Archive for Puns
October 4, 2017 @ 6:38 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Bilingualism, Diglossia and digraphia, Puns
Yep, just like that. This expression is very common on the Chinese internet, messaging, chatting, etc. now, but — for those of us who are not in the know — what does it mean?
I'll just give one hint: nǐ 你 means "you".
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September 13, 2017 @ 9:01 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Lost in translation, Proverbs, Puns
By itself, the phrase "xuéxí lù shàng 学习路上" means "on the path / way / road" of learning. However, when you see it in large characters at the top of a lavish website devoted to the life and works of President Xi Jinping, you cannot help but think that it also punningly conveys another meaning.
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August 3, 2017 @ 9:29 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and computers, Language and politics, Puns
Just saw this great post by the editors of supchina:
"Here are all the words Chinese state media has banned: A full translation of the style guide update from Xinhua, and why it matters." (8/1/17)
We can be grateful to the editors for their reliable translations, complete with Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin romanizations, with word spacing and tonal diacritics.
The list is divided into sections on "Politics and society" (including politically incorrect and vulgar terms), "Law", "Religion and society", "Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, territory, and sovereignty", and "International relations". Specialists in all of these areas will have a field day examining these sensitive terms and analyzing their political, social, and cultural implications. I encourage everyone who has an interest in contemporary China to avail themselves of this extraordinary opportunity to get inside the most fundamental level of the censorial apparatus of the Communist Chinese state.
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May 31, 2017 @ 5:35 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Language and the media, Puns
Many people have called my attention to this article by Didi Kirsten Tatlow in the New York Times:
"A High-Proof Tribute to Tiananmen’s Victims Finds a Way Back to China" (5/30/17)
The article begins:
It’s a big journey for a little bottle, even one so potent in alcohol and symbolism.
The liquor bottle — whose label commemorates the 1989 crackdown on democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing — made a monthslong trip around the world and arrived in Hong Kong days before the 28th anniversary of the killings on Sunday and one year after it was produced in Chengdu, in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan.
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April 9, 2017 @ 8:14 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Puns, Slogans
The case of activist Gweon Pyeong 권평 / Pyong Kwon / Quan Ping 權平 is now going to trial in China. Gweon stands accused of wearing a t-shirt with three Xi-themed slogans printed on it:
"T-shirt slogans" (11/7/16)
In this post, I would like to explore in greater depth one of the three slogans, namely "Xí bāozi 習包子" ("steamed, stuffed / filled bun Xi").
In the earlier post, I explained how Xi Jinping acquired that curious nickname. It's really not that offensive, and it is by no means vulgar. But just what does it imply to call Xi Jinping, China's supreme leader, a "steamed, stuffed bun"?
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April 5, 2017 @ 7:32 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Language and politics, Pronunciation, Puns
From Chinascope (4/3/17):
A Duowei News [Multidimensional News] article quoted an article from Jiefang Daily [Liberation Daily] on March 30 which sharply criticized a number of party officials for mispronouncing words during their public speeches and said that the phenomenon resulted in quite a lot of laughter and jokes in China. Some of the officials were reported to have even repeated the same mistakes at several locations. These officials were criticized for poor language skills and knowledge while the people around the officials were reportedly too scared to make any corrections or to say “No” to certain of their bosses’ inappropriate behavior. As Duowei reported, the Jiefang Daily article questioned whether mispronouncing the words was simply mispronouncing the words or if it sent another kind of alarming signal.
Source: Duowei News, April 1, 2017
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2017-04-01/59808599.html
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February 9, 2017 @ 1:24 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Names, Puns, Transcription, Translation, Writing systems
Boris Kootzenko was intrigued by this sign in China:
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January 5, 2017 @ 4:08 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Puns, Taboo vocabulary
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December 19, 2016 @ 11:32 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Humor, Language and literature, Language play, Puns
One of the most successful weekly essays I wrote in an early sixties college class on modern English poetry was about T. S. Eliot's "The Hippopotamus", the first two (out of nine) stanzas of which read thus:
THE BROAD-BACKED hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.
Flesh and blood is weak and frail, 5
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.
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November 5, 2016 @ 10:43 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Multilingualism, Puns, Translation
The United States of America and Great Britain / United Kingdom are not the only countries in the midst of political crises. South Korea has a nasty one of its own involving the undue influence of a shamaness over their President.
"Tens of Thousands Call on South Korea's President to Quit" (ABC News, 11/5/16)
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July 21, 2016 @ 2:53 pm· Filed by Geoffrey K. Pullum under Humor, Language and advertising, Puns, Words words words
I've heard it said that among the retail establishments most addicted to cutesy punning business names are hairdressing salons. I mean, you don't find law practices called Law 'n' Order to Go, do you? Or a hardware store called Get Hard? Or a butcher's called Meat and Greet? But with hairdressers… Well, I don't know all that many myself; just about 150 or so that I've personally seen the signs for…
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July 10, 2016 @ 1:54 pm· Filed by Geoffrey K. Pullum under Humor, Lost in translation, Puns, Words words words
According to The Economist (July 9, 2016, "Just visiting" [p.30 in UK edition]), a joke was "making the rounds" in Finland back in 2008 when Russia invaded part of Georgia (and Finns aren't laughing at it quite so much since the Ukraine conflict flared up):
Vladimir Putin lands at Helsinki airport and proceeds to passport control. "Name?" asks the border guard. "Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," answers the Russian president. "Occupation?" asks the border guard. "No, just visiting," answers Mr Putin.
But wait a minute, I thought: that relies on a pun. In English the word for a militarily backed presence and control of governmental functions imposed by one state on the territory of another happens to be identical with one of the words for a person's regular paying job or profession. Are the two also, by pure accident, identical in Finnish (a non-Indo-European language)? That somehow feels implausible to me.
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May 30, 2016 @ 8:42 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Puns
A tweet from Cherie Chan:
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