The first two characters 福 and 愛 are correct, but I don't know why the character for "key", 钥, is referred as "harmony".
Odd.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Key to Harmony
I went by a local Blockbuster store today to rent There Will Be Blood (good character development, a bit slow for my taste, could've be an hour shorter) , and saw this plaque in the garb section:
The first two characters 福 and 愛 are correct, but I don't know why the character for "key", 钥, is referred as "harmony".
Odd.
The first two characters 福 and 愛 are correct, but I don't know why the character for "key", 钥, is referred as "harmony".
Odd.
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Doesn't the top of the 愛 character look a little skewed to you as well? I've seen something kind of like this in Target before. It was just the word 愛, but the top part was just a jumble of strokes.
ReplyDeleteOh, I've been secretly laughing in this one for months now.
ReplyDeleteIt means weapon:
ReplyDeletehttp://140.111.1.40/cutshing/cutshingc/sc14867/c1486737.jpg
Perhaps they are confused between 鑰 and 龢... (but there is no simplified form for 鑰)
ReplyDelete@Robert... It looks to me almost as if the middle and left dot (of the three dots at the top, under the line) have been pushed together too much, almost making a "7" shape.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they thought harmony meant "in key" (in tune, for music), and then looked up the closest thing they could find?
ReplyDelete@peng - actually the character shown (in the product)is the simplified form of 鑰.
ReplyDeleteAs if anyone needed a good reason NOT to buy home furnishings at Blockbuster.
ReplyDeletePoor dying rental chain. Like Movie Gallery, they'll peddle anything with a giant profit margin.
Also odd that only one character is simplified.
ReplyDeletewell obviously the "key" to harmony are happiness and love. >.>
ReplyDeleteThis has probably been discussed at length, but I see products like this everywhere and almost none use correct Chinese. i wonder how many Chinese people have to look at this crap during the manufacturing process and what their opinion of the Western consumer's buying habits are.
ReplyDeleteThe "ai" does look a little weird. It looks like something I'd write if I were moving too quickly!
ReplyDeleteBut at least the last one, while wrong, at least isn't offensive.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the red thing on the side. Shouldn't it be in seal characters or something? What's the point in just repeating the same thing in Regular script?
ReplyDelete