Check out the one staring Gubo and Palanka

Gubo, Palanka, Ding Yun..
I thought everyone who's been studdying chinese knows them.
Ah, it's been a long time since I last saw them.

I always wondered what country they are from, and what were their names in their native language!?

Anybody got authoritative information?

Didnt know about that Ding Yun episode...

Actually, I always thought that Gubo was African. With China all focused on the Third World back in the day, that made sense. Palanka--South American?

BUT

Turns out in the new book, they explain that the Love Child of Ding Yun and Gubo (named Ding Libo, which is interesting for two reasons, first the surname is the mother's, the second is the given name is the same as Zhou Libo) is a Chinese Canadian.

My guess is Gubo used to be a brother, but given the realities of China today they decided to make him a Dashan wannabe, give him a Chinese wife, and push Palanka out of the picture.

Being a former Chinese language student of Practical Chinese Reader, I am appalled by the story in the new book. Poor Palanka. I though she and Gubo were such a nice couple. There was no need to do pair him up with Ding Yun, Palanka's best friend. They could have stayed together, gotten married and lived in Beijing, and still been friends with Ding Yun and her husband. If they wanted to, they could have had Ding Yun marry another westerner. Thats the story line I would have come up with. Doesnt Palanka appear in the new practical chinese reader? I prefer the original Chinese Reader 1, 2 and 3, those were the best. Yes I know its not real, but when you've become accustomed to those 2 characters doing everything together, like studying and going to study abroad together, it's really heart breaking. I was thinking of buying it, but i dont think i will now.

Someone found it interesting. That is reason enough. In fact it is a paramount reason.

backatcha

That's just lame self-promotion, and a lame domain name too.