Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
The Stubborn Italian
About a week ago, I got an email from an Italian named Giacomo Polonijo asking for translation help. He wanted to get a tattoo of three words “Consciousness, Coherence, Balance” and hoping I could verify the translation for him.
Two days later, he sent me the design he is planning to use.
I was horrified by the poor penmanship as well as the missing partials in the characters; I informed him that whoever designed his tattoo probably only had primary school education in Chinese or Japanese.
To illustrate my point, I attached the correct characters (written in red) back to him for comparison.
In an immediate follow-up email, I strongly urge him not to get the characters tattooed.
Unfortunately, I have the feeling that he is too stubborn to take my advice seriously.
C’est la vie.
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
Two days later, he sent me the design he is planning to use.
I was horrified by the poor penmanship as well as the missing partials in the characters; I informed him that whoever designed his tattoo probably only had primary school education in Chinese or Japanese.
To illustrate my point, I attached the correct characters (written in red) back to him for comparison.
In an immediate follow-up email, I strongly urge him not to get the characters tattooed.
Unfortunately, I have the feeling that he is too stubborn to take my advice seriously.
C’est la vie.
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
Ease of Gas Retention
From Brazil, reader Joao (a long time Japanese student) sent in a photo of this young man proudly displaying his cool tattoo at a party.
Besides the fact the characters are poorly written, the true meaning of the tattoo may not be as what the owner intended.
氣 (air, gas, steam, vapor; spirit), 止 (stop, halt, desist; detain), 康 (peaceful, quiet; happy, healthy), could be interpreted as “ease of gas retention”.
Perhaps this is some kind of viral ad campaign by makers of gas-relief medications?
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
Besides the fact the characters are poorly written, the true meaning of the tattoo may not be as what the owner intended.
氣 (air, gas, steam, vapor; spirit), 止 (stop, halt, desist; detain), 康 (peaceful, quiet; happy, healthy), could be interpreted as “ease of gas retention”.
Perhaps this is some kind of viral ad campaign by makers of gas-relief medications?
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Downloadable Gibberish Asian Fonts
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New York Times and Tattoo Choices
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Saturday, March 11, 2006
Friday, March 10, 2006
Interviews and Comics
I have been a little busy lately.
One of my short films called “Brokeback Heat”, actually it was just a parody thing I put together in two hours with Sony Vegas, was mentioned in March 2nd issue of New York Times (24 KB pdf file). Before that, I got interviewed by Larry Carroll of MTV about the short film as well.
I have also done several Hanzi Smatter related interviews with Joe Ventura of Hiragana Times, Christine Ziemba of Los Angeles Times, Janet Tzou of Inked Magazine and I am scheduled to do an interview next week with Cindy Chang of New York Times.
Over the week, I got three comic strips sent to me that are both entertaining and somewhat related to Hanzi Smatter.
Travis in Hiroshima sent me to the extremely funny David Malki's called “Wondermark”.
In an email, David told me that he was “considering offering a T-shirt joking about how ‘strength’ or ‘peace’ kanji on merchandise probably mean something like ‘dumb whitey’ or ‘balls’.” Perhaps David should submit his idea to Jlist.com. By the way, the character on the guy’s chest is 京, it’s frequently used in both Chinese and Japanese city names.
Aron emailed me Guy & Rodd’s “Brevity”, where Confucius is upset about noisy neighbors.
Aron has this to say: “[Brevity] it's not usually very funny, but the characters in the first panel caught my eye. It seems like they read 大单 (with extra stroke) 阜 (radical version, backwards) 单 (extra stroke) 羊 (sheep). Something about a sheep?”
Indeed, it does look like something dealing with goats or sheep, just like my local fire chief.
The last one was sent to me by the Patrick Brousseau,
Wherein the womanizing protagonist meets a Chinese girl and then her parents. Her parents are mystical because they appear to speak entirely in Chinese Zodiac calendar terms.
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
One of my short films called “Brokeback Heat”, actually it was just a parody thing I put together in two hours with Sony Vegas, was mentioned in March 2nd issue of New York Times (24 KB pdf file). Before that, I got interviewed by Larry Carroll of MTV about the short film as well.
I have also done several Hanzi Smatter related interviews with Joe Ventura of Hiragana Times, Christine Ziemba of Los Angeles Times, Janet Tzou of Inked Magazine and I am scheduled to do an interview next week with Cindy Chang of New York Times.
Over the week, I got three comic strips sent to me that are both entertaining and somewhat related to Hanzi Smatter.
Travis in Hiroshima sent me to the extremely funny David Malki's called “Wondermark”.
In an email, David told me that he was “considering offering a T-shirt joking about how ‘strength’ or ‘peace’ kanji on merchandise probably mean something like ‘dumb whitey’ or ‘balls’.” Perhaps David should submit his idea to Jlist.com. By the way, the character on the guy’s chest is 京, it’s frequently used in both Chinese and Japanese city names.
Aron emailed me Guy & Rodd’s “Brevity”, where Confucius is upset about noisy neighbors.
Aron has this to say: “[Brevity] it's not usually very funny, but the characters in the first panel caught my eye. It seems like they read 大单 (with extra stroke) 阜 (radical version, backwards) 单 (extra stroke) 羊 (sheep). Something about a sheep?”
Indeed, it does look like something dealing with goats or sheep, just like my local fire chief.
The last one was sent to me by the Patrick Brousseau,
Wherein the womanizing protagonist meets a Chinese girl and then her parents. Her parents are mystical because they appear to speak entirely in Chinese Zodiac calendar terms.
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
Friday, March 3, 2006
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
NBA Body Art - Tale of My Chinese Tattoo
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/players/02/28/tattoos0306/index.html
In the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated, NBA players were interviewed about their Chinese tattoos.
When asked about why tattooing in Chinese, Marcus Camby replied: "I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of [kung fu] movies."
Jeff McInnis explains: "I got the dictionary and looked mine up. Some people don't know what theirs mean. They just get them because they look good."
What about Shawn Marion?
Update: An article in Chinese about NBA players' tattoos.
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
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