Reanalysis, Jackie Chan edition
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Photograph of a high-backed chair that has gone viral on Chinese social media (as reported in this Taiwan newspaper):
China's netizens are all in a twitter over the account of a carpenter who was commissioned to make a cinnabar red high-backed chair with the finials at the top to be "in the shape of dragons' heads" (chéng lóngtóu 成龍頭). Unfortunately, he misinterpreted the directions to mean "[in the shape of] Jackie Chan's head" ("Chénglóng tóu 成龍頭").
For another translation blunder involving the Chinese name of Jackie Chan, see:
- "Jackie Chan Campus Station" (4/10/15)
For additional Jackie Chan lore on Language Log, see:
- "Duang " (3/1/15)
- "More on 'duang'" (3/19/15)
[h.t. Hiroshi Kumamoto; thanks to Daan Pan]
Outeast said,
September 6, 2018 @ 2:22 pm
Can anyone share an audio file of the two please?
Annie said,
September 6, 2018 @ 2:29 pm
Re: duang, this isn't quite it, but . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A
Sili said,
September 6, 2018 @ 2:50 pm
I suspect the artist may make a better profit on this design than the one requested.
Their pet eft will be carrying enough lingots in its napron to earn an ekename.
Victor Mair said,
September 6, 2018 @ 4:22 pm
Jackie Chan "duang" video.
Extensively discussed in the cited posts.
David Marjanović said,
September 6, 2018 @ 4:47 pm
Of 成龍頭 and 成龍頭? They're identical, except for the placement of pauses (and perhaps traces of intonation) in very slow & careful speech.
amy said,
September 10, 2018 @ 6:00 am
I believe the full phrase was something like "please make both sides of the top of the chair back change to become dragon heads", where "become dragon" is the literal name of Jackie Chan.