In a daze

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Photo taken on a lane leading from Beijing's Nanluoguxiang:

The sign is difficult to interpret because, just judging from this photograph, there is not much context to figure out what's going on here.

When we see slightly more of the scene, it makes more sense:

kàn měinǚ / fādāi 看美女 / 发呆 ("watch the girls / space out")

And drink Carlsberg Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc beer at the River Bar.



5 Comments

  1. Larry Sheldon said,

    April 21, 2015 @ 1:42 am

    Off thread, but I can't find a place to post my question legitiamately.

    I see (most recelty in a blog I read):

    "Finally the BBC has woken up to the war on Middle Eastern Christians"

    "has woken up". Is that legal? ("Has awakened to…."?)

  2. Adam Funk said,

    April 21, 2015 @ 4:17 am

    One thing I notice about the Chinese text is that the slash doesn't have the full "monospace" width; I'm under the impression that Chinese is normally written or printed in monospace, even the punctuation marks. Is this a new trend?

  3. Neil Dolinger said,

    April 21, 2015 @ 11:30 am

    If not for the slash, I would have guessed they were asking us to watch out for girls in a daze (i.e. stumbling drunk).

  4. Neil Dolinger said,

    April 21, 2015 @ 11:35 am

    Though I guess that would call for using 小心 or 当心 instead of 看 at the beginning.

  5. Brendan said,

    April 21, 2015 @ 7:22 pm

    The "girl-watching" part of the sign isn't just referring to the bar-going classes or to the hordes of hipsters that now choke the alley. Nan Luogu Xiang is also the location of the Central Academy of Drama (中央戏剧学院), home to many aspiring actresses. For years the half-serious rumor in the neighborhood has been that the Dongcheng District government wanted to completely pedestrianize Nan Luogu Xiang, but could hardly do something that would make businessmen and corrupt officials have to pick up their mistresses on foot.

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