There's a joke going around in mainland China about the best way to transcribe the name of the country in Chinese characters.\u00a0 Each line is redolent of some social issue:
\n<\/p>\n
the bachelor reads it as q\u012bn\u01ce \u59bb\u54ea = where is my wife? (N.B.:\u00a0 the Chinese term for \"bachelor\" here is gu\u0101ngg\u00f9n \u5149\u68cd, which may also in some contexts be rendered as \"ruffian\" and more literally as \"bare stick \/ club\"; it refers to unmarried young men who have, already for centuries, been responsible for a disproportionate amount of violence in society, including especially in recent years the knifing of small children at schools; one of the reasons for the hostility demonstrated by gu\u0101ngg\u00f9n in Chinese society is the inordinate gender imbalance caused by female infanticide and now in utero sex determination which leads to higher rates of abortion for female fetuses — there simply aren't enough women to go around)<\/p>\n
the playboy reads it as qi\u00e8n\u01ce \u59be\u54ea = where is my mistress?
\nthe lover reads it as q\u012bnn\u01ce \u4eb2\u54ea = where is my darling?
\nthe poor person reads it as qi\u00e1nn\u01ce \u94b1\u54ea = where is my money?
\nthe doctor reads it as qi\u00e8n\u01ce \u5207\u54ea = where to cut?
\nthe official reads it as qu\u00e1nn\u01ce \u6743\u54ea = where is my power?
\nthe real estate developer reads it as qu\u0101nn\u01ce \u5708\u54ea = where can I encircle?
\nthe dispossessed reads it as qi\u0101nn\u01ce \u8fc1\u54ea = where should I move to?
\nthe government reads it as ch\u0101in\u01ce \u62c6\u54ea = where should we demolish?<\/p>\n
The government reading is said to be both the most apt in terms of meaning and most accurate in terms of sound.\u00a0 When foreign visitors come to China, everywhere they turn they see the character \u62c6 painted on buildings, including the homes of many people who are still living in them.\u00a0 Puzzled, they ask their translator what this ubiquitous sign means.\u00a0 Whereupon the translator replies, \"That's the name of our country.\u00a0 From ancient times, the name of our country has been CHINA ch\u0101i[n\u01ce] \u62c6[\u54ea] (\"demolish; tear down\") — demolition is absolutely essential.\"<\/p>\n
The joke may be funny, but the reality behind it is not.\u00a0 Briefly to address only the problem of ch\u0101i (\"demolish; tear down\"), forced demolition without compensation or with inadequate compensation has probably led to more violence in China during recent years than any other single cause.\u00a0 Riots, suicides, bombings — all sorts of unpleasant results can occur when people see their houses being torn down around them, often in the middle of the night and with goon squads accompanying the bulldozers and backhoes.<\/p>\n
A final note is that n\u01ce \u54ea (\"what; which\"), which forms the second syllable of all these transcriptions, is an interrogative particle that carries no overt semantic content.\u00a0 The little square (radical 30 [signifying \"mouth\"] in the traditional Kangxi system) at the left side of the character indicates that the sound it conveys is of more importance than any meaning it may be said to possess.\u00a0 I mention this small grammatical point because it will come up again in my next post.<\/p>\n
[A tip of the hat to Sanping Chen and thanks to Gianni Wan]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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