Wednesday, September 29, 2004

The Beginning



I have been a fan of the website, Engrish, for years. To my surprise, there is virtually no website existent for pointing out the faults in Westerners’ interest of Eastern culture, especially the usage of Hanzi (漢字), Chinese characters.

As a Chinese-American（美籍华人）, I felt it was necessary to educate the public about the misusage of Chinese characters, Hanzi（漢字）.

The idea came to me after I went to Gallup, New Mexico with my friend Matt in June 2004. During our road trip, we came across a Mitsubishi（三菱）Mirage with Hanzi stickers on it.

It was nothing new, since most owners of Japanese modified cars like to put on some decorative stickers on their vehicles. What was interesting is that the owner of this particular "Mirage（海市蜃楼）" has put on stickers of “Prelude（披露）” on his Mitsubishi（三菱）, yet Prelude was made by Honda (本田） Motors.

(thanks to Vaara to point out the correct spelling of "Gallup", instead of "Gallop" which I originally had.)

Please feel free to email me with your Hanzi findings.
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6 comments:

  1. GeorgeSeptember 30, 2004 at 9:23 AM

    Cool, First post!

    I've read your funny comments on the misuse of chinese characters on your main blog, and hope to find many more amusing sightings here.

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  2. tianSeptember 30, 2004 at 11:52 AM

    Thanks George.

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  3. vaaraOctober 1, 2004 at 2:24 PM

    Well, as long as we're observing strict linguistic accuracy: the correct spelling of that town in N.M. is "Gallup," not "Gallop."

    Otherwise, well done! I know about as many "hanzi" as there are fingers on my two hands, but thanks to my work in the translation and localization biz, I can usually tell when they're displayed backwards or upside down. The photos are hilarious -- especially the tattoo ones!

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  4. LogtarDecember 30, 2004 at 1:27 PM

    This is not just amusing but a public service :) I have a dragon tattoo, I actually did research dragons quite a bit before I did get my tattoo.

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  5. Sheila MarieOctober 6, 2005 at 3:51 AM

    Do you help people trying to figure out what symbols mean? I have 3 that my dad used to write and I want it tattooed but I want to know what they mean before I do. I don't know that you would be able to help as he learned them in Japan instead of China, but I have asked some proficient with Japanese and they've been unable to assist.

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  6. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2007 at 3:17 PM

    Your site is hilarious! Being able to read Chinese, I am laughing out loud at work seeing these tattoos. It's simply amazing - all they had to do is ASK before burning it on their skin...

    This is a great site, keep it up.

    I.C.

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