mess about

A:“最近忙什么呢？”(zuì jìn máng shén me ne?)
    What are you busy with recently?
B:“瞎忙！”(xiā máng ！) or 没忙什么！(méi máng shén me ！)
    Fly Blind! Or Doing nothing!

Actually it has many answers. Sometimes the asker does not care the others’ answer, he just let the other side know that “I am caring for you”, then the other one will give a fuzzy answer such as “xiā mánɡ” , “méi mánɡ shén me” and then each go his way. Sometimes both sides will stay and talk for a moment if they know each other and have some time.

A:“你是属什么的？”(nǐ shì shǔ shén me de ？)
B:“属龙的。”(shǔ lóng de.)

Now Chinese love to ask “what’s your symbolic animal”instead of “How old are you”. The former seems more polite. Then one will calculate the appropriate age according to the sequence of the twelve symbolic animals. For example, a woman around the thirties who is born in the year of Dragon is 30, then it can be calculated that another one with similar age who is born in the year of Mouse is 35. In most cases this question will not be declined.

A:"待遇怎么样？" (dài yù zěn me yàng ？)
    How about your income?
B:"还行吧！" (hái xíng ba ！)
     Just so so.

Don’t think that there is no privacy in China. In urban cities the question had become an blunt one. Usually we don’t ask the question, sometimes among close friends. The question “dài yù zěn me yàng” seems a little tactful than the one “How much is your do you earn each month”, but there are still many people who are not willing to talk more about it and just response hái xíng ba ！