Even though 变態 does mean "metamorpheous" or "transform", but in Chinese and Japanese, it is also used to describe someone has abnormal fetishes or a pervert.
变 （Traditional version 變) = to change; to become different; to transform; to vary; rebellion
態 = manner, bearing, attitude
This guy in the black leather jacket is wearing a t-shirt that says "testicle".
睾 = testicle
丸 = small round object; pellet, pill
That's a J-List (www.jlist.com) t-shirt. As far as I know you can only order them, and they come with explanations. The guy's just being funny. Don't know about the "testicle" one though.
ReplyDeleteThe full text of the first t-shirt is 「吾輩は変態である」 ("I am perverted"), a takeoff of famous author Natsume Souseki's book 『吾輩は猫である』("I am a cat"). It's actually pretty clever.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, clever in an otaku way, I guess. :)
ReplyDeleteAppropriately, the picture on the shirt is of Natsume Souseki. Tian, you may know him as 夏目漱石. His picture (the one from the shirt) is here:
http://www.city.kamakura.kanagawa.jp/stroll/culture/souseki.htm
Regardless the "creativity" of the t-shirt, to people whom are not familiar with author Natsume Souseki (夏目漱石) would never understood the joke. I just translated what the t-shirt said.
ReplyDeleteThe shirt is available online.
ReplyDelete- Chad
People who would see the face on that shirt and recognize it instantly would be pretty likely to know (a) how to read the sentence and (b) what it referred to.
ReplyDeleteHmm . . . Now that Soseki is off the thousand-yen note in favor of Noguchi, maybe it's time for a new shirt involving bacteriological research.
I've seen that shirt for sale online. I think the fellow wearing it knew that it says he's a pervert. It was advertised that way.
ReplyDeleteSurely, you just can't see the first part of the tee-shirt with that says pervert. The whole thing probably says 我輩は変態である (wagahai-wa hentai dearu = I am a pervert), a play on a popular novel 我輩は猫である (wagaha-wa neko dearu = I am a Cat) by the man pictured in the tee-shirt, Souseki Natsume (夏目漱石).
ReplyDeleteSee his picture at http://www.wisknow.com/version/author/jp_a.html
Also at http://www.bbtpress.com/homepagebook/904/index.asp
Benjamin Barrett
"Hentai" is not what it used to be. Maybe it was 'pervert' at one time, but these days it's gradually being watered down to something a bit stronger than 'kinky'.
ReplyDeleteBTW, 'hentai' is the origin of 'etchi' ('etchi' is the 'H' of 'hentai'), which first meant 'obscene' and is now used as a verb meaning 'to have sex'.
The guy on the right is Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age
ReplyDeleteHentai (変態) is a Japanese word used outside of Japan, mostly in western countries and several English-speaking countries, to refer to Japanese animation ("H anime"), comic-book-style magazines ("H manga"), and computer games ("bishōjo games", hentai games) with explicit sexual or pornographic artwork.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentai
LOL, This makes me think. Im chinese, and I bought a pin which said "100% 变态" and put it on my bag. Everybody knew what it meant (including me) and they all laughed it off.
ReplyDelete*blink* Ok... that explains something. I have a (bootleg, apparently) copy of the Chobits episodes. The first 26 episodes or so are well-translated (or at least it sounds right.) The last two are really, really bad. Now one of the hallmarks of the Chobits series is that every 8 episodes or so, they have a "flashback episode" which basically recaps the prior events, suing the excuse of someone explaining them to another person, or journaling. The last episode was one of those and they didn't have the sense to maintain the original subtitling. In one of the episodes, a pair of Japanese girls call the main character, Hideki, a "pervert" repeatedly. How odd to watch that final episode and to see the subtitle's translation of, "Metamorphist! Metamorphist!" I figured it had some association involving a "perversion" being associated with a change in shape, and therefore the "metamorph" part. Huh.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that the man in the leather jacket is most likely Troy van Leeuwan, one of the members of the band, he probably bought the shirt on purpose because he thought it would be funny. They're the kind of band that would enjoy the semi-private joke of wearing a shirt that says "testicle"--only those versed in hanzi and kanji would know, and it would simply look "cool" to mindless people who just like how Asian characters look.
ReplyDelete