This is funny

kencarroll
 December 06, 2008, 04:42 AM posted in General Discussion

Here's a hilarious blog post from Hanzismatter on how westerners can misinterpret Chinese characters.

 

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wendyhua
 December 06, 2008, 05:54 AM

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changye
 December 06, 2008, 07:33 AM

The title in the replacement cover (written in 小篆, seal scripts) is "奇器图说", which is the title of the book "A Pictorial Description of Machines in Farwest (远西奇器图说)" written by a German missionary Johann Terrenz and translated by 王徵 in 1627. I think it's very suitable for this magazine.

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bababardwan
 December 06, 2008, 12:35 PM

Thanks Ken.Very funny.I'm sure there are countless other hilarious "lost in translation" examples out there,but to be on the front of a publication somehow makes it even funnier.I'd love to see more examples of this sort of thing.I also can't wait till my Chinese is at a level where I can spot the errors and humour immediately myself.

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changye
 December 06, 2008, 01:50 PM

Aside from its content, the Chinese characters on the first cover are definitely NOT beautiful. The handwriting is really bad. I must say that the editorial staff of the magazine don't have an eye for the beautiful. Even my chubby dog can find they are bad writing even though she can't read Chinese.

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henning
 December 09, 2008, 05:44 PM

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light487
 December 09, 2008, 07:51 PM

@changye

I have images of your chubby dog sticking her nose up to the cover like she would if you tried to offer her anything less than 5-star restaurant food.. :)