Chinese Tattoos: Funky Translations

by Jamie Rhein on

Chinese lettering is so art-like, so lovely. I bought a scroll of a Chinese poem when we were living in Taiwan and it now hangs on our wall. The translation in English was written on a piece of paper and paper clipped to the scroll. I assume that the translation is accurate. As lovely as the writing looks, however, beware when heading to a tattoo parlor. Make sure that what gets inked in your skin says what you want it to say–or thereabouts. The problem is that Chinese doesn’t translate to English word for word all that well. For example, since we couldn’t read the local movie listings when we lived in Taiwan, the only way we could ever figure out what was playing was if we described what the movie was about to our Chinese friends and they could let us know what movie title came close to what we described.

As Chris Mitchell points out in “Tattoos Gone Bad: Engrish in Reverse,” Chinese characters, when used as a direct translation from English, can make missives worthy of a laugh. One of his favorites is “Inferior goods.” Since the tattoo is over someone’s backside, the joke is even more poignant. Mitchell cites the blog, Hanzi Smatter, dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters, as one of his favorites for Chinese language butchering. The photo is from the last entry on this blog. According to Tian, the blogger, one of the characters doesn’t exist, and one is upside down.

Photo of the Day (8/15/07)

by Jamie Rhein on

Watching a craftsperson create whatever it is he or she sells is one of my traveling pleasures. Perhaps, this comes from having an artist as a brother and a childhood of going to the art department at Eastern Kentucky University where my father taught and threw pots on a potter’s wheel.

I love the way LadyExpat captured a shot that tells a brief story about this umbrella maker in Taiwan. The heading mentions a factory. The tools, the method, the careful attention the maker gives to her craft are all here. I can see the fish swimming about on the top as the woman turns the umbrella checking to see if she is done before she takes out an unpainted one to begin another.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr site and post it.***

Eco-Friendly Shopping Bags: Not Necessarily Cheap

by Jamie Rhein on

When we lived in Taiwan and Singapore we would head to the market with our cloth bags. We bought most of our fruits and vegetables from individual sellers who we returned to week after week once we discovered who was best for each item we were after. Our bags were nothing special. They had handles. They opened and when we put things in them they wouldn’t break. These days there are more shopping bag options to consider.

Designers have gotten in on the eco-friendly grocery shopping option. A shopping bag might just be a shopping with a utilitarian use–or you could make a statement, and not necessarily just an “I’m environmentally friendly” one. There’s an article by Lisa McLaughlin in this week’s Time magazine that goes into several of the details about shopping bag politics (paper, plastic or canvas). The bag she mentioned as creating quite the ruckus is the Anya Hindmarch’s version that says, “I’m NOT a Plastic bag.” What struck me about the article’s subject was how high end a shopping bag can get.

There’s the Stella McCarthy $495 version and the Hermes $960 version. Or, if that’s not quite rich enough, how about Louis Vuitton’s for $1,720? If you’re looking for something cheaper and you happen to be in Taiwan or Singapore, look for some sort of closely woven plastic sort of bag. I seem to remember a plaid sort of design. If you can find them, they work great and are cheap. I’m pretty sure we bought ours at the market. A famous designer did not make them, but hey, they’ll get your vegetables and fruit home. Isn’t that the point?

Po Chai Pills and Other Items of Interest

by Jamie Rhein on

When I was reading National Geographic Traveler, I came across an essay by Daisann McLane, an American living in China who writes the blog, Learning Cantonese and is the “Real Travel” columnist for the magazine. Her essay was about getting sick and taking some mystery pills, meaning she didn’t know what they were exactly, but the doctor- told her-to-take-them pills. They were called Po Chai and they worked. Daisann’s experience reminded me of my own.

Getting medicine from in Asia facinated me when I lived there. In Singapore, the doctor I went to had an office in an apartment complex. This is typical in Singapore. Mega apartment complexes often have grocery stores, beauty parlors and a doctors office for anyone to use. You don’t need an appointment, you just show up. The doctor I went to was excellent. After she found out what was wrong with me,( nothing much really), she sometimes gave me a prescription.

Before I went on a trip, I’d also head to the doctor to get a supply of pills for stomach ailments. She’d count some out and put them into a tiny zip lock bag. By the end of the trip I never could remember which pills were for what problem. Once in awhile, I’d take my pill stash to her so she could again tell me what was what.

In Taiwan, the doctor, also a walk-in type, gave pills in a strand of packets, each packet a separate dose. If there was a 10-day dose, there would be 10 little pouches attached together. When you got to the last pouch you were on the last dose. If two or more pills were to be taken together, and there always seemed to be two or more, those were in the same pouch. There was never an indication of which pill went to which purpose. The advantage of this method is there weren’t a lot of bottles to keep track of. The disadvantage is those packets could take up a lot of room.

Daisann’s subject matter goes beyond medicine, each month she adds new essays with photographs, and provides some language lessons besides. Her recent essay, “Hong Kong is Always With You” is linked to another essay she wrote that was recently published in Slate.