Chinese language in MASH is not correct - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Yong Fang · 01-31-2012, 11:04 PM

I live in China with a Chinese wife. We are in her hometown for Chinese New years. I brought some DVD's to watch, including my MASH CD's.

I dont know the name of the episode, but it was a 6th season one (I think) where a Congressman's assistant shows up at the 4077th and accuses Houlihan for being a Communist because she dated a guy named Wally in college. Ok, this is unimportant to my question.

The Congressman aide and Hawkeye were in the O.R. and Hawkeye was tending to a Chinese soldier. The Chinese soldier is talking in his native language, and it wasn't Mandarin Chinese. I know it wasn't, but I had my Mainlander wife listen and she had no idea what the guy was saying. I have watched other series where people are speaking Chinese and even if I dont know what they are saying, I know the language when I hear it. Creed Bratton from The Office in the episode where he speaks some Chinese is right and accurate. Dr Huang from Law and Order SVU, and House from House MD are examples of real Chinese speakers.

What was the soldier speaking? It could have been Cantonese, my wife doesn't know that language either, but it would not be historically accurate, not that MASH really was in the first place. But there has to have been a real Chinese actor who could have spoken the language correctly. I know a few (not many) words in Korean and people do speak the real Korean language (like Yabosayo for example), but the Chinese is way off. Why?

The second question concerns "going to Seoul" or "going to Tokyo." I would think in real history that Tokyo was still a bombed out place less than en years after the end of WWII. I have seen pictures of the aftermath of the bombings in 1945, and the place was absolutely flattened. I can see some infastructure coming back, but I would think that Japan would not have recovered until the 1960's. Same with Seoul. Why would anyone R and R there?

01-31-2012, 11:04 PM	#1
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,073	Chinese language in MASH is not correct I live in China with a Chinese wife. We are in her hometown for Chinese New years. I brought some DVD's to watch, including my MASH CD's. I dont know the name of the episode, but it was a 6th season one (I think) where a Congressman's assistant shows up at the 4077th and accuses Houlihan for being a Communist because she dated a guy named Wally in college. Ok, this is unimportant to my question. The Congressman aide and Hawkeye were in the O.R. and Hawkeye was tending to a Chinese soldier. The Chinese soldier is talking in his native language, and it wasn't Mandarin Chinese. I know it wasn't, but I had my Mainlander wife listen and she had no idea what the guy was saying. I have watched other series where people are speaking Chinese and even if I dont know what they are saying, I know the language when I hear it. Creed Bratton from The Office in the episode where he speaks some Chinese is right and accurate. Dr Huang from Law and Order SVU, and House from House MD are examples of real Chinese speakers. What was the soldier speaking? It could have been Cantonese, my wife doesn't know that language either, but it would not be historically accurate, not that MASH really was in the first place. But there has to have been a real Chinese actor who could have spoken the language correctly. I know a few (not many) words in Korean and people do speak the real Korean language (like Yabosayo for example), but the Chinese is way off. Why? The second question concerns "going to Seoul" or "going to Tokyo." I would think in real history that Tokyo was still a bombed out place less than en years after the end of WWII. I have seen pictures of the aftermath of the bombings in 1945, and the place was absolutely flattened. I can see some infastructure coming back, but I would think that Japan would not have recovered until the 1960's. Same with Seoul. Why would anyone R and R there?