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Eug Wanker · Oct 23, 2004, 11:06 AM

Somebody please translate. I can only decipher a bit of it.

wataru · 11:19 AM

I can only get the gist of it, and in a nutshell: China is on the move.

Edit: Much thanks to WordLookup.

Ambitious and exuberant,
efficient and strong,
jittery and unstable:
Prepare to greet
the century of China.

ambush · Oct 23, 2004, 11:19 AM

nm

Eug Wanker · Oct 23, 2004, 11:29 AM

Originally posted by wataru:
I can only get the gist of it, and in a nutshell: China is on the move.

Edit: Much thanks to WordLookup.

How many of these characters are used in Japanese, and what is WordLookup?

Sealobo · Oct 23, 2004, 11:33 AM

Ambitious and Exuberant
Powerful in Force & Depth
Jittery and Unrested
Prepare to meet
The era of China

Sealobo · Oct 23, 2004, 11:38 AM

I think the 3rd line is used to describe the feeling of the western world, the US in particular.

wataru · Oct 23, 2004, 12:03 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
How many of these characters are used in Japanese, and what is WordLookup?

All but one, although two of them are extremely rare, and several are written slightly differently (traditional, as opposed to simplified characters). But still the usage is different enough that I had to look up most of it to get a decent translation.

And Sealobo, you really think "unrested" is a good translation of 不安? No offense, but I think I'll stick with "unstable."

Eug Wanker · Oct 23, 2004, 12:07 PM

How about "restless"? "Not at peace"? Where is that damn dictionary of mine...

Sealobo · Oct 23, 2004, 12:31 PM

Originally posted by wataru:
And Sealobo, you really think "unrested" is a good translation of 不安? No offense, but I think I'll stick with "unstable."

"restless" is perfect. "unrested" is totally wrong... i was all mixed up.

methinks unstable is not as good as restless.

Eug Wanker · Oct 23, 2004, 01:54 PM

Here is one of a bazillion articles about China in today's paper:

Will China join the culture club, or wield it?

Methinks there are going to be more people in Canada taking Mandarin in the coming years.

cjrivera · Oct 23, 2004, 01:59 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:

Somebody please translate. I can only decipher a bit of it.

Free bowl of steamed rice with every order.
Fried rice add .50.

Eug Wanker · Oct 23, 2004, 02:11 PM

Hooters opening in Shanghai tomorrow

cjrivera · Oct 23, 2004, 02:22 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Hooters opening in Shanghai tomorrow

Now that would be worth a full page, headline.

wataru · Oct 23, 2004, 06:09 PM

Originally posted by cjrivera:
Free bowl of steamed rice with every order.
Fried rice add .50.

What, no dry cleaner joke?

Pretty lame.

motoyen · Oct 23, 2004, 07:42 PM

It means Canada is being sold to the Chinese.

Eug Wanker · Oct 23, 2004, 08:04 PM

Originally posted by motoyen:
It means Canada is being sold to the Chinese.

Funny you should mention that.

China to buy US$5 billion Canadian mining company

Atomic Rooster · Oct 23, 2004, 08:27 PM

China is going to own the world...

cjrivera · Oct 23, 2004, 11:33 PM

Originally posted by wataru:
What, no dry cleaner joke?

Pretty lame.

Guilty as charged. But really, that is the extent that most people in the US know the Chinese language, including myself. (and I'm 1/8 Chinese.)

Oisín · Oct 24, 2004, 04:11 AM

Originally posted by Sealobo:
I think the 3rd line is used to describe the feeling of the western world, the US in particular.

Hmm... I don't know... I see it as more of towards all the rest of the world...

How about this for a translation (more loosely translated, but better capturing [I think] the intended meaning):

"Our strength is solid,
our nerves set and poised
Prepare to meet
the Chinese Era"

烦躁不安 is sort of hard to translate here... The way I see it, it's sort of like a cat, ready to pounce, every muscle poised, with inner strength ready to be released... but in this context, at the same time there's a hint of restlessness, like, "we're poised, still keeping back, but soon, we'll strike". Okay, that sounded more like a terrorist threat, that wasn't quite the intention. Hmm...

Eug Wanker · Oct 24, 2004, 11:50 AM

So I've only just got around to reading the first section of the paper, since I've been reading everything else. There's a translation in there but they just translate it as:

"Ambitious, powerful, restless... Get ready for China's century."

BTW, I was heartened to see a full page article about construction workers in China. It reflected exactly what I saw when I was there. These guys are building the country, yet they get shat upon every day, so that they can paid less than some kid at Starbucks.

Eug Wanker · Oct 25, 2004, 04:50 PM

Articles here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/china

Nicko · Oct 25, 2004, 05:14 PM

Cool looks like my 25% Chinese genes will come in handy...

Eug Wanker · Oct 31, 2004, 08:24 AM

Originally posted by Nicko:
Cool looks like my 25% Chinese genes will come in handy...

Who needs Chinese genes?

This Toronto Caucasian family has a 3 year old kid fluent in Mandarin. It looks like the family is taking the "learn Chinese" advice a little too seriously...