[This is a guest post by Nicholas Morrow Williams] I recently came across this article on the first occurrence of hanzi 漢字 ("Chinese character; Han character; Sinogram; Japanese: kanji; Korean: hanja; Vietnamese: hán tự/chữ hán／漢字/漢"): Wang Yong 王勇. "'Kanji' tanjō no isseki: 'bonzi' kara 'kanji' e" 「漢字」誕生の一齣――「梵字」から「漢字」へ. Bukkyō shigaku kenkyū (The Journal of the […]
The other day, when we were discussing where Napa cabbage came from, Diana Shuheng Zhang mentioned to me that the Chinese word for "spinach", bōcài 菠菜, indicates that it came from Persia. She's usually right about such things, and she was in this case too: From earlier 波斯菜 (bōsīcài), from 波斯 (Bōsī, “Persia”) + 菜 […]
[This is a guest post by Chau Wu, with additions at the bottom by VHM and others] On the akinakes* (Scythian dagger / short sword) and Xiongnu (Hunnish) horse sacrifice Chinese historical records suggest that the akinakes, transliterated from Greek ἀκῑνάκης, may be endowed with spiritual significance in the eyes of ancient Chinese and Northern […]
On The Late Show (12/8/20), Stephen Colbert coaxes Meryl Streep to recite a very famous Tang poem (her English rendition begins at 4:28 and her Mandarin recitation starts at 4:45 — total 6:02):
This incredibly fine NHK documentary on "The Iron Road" will only be available online until November 8. Since I do not know whether and in what form it will be available after November 8, I'm including it here only as a link embedded in the title. If anyone discovers that, after November 8, it might […]
Review: "Poems Without an ‘I’", by Madeleine ThienNYRB October 8, 2020 Issue The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (Li Po)by Ha JinPantheon, 301 pp. The Selected Poems of Tu Fu: Expanded and Newly Translatedby David HintonNew Directions, 267 pp. Awakened Cosmos: The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetryby David HintonShambhala, 138 pp. I have […]
Tokyo crime beat: "Arrest for fraud follows man’s failure to fulfill writing request", by Tokyo Reporter Staff (7/24/20) TOKYO (TR) – With personal computers, smartphones and tablets now more common than ever, many may consider the actual writing of kanji characters to be of diminished importance. But for one man, now in custody for fraud, […]
The cattle head-and-hooves offering in this recently unearthed burial caught my attention: "4,200-year-old burial of Bronze Age chieftain discovered under UK skate park", by Laura Geggel – Associate Editor, Live Science, May 01, 2020 Since the article is not long and is full of extremely interesting and valuable information, I copy it below. First, however, […]
News you can use, from The Forward: "Etsy vendor who doesn’t know Yiddish accidentally sells 'NYC crotch' face mask" (Aiden Pink, May 26, 2020). A vendor on the e-commerce site Etsy wanted to sell facemasks that said “NYC Strong” in Yiddish – but the final product said “NYC Crotch” instead. The vendor Tees Go Bling, based in […]
There are dozens of articles Out There on "Zoom fatigue", with a wide range of ideas about causes and cures. Gianpiero Petriglieri offered the BBC a couple of hypotheses about why "Zoom calls drain your energy": Being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat, says Petriglieri. Video chats mean we need […]
From Brenton Recht: I live in a city with a large immigrant population in general and a large Bosnian population in particular (Utica, NY [VHM: population around 60,000; between Syracuse and Schenectady]). As such, I see "BiH" bumper stickers once in a while on the road. Most of the Bosnian population either came during the […]
Jules Quartly (appropriate surname!) has an informative article on this subject in Taiwan Business TOPICS, "The True Story of Q" (1/21/20) — a takeoff from the most famous Chinese short story of the 20th century, "The True Story of Ah Q" (Ā Q Zhèngzhuàn 阿Q正傳 / 阿Q正传; serialized 12/4/21-2/12/22, published 1923). Toward the end of […]
Announcements 1. "Please be visible to the engineer OR* train will not stop." *spoken with very heavy emphasis Is there a choice? 2. "Your attention please: trains en route to destination may be late. Passengers are advised* that times may increase or decrease** at any time." *the preceding three words are uttered with rising crescendo, […]