choice still carry some elegance. Btw Jessie, how about reacting to Trevor James/Foodranger's Mandarin pronunciation. So Trevor is a great guy, a highly successful food vlogger who was originally from Canada but lived in PRC for quite a long time. Today he's based in Malaysia, though. On his videos trying Chinese street food, he interacted well with the vendors, and the vendors understood him enough, although his tone seems to be ... *ahem* ... all over the place. Lol. But I guess his cheerful personality makes him chilled if we appreciate his way of talking as something exhilarating. So, how about making a comment on him?

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you so much for your recommendation, I'll check it out! ❤️

[@aznmochibunny]

Simu revealed that his parents are both aerospace engineers so he'd definitely had been brought up at least in the middle class, with a high emphasis on his own education. I mean, he ended up having an accountant career, though it was shortlived and he hated it.

[@jacquue]

whether hua or fa its just a matter of mandarin or cantonese pronunciation theyre both the same word 花

[@suzylunarfairy9964]

@@aznmochibunny to my knowledge he grew up kinda poor, his parents lived off scholarships and didn’t have much money when raising him. i just remember this from his instagram live he said this, but i’m sure there’s a more detailed explanation out there about his life.

[@aznmochibunny]

@@suzylunarfairy9964 I'm aware that he grew up with his grandparents until age five but didn't know about that part. I also just saw his post concerning his grandparents, who have now since past and he wrote that his grandma ran away to become a nurse and was highly regarded in her profession, despite them living in a poor apartment. Either way, his family is commendable and he has a very bright future ahead of him.

[@Tubemansi]

Thank you for your perspective and your lessons, Jessie! As a citizen of the U.S., I tend to think that when our media says "China thinks this!" or "Chinese people are saying this!", what they mean to say is "The CCP is declaring this!", but that's not necessarily how the average person feels. For example, the "Mulan" cartoon we all love. I've heard countless times that "Chinese people HATED the 'Mulan' cartoon! They thought it was super disrespectful! That's why the new Disney live-action 'Mulan' is way more Chinese!" But looking into it more, it seems it's the government that didn't approve of the cartoon "Mulan", for various reasons at the time, but citizens actually liked it. Meanwhile the new live-action "Mulan" ended up being not Chinese enough for China, and not American enough for America. That's my perspective though. Love to hear what you think. I though that "Shang-Chi" was very Chinese American, just like the "Mulan" cartoon. That is to say, despite having a lot of Chinese culture represented (and in the case of "Shang-Chi", a lot of Chinese language), both movies are ultimately American - in tone, theme, sentiment - and speak specifically to the Asian American experience; while still attempting to be relatable to Asians everywhere. I can't speak to whether they succeeded in that or not, but, if you liked the "Mulan" cartoon, AND you've liked what you've seen in the Marvel universe, chances are you'd like "Shang-Chi".

[@stevechevy3382]

Just so you know Fu Manchu is not in the movie or part of the story at all. He's was removed from the story in the comics all long time ago. Changes come slow sometimes but they do come.

[@PenneySounds]

Yeah, in the old old comics, Fu Manchu was Shang Chi's father, but this movie had the really great idea to shift it so The Mandarin is his father. The Mandarin was also basically a Fu Manchu style character way back in the day, but the comics radically changed him over time. But these two characters have never been linked before in the comics as far as I know

[@SalvableRuin]

a long, not "all long"

[@stevechevy3382]

@@SalvableRuin I double tapped the l sorry.

[@ProuvaireJean]

Fu Manchu was a character created by Sax Rohmer in the early 1900s, and licensed by Marvel in the 1970s for their Master of Kung Fu (Shang-Chi) comic. After Marvel lost the rights to use the Fu Manchu character he was written out of the Shang-Chi continuity and replaced by a new, Marvel-created character, Zheng Zu, who is now Shang-Chi's father in the comics rather than Fu Manchu. In the MCU movie also they made Zheng Zu the real Mandarin. In the comics the Mandarin and Zheng Zu are separate characters.

[@pymb71]

Watching your videos really makes me want to learn Mandarin ! And they’re so fun to watch. Thanks, Jessie. 😊

[@kitkat-cz1su]

great study and breakdown video! thank you for being just as classy, cool, and positive as simu was being in his weibo q&a! ☺️👏🏼

[@CornbreadJenkins34]

I loved the movie, will see it a 4th time soon !!! Also your English is great... If we all sounded the same life would be boring!

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you! I still take notes when I see new words or slang in movies/TV series/videos, always excited to learn new things and put them into use.

[@b.c.9358]

Pretty stoked about this, his Chinese is similar to mine (I can't write but I can read some, my pronunciation and intonation are pretty good but my vocabulary is super limited) and seeing him be willing to learn makes me want to improve my Chinese as well.

[@karlicoronel5475]

I was watching this movie yesterday (for the 4th time lol) & was wondering when you were going to post about it, and was so excited when I saw it today! Yay!

[@VyvienneEaux]

Thank you so much for making these videos! They’re exactly the kind of methodical analysis of what is right and wrong with different, real examples of 中文

[@smbigle9161]

😂 I love your videos, especially how you convey the Chinese sentences with their appropriate emotions, and now my new favorite line is, "撒泡尿照照你自己吧。" My native language is also tonal so I thought maybe learning Chinese won't be too difficult, but I still struggle differentiating the tones, so thank you for your videos because they help me know what's more natural when speaking VS speaking like a textbook.

[@lunstee]

His pizza/hamburger/etc reply @15:42 reminds me of 蘿蔔白菜，各有所愛. This might be more recognizable/relatable to a chinese audience, but I'd only suggest it as an addition to, and not a replacement of, the answer he gave. I think his answer better reflects who he is - it's perfect as it is.

[@friend4736]

first time coming across a video from this channel and i really enjoyed watching the whole of this video! as chinese speaker not raised in china, this actually really helps me with my chinese too and i love how she explains the chinese idioms and pronunciations, yay! the constructive criticism is also helping me correct my grammar, definitely deserves the likes and subscribes :)

[@estagiario-vitorlima9404]

Loved your video! I learn a lot from your reviews, please keep up with the good work! :))

[@Leia9913]

My favorite moment is at 11:38 😂😂😂😂😂 your face when you're saying that... Love the video 💕 I actually took 2 mandarin class, the first for beginner, and the second is for after beginner.. But I still have problems with my pronunciation and the tone so your video helps me a lot and it's also entertaining too 😂😂

[@esthykechan]

I have seen the movie today. It felt like a beautiful homage to Chinese mythology mixed with Marvel’s storytelling and I think it was an amazing blend of the two. lots of amazing cinematography and very well choreographed fight scenes which were obviously inspired by those old style martial arts movies. But this is only my opinion since I am not Asian

[@alicenguyen9487]

Amazing video! Thank you! I love Shang chi and I am trying to learn Chinese right now, so this video is really helpful and fun to watch!

[@jadonstronge7278]

Thank you so much for your videos. I’m learning mandarin and I find the videos really helpful ! 💕

[@Exen88]

Having an accent is beautiful! Another plus to it is that it automatically qualifies you as a bilingual. Btw - Simu was perfect!

[@AnaSantos-ot8fo]

I watched it several times and in my opinion, although it mainly focuses on Asian-American people, I found it quite respectful about the Chinese culture, History, and Mythology. They often speak Chinese throughout the movie and I was so thrilled about it. They changed the villain's character and name (he's an amalgamation) mainly to escape that ugly characteristic from the comics character

[@katearcher8514]

Wow, so much wisdom in your breaking down the fans' attitudes. So simple and profound.

[@sneedmando186]

I love learning the nuance of language and the differences that can exist over distance, thanks for a cool video ♥️

[@Devillionaire]

The whole ending part between Shang-Chi & Wen Wu is so breathtaking. Very little is said and it’s almost entirely visual storytelling. From Tony Leung’s legendary emotive eyes to how each martial arts sequence by Shang-Chi shows his character arc in consolidating the legacies of both his parents, without a single word ever needing to be said out loud about it. Even the finishing move Shang-Chi kills the Dweller in Darkness with is a callback to his father’s fiercest attack. Gorgeous, epic, and mesmerizing. Everything I love about movies.

[@jjstarrprod]

I live in Belgium and we had the movie on 1st september instead of 3rd in America. I went to watch it 3 times already (each time showing it to different friends), and looking forward to go watch it a 4th time with my sister and nephew. Yes ! That's how much I love it ! It is that good ! And frankly, the Chinese government doesn't have anything to fear from this movie, it is as much a love letter to China as it is to Asian American. So they can screen it in China, it's not gonna instill a revolution or anything. I'm pretty sure you'll love it !

[@constanceanon4063]

I'm a language learning and language teaching bachelor student in the Netherlands. I'm from Beijing. I used Jessie's video to clarify different gestures in China and in the west last week. Her video really helps my peers understand our cultural differences better. I'll keep following Jessie's videos and I find it really handy when I try to explain Chinese culture to my friends. Thanks Jessie!

[@darklinaendgame]

You are hilarious, that cackle you did cracked me tf up. Also learning a little about the Fujian dialect which my dad speaks was really interesting. Loved this video!!

[@gruskek]

There was a lot of spoken Mandarin in the movie (with subtitles) which I thought was really cool :) I don't speak it, so I can't say anything about the quality. Maybe you could do some break downs of it when you have had the opportunity to watch the film? That would be interesting! As to the story they changed it a lot from the comics, so it's definitely an improvement. Being white and Polish I can't judge all the nuances to tell you that it's for sure not racist, but at least to me the characters felt well-written and complex. I hope they will feel the same way to you and you enjoy the film :)

[@XimenaZhaoArchive]

Your English is really good, but it has a Chinese accent, which is expected. The "Shang-Chi" movie is very United States. The strangest part is that they were speaking Mandarin in cities that speak Cantonese in real life. Like San Francisco where I am from and live now, I didn't know anyone growing up that spoke Mandarin. The Mandarin-speakers are relatively new here; arrived within the past 15 years and they're transient tech workers, mostly down the peninsula, in Silicon Valley suburbs. San Francisco natives, old timers, and established families all speak Cantonese. The movie is set in San Francisco, California, and Macau, but everyone speaks Mandarin, even in the underground, Macanese fight club. I thought that was odd, but I guess the movie was made for an international audience and by people who are not from San Francisco.

[@taoist32]

Yes, my family lives in the Bay Area too. All Cantonese. I never knew anyone speaking Mandarin. Then again, I am ABC. Grew up speaking English with a smidgen of Cantonese, enough to speak a bit with my grandmother.

[@organizedchaos4559]

Umm what are you just going to discredit all the other Chinese immigrants in San Francisco. There are definitely other Chinese immigrants beside the Cantonese. I meet some myself. True that the majority of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco are Cantonese but even from the start of the 1990s there have been more and more non Cantonese Chinese immigrants. Also they not all tech workers either.

[@Weeping-Angel]

I’m born and raised in SF too. My whole family is Taishanese but my mom was born and raised in Xinjiang so she only spoke mandarin growing up. It wasn’t until she moved to San Francisco at 18 when she learned Cantonese because everyone else spoke it. I didn’t even know that mandarin was the dominant language in China or that there was any other form of Chinese. Growing up, there was only one girl who spoke Mandarin with her family in our school but even she learned to speak Cantonese as well because everyone spoke it around her. Cantonese or Taishanese is only heard in the streets of Chinatown.

[@IcyFlakas]

There's nothing wrong with having a Chinese accent when speaking English. I don't see why you had to point that out. Jessie communicates excellently and expressively, which are factors far more important than accents.

[@Yurio]

@@taoist32 I never knew anyone speaking Cantonese, tbh. I grew up in the Bay Area (my family is from Taiwan) and there were 7 Chinese kids in my year and all of them spoke mandarin.

[@littlenori]

I love how humble you are Jessie, you're right, we need to all have an open mind, then we can grow :)

[@danymann95]

I’m learning a lot with your videos, thank you a lot from a Chinese learner, you are really helping me (I’m a Spanish native speaker)

[@andypierce6593]

There is quite a bit of Mandarin in the movie, and with a cast of a lot of native or very good speakers it does quite well for an American movie. (I never can tell which movies will be popular in China, personally I think a lot of young Chinese Americans might like it, but my wife also liked it which is usually a good sign) As a learner I really enjoyed the amount of Chinese. There’s also a part where Awkwafina says her Mandarin sucks which I got a kick out of as I’ve said that myself a number of times. I really enjoy the videos and find them very helpful Thanks!

[@argan_tara828]

I have watched Shang-Chi and was surprised by the amount of Mandarin spoken throughout the movie, it nearly took 40% of the dialogue. The first 10 minutes alone were fully in Mandarin. If you have watched it, I'd really like to hear your thoughts since the English translator took liberty on translations, so what's spoken is not 100% equal to what's translated.

[@OrangesxLemons]

The translations were pretty accurate. The only thing I can nitpick on is how some sentences just sound more... poetic, or have more UMPH in Mandarin. One example I can think of is when Tony Leong was talking to the elder villager. I think in English they translated it as , "Quiet young man, I am thousands of years older than you". But in Mandarin is was really more like, "Boy, the amount of salt I ate far exceeds the amount of rice you've consumed in your entire lifetime"

[@lanvu5740]

For myself, when watching anything in Mandarin or Cantonese, I prefer Chinese subtitles because 9 out of 10 times the English translations are not fully translated properly or the context is wrong.

[@hbl142]

You are so well spoken. I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up!

[@LakiniR9]

Great video!!! The content was really interesting, and liked hearing you opinions about Simu : ).

[@michaelbetzer1966]

Jessie Syau Jie: We just saw the movie today. I was a little concerned that my wife, who is Korean, would be offended watching a Chinese movie. But she liked it! We especially liked Awkwafina, whose mother was also Korean. Our real reason to see the movie was that Liu Simu was heavily criticised by the Chinese Communist Party for remarks about things his parents told him about life under Mao Tse Dong. So we were curious about Liu Simu. He seems like a very nice young man. I studied Mandarin Chinese at the Defense Language Institute in 1972, and took a refresher at a civilian college in 1989. Unfortunately I am still not fluent , but I was pleased that about half the dialogue is in Mandarin. I was very impressed that Tsai Chin was in the movie. She had just a very small part, but I have liked her after I saw her in "You Only Live Twice" with Sean Connery. I was also pleased to see Michelle Yeoh, a beauty from Malaysia. Sye sye Nin hen dwo!

[@DerpyFaery]

We would say Fei Chang Gan Xie Ni 非常感谢你

[@trishhill9476]

Isn't Michelle Yeoh a Hong Kong actress.

[@user-ul8ot3vd7m]

Also Jessie. The guy is an actor. I've met performers in Shanghai who "spoke" perfect english after learning their lines phonetically. They understood absolutely not one iota of what they were saying.

[@cspo]

your English is great, and it's also great to hear your explanations of how to speak Mandarin. thank you!

[@Gwendysfinaltask]

I just found you via being a Twoset fan and you’re an amazing person. I’m learning so much !!!!! . I can already tell a little better about fluency. I grew up in a very diverse area ,I noticed the parents tend to speak faster and the kids hesitate a little when speaking!😊

[@QuizmasterLaw]

"although... if we have to nitpick..." LITERALLY RUBBING HER HANDS GREEDILY 02:48

[@lattefree5185]

Im a chinese but chinese is not my first language now im learning chinese in college its lil hard for me to speak with tone and pronounce..thanks to you i can learn more here about the pronunciation, tones etc

[@missjoblue7992]

Thanks for the video. It's really helpful to learn from other people's mistakes. I just started learning Mandarin.

[@disciplinefreedom3083]

Great video, great channel. I am a Chinese learner for YEARS, and would love my Chinese to be like your English.

[@transplantman2287]

I love you teaching people to throw shade in Mandarin! I appreciate your insight into Chinese speaking in general, and getting info into culture and language aspects I wouldn't other wise. I live in Japan, and I hope that someday my Japanese is as natural and emotive as your English!

[@chinacaribena4235]

Wow, you do know about Mandarin, explaining the "f" and "h" of the dialects, it was very interesting

[@epone3488]

I really like your outlook on life and on media. I'm and Aussie and your English is probably better than my own. I love your work.

[@michaelfairbairn4283]

Your English is excellent! Very clear and easily understood. I only picked up 2 or 3 tiny things: At one point you said "correct them" when it should be "correct it" (I think; unless you were referring to plural mistakes, rather than your English or your accent); once you said something about speaking "with accent" when it should be "with an accent"; and once you pronounced the word "pronunciation" as "pro-nunce-yayshun" when it should be "pro-nunce-ee-ay-shun". If I spoke another language as well as you speak English I'd be thrilled! It was also interesting hearing about the subtleties of Chinese, especially the tonal issues.

[@wolfprime]

By now I hope you’ve seen the movie and enjoyed it. No overspill of ‘Yellow Peril’ from the stereotypes in the source material and executed with great respect to the culture the story is derived from. Also they seemed to keep a keen eye on Wuxia films like the ones I enjoyed in my youth. They did speak Chinese in the movie, but as someone who can’t speak Chinese at all I can’t comment on how well it was spoken. I can say I do like it when casts in movies in the right scenario speak their native languages. I believe it adds credibility and believability to the scenes. It’s only right that a Chinese character in China interacting with other Chinese be shown speaking what is presumably their native tongue.

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

Mentioning Northern China reminds me of how a Northern Jutlander from Denmark would be incomprehesible to anyone who only spoke Standard Danish, AKA Realm Danish. Same with a Southerner. I come from Middle-West Jutland, and my parents' dialect of Farmer's Jutlandish has influenced me so much that people I talked to who came from Ringsted near Copenhagen in Eastern Denmark couldn't understand me.

[@fjg1474]

Jessie be fangirling :) Seriously though, love hearing you speak Mandarin.

[@xavan]

I love your videos and I've only watched two. So far. Love the comparisons too. Was just telling my friends how Hollywood finally found actors and actresses who really speaks chinese after watching ShangChi and I don't have to strain to hear what they say!!

[@indiraconnolly2889]

If I ever learn Chinese I am going to record myself speaking and then send it to you so you can rip it apart. I would love your awesome feedback. I watched this whole video and I don’t even speak Chinese.

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Haha thanks, hope it didn't bore you 😉

[@indiraconnolly2889]

@@ChinesewithJessie Not at all!! It was super, thanks very much for putting the video together!

[@mkunkel7]

I just stumbled on this video and you seem really nice and fun! Great job breaking down Simu's Chinese too. 👍 It's sad that China will very likely ban the movie due to Simu's comments in an interview from years ago. I saw the movie and it's amazing! I'm a white American so I can't speak to how offensive it is, but it definitely seemed to try very hard to treat all Chinese themes, characters, and locations respectfully and lovingly. Side note - As a native English speaker your English is quite good. Probably a solid 6 or 7 out of 10. If I had to critique anything, I'd suggest working on words like "clarify" and "educational" more. They should be pronounced like "claire-a-fy" and "ed-you-case-shaunal".

[@ChinesewithJessie]

Thank you so much for the critiques! I really appreciate that, I'll definitely work on them.

[@7oelK]

@@ChinesewithJessie thanks KZbin algorithm. I think i found my new favourite channel. You are funny, entertaining, informative, humble and not to mention gorgeous ;) Gonna watch more videos to brush up my Chinese!

[@khust2993]

5:54 lol this was the theme song of Meteor Garden, a Taiwanese drama that was massively popular here in the Philippines back in early 2000s

[@yeahitsevelyn]

i really enjoy your videos, honestly i do thank you for them :)

[@Add50326]

I thought the movie was absolutely amazing and simu did a great job. I thought that all the actors that spoke mandarin did a great job. My wife who is Chinese really liked this movie since she could easily understand mandarin. The movie was very funny and really tied in well with the MCU. I am really surprised how much they spoke mandarin also. For being a movie that is produced by an American company they sure did a great job creating a movie where mandarin was spoken quite often.

[@fortejeff]

So glad you made this video!!! As an ABC, even though I've lost most of my ability to speak Mandarin, I still remember my mom telling funny stories about how as a kid I would speak Chinese using English syntax -- something that struck me possibly as the reason why Simu doesn't sound as authentic as he might, as you point out. Speaking of your analysis: 1) ignore any/all haters -- it's the Internet and haters are inevitable, you're doing great, keep the videos coming; and 2) the clarification at the beginning of your video is perfect! In that spirit, something that might be worth considering: word choice in your analysis. Words like "mistake" and "nitpick" tend to have negative connotations and help trigger folks who want to criticize you. A simple alternative/potential improvement would be more positive phrasing like "an example of how this person could speak more authentically/improve their Chinese would be..." Just a thought. Very excited for both this movie and for Simu Liu's future potential both as a MCU superhero and as an example of positive Asian representation. And excited for more content from this channel, keep it up!

[@monkeyslapapparatus]

You are amazing! I love what you are doing. I subscribed to your channel and I will be going through all your videos. I learned so much and I love how you teach Chinese. Thank you for all your hard work. :)

[@ladymichaelis7060]

Do it more! It's so helpful! Im happy you don't get discouraged!

[@memebinsdimples4104]

As a person who didn't know Tony leung was an A-lister in asia when I went to see the film, I thought he was rlly handsome anyways 😅 and Simu has alot of charisma

[@SantomPh]

Tony Leung is such a big star in HK and China he's considered retiring two or three times since he's been doing it for so long. And he is actually very shy and humble so he rarely does interviews or goes on big promo tours. His promo for Shang-Chi in China/HK was with old friend Dodo, herself a longtime favorite.

[@kxooa7809]

As a mandarin speaker, when I first saw the movie poster, I read it Shàng Chí as (尚迟 idk lol) but then I found out it was 尚气.. I was kinda annoyed that they didn't use the pinyin spelling but I guess English speakers would naturally pronounce it as qi?? What do you think?

[@an-nientao8835]

“Qi” as 氣 is the Hanyupinyin spelling. “Chi” would actually be from an older Chinese transliteration system.

[@kxooa7809]

@@an-nientao8835 hi, yes I'm aware the pinyin is qi. My question was why they used Chi instead of Qi.. was it because it was easier for non-native speakers to pronounce?

[@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

@@kxooa7809 I think it was according to the source material. Remember that the creator of the original comics probably didn’t speak Chinese and Shang Chi’s first appearance was in the early 1970s before Pinyin was widely used overseas.

[@kxooa7809]

@@KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG Truee ok yeah fair when sticking to source materials

[@llccvvy]

@@kxooa7809 别问了……男主采访承认的：这是拍给华人看的。现在中国人这么敏感不是空穴来风，太多两面派，赚了你的钱反过头骂你蠢

[@p0ckypenguin]

Loved the breakdown between the F and H sounds. My parents are from Taiwan and it took me years to realize that they pronounce some F sounds with an H sound

[@ritaochinko]

you're really sympathetic Jessie! super entertaining and you have a great opinion on things

[@naqueeldiva7693]

Basically, he doesn't have enough real world experience with other native speakers. Makes sense though, there really isn't a way to get exposed like that short of traveling to China and living there.

[@PenneySounds]

Or just moving from Toronto to Vancouver

[@naqueeldiva7693]

@@PenneySounds Not really, they inevitably won't be native chinese, their dialects would be tempered by English, giving rise to the things she points out in her video

[@danielch6662]

Is Beijing accent the same as northern accent? The few people I met who came from there have this very obvious accent. Simu sounds like Singapore Mandarin to me. Is that "standard Mandarin"? I've no idea. Never been to China or Singapore, Toronto or Vancouver. The mandarin I hear on HK movies are pretty close to Singapore's. Taiwan's are different again. And PRC movies are the most far apart.

[@PewPewPlasmagun]

It is easy for a Russian speaker to differentiate the sh sounds, at least when he is familiar with the Belarussian-Ukrainian dialects, since they have the retroflex sh.

[@cottage4145]

I love your videos! Thanks for the good content :)

[@blubbernblatzen5807]

Thank you for explaining it so thoroughly!!!

[@punkgurl1211]

They did a form of an apology for the former racism, but my only issue with the movie was the English subtitles translation didn’t really reflect what was spoken in mandarin, could have been better. 😁😁😁

[@LilyUnicorn]

I find it annoying when when a fluent person whines its not fully accurate. This words means "xxx". Im like....oh gods. Its called colloqiual translation. I have seen so many chinese novels translated very directly. It sounds horrible, ugly and childish. Because of the way chinese grammar is and how chinese words are, especially the excessive use of puns, a lot of it quite frankly sounds....stupid. "This is a suspicious point. Because it was suspicious he looked at xxxx." "This.....point...... point....this....point that." "XX was zzzzz. Therefore he zzzzzzd" Therefore...therefore ...therefore. Oh DanzeZingThing DanzeZingThing.... Oh purple flower purple flower ..... The pure idiocy this sounds like in english is horrifying. In english you sound like a 3 year old who cant construct a complex sentence. In chinese the homonyms and nature of tones influences the way of writing. You reat something twice in chinese to emphasuze a name because unlike english you cant change the tone to emphasize a name/word. Like when nie huaisang in cql goes wo zhen de zhen de bu zhidao.... he says zhen de twice. While you can say it in english like that...it sounds emotionless and weird when its repeated the exact same way. Typically you would drop the extra really and use a loud drawn out tone or have one of the two reallys have a firm and loud tone completely different from the other to emphasize it. Even then "dont know" are more commonly emphasized in english over the really part of the statement. No one speaks like Chinese phrases and grammar the same way as in English and any good translator should also be a good conversationalist. You have to make it flow and not sound unnatural. Especially a film that people cant invest a whole seasons worth of explanations of all the puns or certain characteristic words. Granted there are words in japanese anime that when i see it translated in english in the bottom I frown and either accept that there isnt a better way to convey the meaning or wonder dubiously why they didnt go with the actual word when it made sense. Compared to the squid game catastrophe this is all practically top tier translating and still makes it understandable for pure english speakers. You cannot read a translation knowing every nuance unless like in some shows half the meaning gets dropped and people become utterly baffled. If some literally translated the korean "im crying mustard seed" like that in english..... you bet your ass that americans would drop everything in how stupid it sounds. I read it and think the phrases are hilarious. Especially the eat ramen and go in korean but its simply not going to fly in a single film translation nor would i expect it to. Just be glad that it is accurate

[@elliem.1572]

I really liked the movie Shang-Chi and Liu’s performance but I didn’t consider myself a fan. I do after this video - the way he responded to all those comments was not only classy, genuine and meaningful but also really empathetic and with care for the people on the other end

[@droy570732]

I don't feel like these videos are mean or overly critical. I find them very helpful, as most people will not correct or help you in person. I especially love the breakdowns of different accents in mandarin. Would love to see some content about the Cantonese accent in mandarin. Great content, keep it up!

[@SundraTanakoh]

Another great analysis! Thanks you really help alot!!!

[@CarsonGiology4155]

I wonder how Simu Liu can still speak Chinese even though he moved to Canada at a young age. I still can't speak my native language. Then again my birth family speaks different dialects of Chinese.

[@emikookime1849]

My best friend as a kid was Chinese, born and raised in Canada but her parents were Chinese immigrants who only ever spoke to her in Mandarin. She also went to Chinese school every Saturday, and her piano teacher was also Chinese and spoke to her in Mandarin. So her Mandarin was fluent. Her parents only ever used English (which they were quite fluent in) when outside the house or speaking to me. If a child is immersed in a language they’ll pick it up and learn it, even if outside the home a completely different language is used all the time (English).

[@LilyUnicorn]

Toronto, canada has a HUGE chinese community. If he lived around there i can understand him speaking chinese chinese fluently with tiny american quips that are more of the way he thinks

[@SantomPh]

he's had plenty of opportunities to speak it, Toronto has the largest Chinese community after Vancouver and of course he's watched Chinese films and TV series. Singing also helps keep the language strong. It's not like he moved to Kansas.

[@trishhill9476]

@@LilyUnicorn I would say, it is because he was raised by parents who speak fluent Mandarin.

[@trishhill9476]

@@SantomPh all he would need is to be raised by parents, that are native Mandarin speakers, that is all he would need.

[@awfully.average]

我保证大家 is really a direct english to chinese translation haha, most of us chinese in Singapore will do that too

[@jckbquck]

This is another great video on some of the nuances of Mandarin. Good job, Jesse! Now, about your invitation for feedback with regards to your English, today, I will point out this one thing. Spoken English has a rhythm that is based on syllables. Sort of like the "kana" in Japanese, when speaking English, you have to make sure each syllable gets equal amount of time. I've watched several of our videos. I've noticed that you have a tendency to skip syllables, especially when you are not 100% certain of the correct pronunciation of the word. (There are some exceptions; like "laboratory", "comfortable", "different".) Good luck!

[@Hyper_V]

thank you for such a objective reaction. I also think he's done quite well! and his Chinese is pretty good!