(Arranged most recent entries on top)
(7) August 18, 2008 11:12:46 AM PDT Moses Wong wrote:
Hey Guys,
We have been too serious lately with topics concerning the World at large and with human tragedies. They were good brain-teasing exercises. I've just found an article which I guarantee can put a smile on your face and relax your daily stress. See attached.
Moses
SO YOU WANT TO BE A CANADIAN, EH !
In life, one must learn to accept the lows with the highs. At times of hardship if one could still persevere and learn to laugh at oneself and the world, the dim light at the end of the tunnel may eventually get brighter.
We are blessed with the opportunity of living in a Country whose constitutional laws protect and guarantee every citizen the utmost sacred rights of human dignity as well as freedom and equality. It is this freedom that allows us to express our opinion whether its constructive or critical without the fear of being harassed or persecuted.
With that we are able to take advantage of certain social situations and to make fun and laugh at our own Country as an entertainment. This is done of course without malice.
Life doesn’t have to be dull or serious in Canada.
The following are some of the best known Q’s and A’s as pertaining to Canada.
(Translated from a Chinese Newspaper Article)
Q: Why is Canada the best place to live ?
A: As long as you take care of your dental health, protect your eyes, you should have no worries. When requiring emergency medical service be very, very patient. For any other medical needs the services are 100% satisfactory. Blood tests, colonoscopy, major or minor operations, you just use them and say goodby with a wave of you hand (or pat your behind). Doctors and nurses are the loveliest people you can meet.
Q: What kind of people does Canada favor most ?
A: Criminals. Except when driving drunk and resisting arrest you get Tasered. Otherwise murderers can get bails for temporary freedom. Prisoners can apply for leaves to go to wedding parties. Prisoner cells can be decorated to ones liking. The cells have Plasma TV and DVD, telephone for off-line betting, internet for Forum chatting and emailing. If one is wrongly imprisoned, one could get compensations of millions of dollars.
Q: What kind of work is not recommended in Canada ?
A: Legitimate businesses. The Country is famous for its thousands of taxes (Maan Sui Kwok). Particularly in the restaurant business, you have to treat your customers with respect; comply with your landlord, your staff, your suppliers, the Health Department, Taxes and Revenues Dept in order to survive. Anything less you are forced to close down or get into prison.
(Moses Note: No doubt this is an article written to lament the tough restaurant business in Toronto)
(6) On Jul 21, 2008, at 11:56 PM, Moses Wong wrote:
As far as the word "Humor" is concerned, I tend to lean towards Robert Yan's explanation. In fact, we did have a similar conversation some time ago in Toronto with our beloved, now deceased, Brother Michael Chui (God bless his soul!) whose scholarly opinion did quite reinforce Robert's. I wish I had kept his email reply to my query about the "Yao Muk" words.
Its quite late now. In fact, its almost 3 am in the morning. I couldn't get to sleep as we've just returned from a fun trip to the American side of Niagara Falls where there is an over-sized casino. I did win some money but not enough to make the trip to Hong Kong (yet)!
(5) July 19, 2008 Joseph Ku wrote:
I think this "serious" heritage is still deep within the Chinese now, especially those Chinese deeper inland that have not had much exposure to the western world. When I bring Americans into China, I always warn them not to kid around too much, lest they be taken seriously. Worse, that their joking around will be taken as laughing at and looking down on the Chinese host; and, worse still, that the host will not express any offense on the surface, but inside will feel offended anyway!
Joseph Ku
On the lighter side, here are some recent examples of poor translation (click!)
(4) July 19, 2008 Robert Yan wrote:
Moses is right. "humour" has been on & off being discussed by academics since the start of the 20th century. The most famous of which is Lin Yutang. Some say it was he who first adopted the phonetic translation & in the process he came to be called modern China's " Yau Muk Dai Si ".
But throughout the ages there is no lack of humour in our rich culture. True, there isn't a term that is all encompassing as the word "humour"; but a few Chinese terms come close. However, the main reason why "humour" isn't so prominent in our culture is suppression. The main traditions of Confusian believes," Yue Gar" or "Ru Gia" & directives must be adhered to without fail. So" humour" becomes relegated to the general populace in town squares & streets as opposed to the gentries in higher society. Indeed no educated gentlemen would dare being heard to use such vulgarity as humourous chitchats in public. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Chinses folklore, novels, songs & dances of the general mass & peasantry came to be discovered & brought to the fore in our culture & being accepted into the main stream & enjoyed by us all. Today even, in teahouses & rural theatres, audience often roared with laughter at performances on themes steeped in history & folklore.
Since humour very often involves satire, in the old days, quite a few of our humourists lost their heads for inadvertently incurring the wrath of the emperor by being too 'eloquent' in choosing their words.
Both Moses & Reginald are quite eloquent. Don't you think ?
(But lets not lose our heads now--ed)
Robert
(3) July 19, 2008 Moses Wong wrote:
You are talking about modern terminology or words which originate in the West such as technical terms or new materials and inventions. And the easy way to use them is to adopt a phonetic translation of those words for ordinary Chinese people to identify the terms. More abusive use is the HK Chinglish with which we all have grown up and used daily. Words and terms like "Ball", "Dig Si - taxi", "Si Dig - stick", "Si Dor - store", "Dor Si - toast" are good examples of the bastardized Chinese translations.
But what I am referring to is the lack of some important concepts or expressions within the tremendous breadth of ancient Chinese culture and literatures. There are ancient writings, poems and poetries written by hosts of famous poets and scholars. Descriptions of beauty and perfection, heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, rain and clouds, love between men and women; and after all these efforts I was looking for a simple concept called "Romance". The Chinese term for romance is "Lon Maan". We've heard it mentioned and seen it on paper but we accept the term as "Romance". What is "Lon - wave" and "Maan - somebody's name or slow" anyway? Are you telling me that for thousands of years of Chinese history, no scholars had ever figured out an intimate and suitable term for "Romance"? Very puzzling. Perhaps only the Romans knew how to express love! The worst case is the word "Romantic" to which the Chinese term is translated as "Law Maan Tie Huk". Write them out in Chinese characters and you'll get a big laugh out of it.
In my last transmission I mention the concept of "Humor" which was also missing in the Chinese dictionary unless you accept "Yao Muk" as the term. Another glaringly annoying example is the concept of "Logic". One cannot find a suitable Chinese term for "logic" but only to accept the use of the term "Law Chup". Again if you pronounce it in Mandarin you'll get "Law Geet". Sound familiar? I cannot accept that no one (among the millions and millions of learned Chinese) had ever had a "Logical" mind to invent a term in native Chinese characters to describe "Logic".
Moses
(2) July 19, 2008 Joseph Ku wrote:
Here is a couple more examples or English translation into Chinese that somehow got screwed up:
"Gas", the kind for cooking, was originally translated phonetically as "Gai Sze", "Gai" being the character, in some dialect, probably Shanghaiese, for roof tiles. Roof tiles in Mandarin is pronounced as "Wa". So, now, in Taiwan and Northern China, cooking gas is called "Wa Sze".
"Physical Therapy" (physical, of the body) somehow got morphed into "Physics Therapy". So now the Chinese term for it in Mandarin is "Wu Li Zhi Liao" and in Cantonese "Muht Leih Jih Liuh"!
J.Ku
(1) July 19, 2008 Moses Wong wrote:
Bravo, I've just witnessed, for the first time, the humorous side of Ah Mak and welcome to the crazy club. You have broken the mold of the traditional Chinese inherited culture. Why do I say that? You see, the historic Chinese culture has no such word as "humor" in their vocabulary which indicates that traditional China had no concept of HUMOR. The evidence is that modern Chinese language has created a phonetic translation of the English word "humor" to be "Yao Muk" which have absolutely no book(or character) meanings; and if you pronounce the words in Mandarin, you get "Siu Mer", isn't it the same sound as "Humor". I have always wondered. I have other examples of what traditional Chinese culture was lacking. Robert has heard me mentioned them and I will not bore you with that now.
Moses
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