During the early part of my career, one of the most stunning academic papers I read was this: Roy Andrew Miller, "Pleiades Perceived: MUL.MUL to Subaru", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 108.1 (January-March, 1988), 1-25. "Pleiades Perceived" was the presidential address delivered March 24, 1987 at the American Oriental Society's 197th Annual Meeting in […]
There is a clear resemblance between the Sumerian and the Chinese glyphs for "beer", both of which depict a jug with a pointed bottom and an extended narrow neck (here, here). It's interesting that the oracle bone forms (second half of second millennium BC) for 酒 all have the three drops of water as a […]
In this age of typing on computers and other digital devices, when we daily input thousands upon thousands of words, we are often amazed at the number and types of mistakes we make. Many of them are simple and straightforward, as when our fingers stumblingly hit the wrong keys by sheer accident. People who type […]
From Miffy Zhang Linfei: I went to Chicago over the weekend, and look what I found in a small European vintage shop named P.O.S.H.
Figuring out the etymologies of words has always been one of my favorite things in life, almost as much as eating flavorful food. All the way back in second grade of primary school, my Mom gave me a Merriam-Webster dictionary, and I treasured it above all my other belongings because of its etymological notes. Much […]
One enigmatic artifact combines so many of my favorite things: Dunhuang, Yi jing, Buddhism, cosmic symbols (e.g., Kunlun)…. One of the earliest known stone pagodas made in China, dating 435 AD from Dunhuang, NW China. Buddhist texts & images are inscribed with 8 trigrams, Chinese cosmic symbols, including Kun-the sustaining power of the earth. Its […]
The ethnicity and language of the Xiongnu / Huns (the names are related, but that is not to say they are exactly the same peoples across the stretch of time during which they existed) have long been enigmas for scholars of Chinese and Inner / Central Asian history during the late first millennium BC and […]
The term “gweilo” is widely used in Hong Kong, with the word even adopted for a local beer brand: Photo: Dickson Lee (SCMP [2/11/22])
AntC led me down a deep, dark rabbit hole by asking: "Hi Professor Mair, is the Contributing Writer confused, or is it the interwebs?" He was prompted to ask that question by having read the following statement in this article, "Orion’s love affair, Shen Xiu’s long-distance friendship on Taiwan’s winter sky", Taiwan News, by P.K. […]
Last week, a master's student went to the board to write the Chinese character for "nose" (bí 鼻), but forgot how to do so. There is no simplified version. The form of this character differs slightly between China and Japan: in China it is 鼻 and in Japan it is 鼻. Can you spot the […]
New article in Japan Times (1/21/22) by Eric Margolis: "Translator trip-ups: What do they mean for learning Japanese?" It is so rich in insights that I will quote from it liberally (well, the whole kit and caboodle, broken up a bit): In the recent issue of the literary magazine Monkey, which publishes new and old […]
Stimulating, substantial article by Chang Che in SupChina (1/13/22): "China looks to the Western classics". Here are the first three paragraphs: A block east of Tiananmen Square, in a classroom last July, Chinese school children were singing the nursery rhyme “Old McDonald Had a Farm” in Latin: “Donatus est agricola, Eia, Eia, Oh!” The students, […]
Norimitsu Onishi, "Using Harsh Language, Macron Issues a Challenge to the Unvaccinated", NYT 1/5/2022: Faced with a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the Omicron variant, President Emmanuel Macron of France said Wednesday that he wanted to “piss off” millions of his citizens who refuse to get vaccinated by squeezing them out of the country’s […]