The Sinosphere Blog

Gonghe Xinxi 恭贺新禧壬辰年春节快乐

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:44:00 +0000

John Meade Huntsman

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0000

Mandarin: 洪博培 Hong2 Bo2 Pei2
Cantonese: 洪博培 Hung4 Bok3 Pui4
Korean: 홍박배 Hong Bak Bae
Vietnamese: Hồng Bác Bồi
Japanese: 洪博培 (こう　はくばい) Kou Hakubai

Asian power?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:41:00 +0000

On my other blog I wrote a bit about my own experiences: http://www.amywillow.co.cc/2011/12/asian-power.html

Address change for the Sinosphere blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:58:00 +0000

Starting today this site is located at http://sino.amywillow.co.cc. Don't worry, your RSS feed and everything else is automatically changed and redirected to the new location.

Special: Create your own Chinese name for $5

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:37:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

http://fiverr.com/524431

Forget those automated "Chinese name generators"! They make you look like a fool. The author of the Sinosphere Blog and expert in East Asian linguistics is now at your service. Now for $5, I will come up with a great-sounding Chinese name for you, that brings good luck (or at least impressions).

Limited time offer, regular value $45.

Now on Fiverr.com: http://fiverr.com/524431

An interesting document I found

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:19:00 +0000

Admittedly, I have not been posting much lately here. I have been rather busy with school, as well as with #Occupy movement.

The other day, I found an interesting document in the Wikimedia Commons.

It is a flier from the Daegu District Court during the Japanese occupation of Korea. In 1939, the Ordinances 19 and 20 of the Governor-General of Chosen (Korea) instituted a series of policies now known as 創氏改名 창씨개명 (Soushi-Kaimei in Japanese, Changssi Gaemyeong in Korean). In modern history textbooks, this is briefly mentioned in a way that makes readers believe that every Korean was simply forced to renounce their Korean names and adopt a Japanese name (a classic example: 김영순 Kim Young-Sun renamed 金井英順 Kanai Hideyori) at gunpoint (or under threat of their children expelled from schools). The reality seems a little bit more complex.

In Japan, in prior to the Meiji restoration and its adaptation of many Western customs, most commoners did not have "last names." Only the samurais and the noblemen were permitted to have a surname (and to carry a sword). As Japan adopted the system of family registry, it required all Japanese nationals to create a family name. Unlike in Chinese and Korean customs, however, this Japanese family name functioned much like the Western last names: when a woman is married to a man, she would take her husband's last name, hence the entire nuclear family would be identified by the same family name (this is not the case in China or Korea).

In promulgating soushi-kaimei, the Governor-General's office recognized and created a distinction between 姓 and 氏. These two words are now used interchangeably for most parts, but the 1939 ordinances distinguished between these two (see the item 3 on the flier). Hence, contrary to popular misconception, the occupation government did not require one to change a Korean's surname/clan name (姓) but rather that stated that 姓 is not the same as the family name (氏) under Japanese family law, and thus a new 氏 must be created and inscribed into the family register, just as commoners in Japan had to in the past.

This became important as the Japanese family law required that a husband and a wife share the same family name. As the item 2 in this flier states, a woman named 윤정희 (Yun Jong Hee/Yoon Jeong-Hee) married to Mr. Kim would have her legal name automatically changed to 김정희 Kim Jong Hee, and in order to avoid resulting confusion it was recommended to designate a new family name instead.

Do not miss this good opportunity!

The deadline for filing a petition for a creation of family name is Aug. 10, after which you can no longer file. There is, however, no due date for name change petitions.

If you do not file by Aug. 10, the clan name of the head of household will automatically become the family name. For example, if the surname of the head of household is Kim, their family name will become Kim, and wife Yun Jong Hee will become Kim Jong Hee, following the family name of the household, and daughter Pak Nam Jak will become Kim Nam Jak, potentially creating confusions. As such, regrets may be avoided if you adopted a mainland [Japanese] style family name.

There is a popular conflation between family name and clan name, however, family name is a name of the household, whereas clan name indicates one's patrilineal pedigree, and as such these two are completely different in nature.

There is a popular misconception that an establishment of family name will result in loss of your clan name; your family registry will continue to note both your clan name and bon'gwan however.

There is also some misunderstanding that everyone who shares the same clan name and bon'gwan must establish a common family name; this is a big misconception -- as family names are to identify each household, it is reasonable to have different family names from household to household.

Some people think too much when picking a family name. Often spending too much time thinking over can get you lost in thinking, so it is ideal that you decide on this quickly.

If you have any more questions as the deadline approaches, contact your municipal hall or district court as soon as possible.

The District Court, Daegu

More on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dshi-kaimei#Ordinances_No._19_and_20

Sounds of trains

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:52:00 +0000

(A bit off-topic)

In some cities, public transport systems have come up with a way to brand themselves with a distinct set of sounds that their trains make.

Nagoya Railroad, Nagoya, Japan

Société des Transports de Montréal, Montréal, Québec

Why is Gary Locke causing a ruckus in China?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 02:54:00 +0000

The pictures of the new American ambassador to the People's Republic of China, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, governor of the State of Washington, and the King County Executive, Gary Locke 骆家辉 Luo Jiahui and his family taken as they arrived in Beijing are circulating in Chinese Internet like crazy, reports the Epoch Times 大纪元时报 Dajiyuan Shibao this week.

Why is this picture of a seeming non-event such a big deal? Gary Locke here is doing the unthinkable for an average Chinese citizen, even after six decades of socialist revolution: in China, even a mayor of a small town would have his servants carry his luggage. Here, an ambassador representing ostensibly the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth -- is carrying his own luggage and even his wife and kids are doing the same! This is such a sight for the Chinese.

Remember: Gary Locke is from Seattle, the very city that produced the grunge music culture, where "dressed up" means REI (yes, the original REI was on Capitol Hill area of Seattle behind Seattle Central Community College). It is this quintessential Pacific Northwest casual that is the essence of this Washingtonian.

On the related note, did you know that Locke is a distant relative of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen 孙文?

Floral symbols of Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:27:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Most countries have either an official or quasi-official floral emblem. Rose for England, thistle for Scotland, magnolia for North Korea and Manchuria, tulip for the Netherlands, lotus for Macau, plum for Taiwan, and bauhinia for Hong Kong.

But when pressed for an answer, most Japanese people cannot point to the floral emblem that represents their country.

Some people think it is cherry blossom, or sakura 桜. After all, the cherry blossom and how the Japanese people celebrate it epitomize a lot of the Japanese culture and aesthetics. But their passport bears a chrysanthemum, or kiku 菊, the emblem of the imperial household (and each female member of the imperial family has her own floral emblem as well). Then there are the foxglove flowers, or kiri 桐, for the state governmental agencies.

Which one is it?

The foxglove flowers are used as a symbol of the executive branch and its bureaucracy.

The Japanese police emblem, often mistakenly called "Sakura-no daimon", but in fact it is a sunburst symbol.

The number of petals differs from that of the Imperial Crest.

The Segye Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper closely related to the Washington Times by common ownership (the Unification Church), notes an interesting point:

"The cherry blossom is the flower of the common people, whereas the chrysanthemum is the flower of the imperial household... because the cherry blossoms bloom together in springtime with all kinds of other flowers, whereas chrysanthemum blooms alone, apart from other flowers....

"Despite its appearance as a democratic state, this anecdote epitomizes the feudalistic and classist reality of Japan. In fact, the chrysanthemum that represents the imperial household is also used as the badge of the members of the Diet (n.b. not exactly true) and treated with dignity of the nobility, but on the other hand, the cherry blossoms grace the utility hole lids and are thus destined to be stepped upon by the common folks. The chrysanthemum is also used as the emblem of the Yasukuni Shrine and on the lanterns of the Meiji Jingu, and demands the veneration of the people by positioning itself in all places of solemn and sanctity, while the cherry blossom merely serves as an eye candy for the commoners during a brief period in April each year."
http://www.segye.com/Articles/ISSUE/ISSUES/Article.asp?aid=20100602002226

Hm...

Asian Highway

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:13:00 +0000

The eastern terminus of the Asian Highway 1 (AH1) is the historic Nippon-koku Doro Gempyo (inscription reads: Tokyo-shi Doro Gempyo) in Nihombashi, in the City of Chuo, Tokyo.

The Asian Highway route 1 (AH-1) starts at Nihombashi in Tokyo, runs through Shibuya, Tokyo Interchange, Nagoya, Suita, Kobe, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka,

Busan, Gyeongju, Daegu, Daejeong, Cheong'an, Seoul via Namsan #1 Tunnel, Imjingang, Panmunjeom, Kaesong, Sariwon, Pyongyang, Sinuiju, Dandong, Shenyang, Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha, Guangzhou, Nanning, Dong Dang, Ha Noi, Da Nanh, Nha Trang, Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh, Poipet, Aranyaprathet, Wang Noi, Nakhon Sawan, Mae Sot, Myawaddy, Mandalay, Attari, New Delhi, Kolkata, Dimapur, Dhaka, Jessore, Lahore, Peshawar, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Khyber Pass, Tehran, Tabriz, Ankara, Istanbul and continues to European Highway E-80 where Turkey joins Bulgaria.

Total length is 20,710 kilometres, 12,868.5 miles.

Chinese names for North American banks

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Here are some of the Chinese names for banks in the U.S. and Canada.

Wells Fargo = 富国银行 Fuguo Yinhang (Lit: Wealth of the Nation Bank; Fuguo, however, sounds like "Fargo," get it?)
US Bank = 美国国家银行 Meiguo Guojia Yinhang (Lit: American National Bank, from the original name of the bank, the United States National Bank of Oregon).
JP Morgan Chase Bank = 大通银行 Datong Yinhang
KeyBank = 密钥银行 Miyao Yinhang
Citibank = 花旗银行 Huaqi Yinhang (Lit.: Flower Flag Bank; the "flower flag" refers to the American flag.) - formerly called 万国宝通银行 Wanguo Baotong Yinhang
HSBC Bank = 汇丰银行 Huifeng Yinhang (note: HSBC originally was called Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation, whose Chinese name was 香港上海汇丰银行 Xianggang Shanghai Huifeng Yinhang.)
Union Bank (California) = 美国东京三菱银行 Meiguo Dongjing Sanling Yinhang (Lit. America Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank, after its parent company, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.)
TD Bank = 道明银行 Daoming Yinhang
TD Canada Trust = 道明加拿大信託 Daoming Jianada Xintuo ("Daoming" was used since TD was still called by its full name, Toronto-Dominion Bank 多论多道明银行 Duolunduo Daoming Yinhang.)
La Banque de Montréal/Bank of Montreal = 满地可银行 Mandike Yinhang
RBC Royal Bank = 加拿大皇家银行 Jianada Huangjia Yinhang (Royal Bank of Canada)
Scotiabank = 丰业银行 Fengye Yinhang (Lit. Prosperous Business Bank)
Washington Mutual Bank (dead) = 华盛顿互惠银行 Huashengdun Huhui Yinhang

Kim Jong Il returning from Russia trip through China

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:45:00 +0000

Image via WikipediaAs I had noted earlier, the official DPRK media outlets have dumped the Chinese characters in favour of treating Chinese place names as foreign words.

With the frequently updated news reports of Kim Jong Il's unofficial visit to the Russian Federation coming in, I also have noted the changes in how some of the Chinese place names are written in Korean.

黑龙江 Heilongjiang = 허이룽강 Heo I Rong Gang, previously 흑룡강 Heuk Ryong Gang
内蒙古 Nei Menggu (Inner Mongolia) = 네이멍구 Ne I Meong Gu, previously 내몽골 Nae Mong Gol
满洲里 Manzhouli = 만저우리 Man Jeo U Ri, previously 만주리 Man Ju Ri

Also the names of people:

王家瑞 Wang Jiarui, Dir. International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC: 왕쟈류이 Wang Jya Ryu I (differs from South Korean 왕자루이), previously Wang Ga Seo 왕가서
胡锦涛 Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China: 후진타오 Hu Jin Ta O, previously 호금도 Ho Geum Do

Source: http://www.chongryon.com/ro/ro.html

Losing touch with the common Chinese heritage

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:08:00 +0000

A few days ago, as I had predicted already on this blog, the Korean Central TV news (in Pyongyang) is now also using a phonetic transliteration for the names of Chinese people. Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 is no longer Ho Geum Do 호금도 in North Korea, but now "Hu Jin Ta O. 후진타오"

Decades ago, North Korea decided to write the names of Japanese cities phonetically, so Tokyo 東京 was Donggyeong 동경 and Osaka 大阪 was Daepan 대판, but now they are Tokkyo 토꾜 and Osaka 오사카 respectively.

In Japan, the mass media began using katakana to write out the names of Korean people somewhere around the late-1990s. Back in the 1980s they were still in kanji. Kim Il Sung 김일성 was 金日成 Kin Nissei, and Chun Doohwan 전두환 was 全斗煥 Zen Tokan.

While it is important to learn proper pronunciations of names and places in respective languages, this losing of Chinese characters is doing much disservice.

Names of colours in Japanese

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:52:00 +0000

http://www.colordic.org/colorsample

Oupeng! China's answer to Opera Mini mobile browser!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:46:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Opera Mini is now reported to be the number one mobile web browser in the world. Opera Software ASA has been developing and releasing the original Opera browser since the 1990s, but had not seen much success in capturing a market share in the PC browser world (in part because Opera was charging US$35 initially, when both the Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator (remember?) were freeware. In 2005 Opera began offering free version with banner ads, and 2006 it has gone free. By then, Opera lost competition to Firefox, which had incorporated many of features hitherto only available on Opera (for instance, multi-tabbed browsing).

The mobile market was completely different. There were no decent web browser for cell phones, and there were many specific needs and challenges for this segment. Opera came in and did it well.

Opera Mini browser is not only a very lightweight browser with a very small size (version 4 is only about 130 kB, while version 6 is about 360 kB) but also delivers fast browsing and low bandwidth (which saves money when mobile phone carriers often charge for bandwidth usage) through a proprietary compression technology and Opera's own proxy servers.

In other words, all traffic goes through a host of "massively redundant" server farms located throughout the world (from California to Kuwait) while Opera reformats and compresses all contents for your handset. This is what raised concerns with censorship-happy People's Republic of China.

People naturally understood how Opera Mini works, downloaded it through third-parties abroad (with the small size one can even email it to their Chinese friends as an attachment) and used it to access forbidden sites and post materials on overseas social media and blog sites.

Addressing this concern (and most likely under not-so-subtle threat from the Chinese officials) Opera Software ASA "partnered" with Chinese company 北界创想 Beijie Creative to develop 欧朋 Oupeng.

The name Oupeng means "European friend" -- as Opera is an European company from Sweden. They are so friendly to China that they'd make a special version of Opera just for Chinese people! (Nevermind that Oupeng's proxy server farms are all in China, so surely enough you cannot use Oupeng to circumvent the Chinese Internet regulations!)

The Oupeng proxy server is in Beijing.

Now, this also means another thing to those who are outside China. We can test a website to see if anything is prohibited by the Chinese government. Twitter, nope. Paper.li? Interdit. "錯誤! 您试图访問的地址、http://________, 目前不可用。" -- "Error! The site you attempted to visit cannot be used now."

When I attempted to access Paper.li I saw an error page from Opera. The same page shows up when I try to access Facebook, but not BBC or FOX News.

For everything else, Oupeng is essentially identical to Opera Mini, even the version number (the latest stable: 6.1.25761). Although, where the Google search box is, Oupeng takes you to Baidu.

To run Oupeng on your handset, you can download Java .jar and unsigned .jad at http://m.oupeng.com -- It appears that there is no block to prevent people abroad from downloading it. To run it on your PC (I recommend Opera Mini on PC as well -- it is a heaven-sent if you often end up using a slow Wi-Fi network in public places) simply download Microemulator and run Oupeng/Opera Mini from Microemulator. (Microsoft Windows users may find this tutorial helpful: http://www.techimo.com/forum/applications-operating-systems/206649-deploying-opera-mini-under-windows.html)

And sure enough, the Oupeng.com site is licensed by the Chinese government as an Internet content provider (Beijing ICP #110465 / 京ICP证110465号).

Glorious! This blog is prohibited by the People's Republic of China! LOL!

North Korea may be further abandoning Chinese-character heritage in Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:28:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
As many know, the great majority of Korean lexicon, personal names, and geographical names derive from Chinese. Many of the Korean surnames are of Chinese origin, as well (not because they are descended from the Han people, but because of past acculturation of Koreans into the Chinese civilization and Chinese hegemony).

In South Korea, a revival of interest in Chinese characters has recently stirred up a move towards bringing back Chinese character -- or Hanja -- education to schools.

In North Korea, the Hanja was officially abandoned in the 1950s and its use was for some time prohibited (except as a foreign language).

I have begun noticing the further distancing in recent months of the North Korean media from the Hanja and the Korean connection to the Chinese heritage, even as the DPRK government reemphasizes the historic alliance and friendship between the People's Republic of China and the DPRK, and between the Communist Party of China and the Workers' Party of Korea.

One indicator is that the Japanese-language media outlets owned by the North Korean official entities -- such as the Joseon Sinbo and the Voice of Korea -- now write Korean names of people and places in katakana, instead of using kanji as such has been a longstanding practice (except for the Koreans in Japan, whose names are written using kanji, for example, the World Cup stars 鄭大世 and 安英学). This is now true with even well-known names such as Pyongyang (ピョンヤン instead of 平壌) and Kim Jong Il (キムジョンイル instead of 金正日).

Another new thing that is seen is that the names of Chinese provinces and cities are now phonetically transliterated in Hangeul, instead of providing a Korean pronunciation of the corresponding Chinese characters.

In the footage from yesterday's Korean Central TV newscast, the name of Guizhou province 贵州省 is now written phonetically as "Gu-i-jeo-u" 구이저우 followed by the proper Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters, "Gui-ju" 귀주 in parentheses, hinting the phase-in of the new phonetic transliteration of Chinese names. It would potentially be also possible that the personal names of Chinese people may follow this trend. For instance, the Chinese president Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 has been written in North Korea as Ho Geum Do 호금도 but in the future we might see this as Hu Jin Ta O 후 진타오 instead.

This move is unfortunate as it would cause North Korean people to further lose the mental connection between the wealth of Chinese heritage and the Korean language.

What are the 10 most important values for the future?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:13:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

The Sumitomo Life Building in Chikusa, Nagoya

The Sumitomo Life Insurance Company in Japan conducted a survey asking respondents, "What one Chinese character would you choose that you believe it encapsulates the most important value for the future of Japan?"

Here are the top 10 and pronunciations in Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Japanese (kun'yomi/on'yomi), respectively:

1. 绊 (ban, 반 ban, ban, bun, kizuna/han): companionship, bonding between people.
2. 爱 (ai, 애 ae, ai, oi, ai): love
3. 信 (xin, 신 sin, tin, seun, shin): belief, trust, faith, message
4. 力 (li, 력 ryeog, luc, lik, chikara/ryoku): power, strength, effort
5. 心 (xin, 심 sim, tim, sam, kokoro/shin): heart, core [of something]
6. 结 (jie, 결 gyeol, ket, git, musubu/ketsu): connection, tying [of a knot]
7. 和 (he, 화 hwa, hoa, wo, wa): peace, harmony, co-existence, reconciliation (* This concept of wa is somewhat difficult to describe succinctly. Refer to http://japan.osu.edu/p-12/lessons/4_DecisionMakinginJapan/wa1.pdf
8. 金 (jin, 금 geum, kim, gam, kane/kin): gold [thus by extension, money], metal
9. 梦 (meng, 몽 mong, mong, mung, yume/mu): dream
10. 忍 (ren, 인 in, nhan, yan, shinobu/nin): perseverance, forebearance

Source: 日本国名古屋市中日新闻 The Chunichi Shimbun, Nagoya, Japan, Aug. 3, 2011 http://opi-rina.chunichi.co.jp/topic/20110803-1.html

A list of Sinicized Manchu family names

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:19:00 +0000

From the new and growing Manjuwiki: http://ur1.ca/4um2g

Rain and flood devastate DPRK

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:19:00 +0000

The recent storm has caused significant damages in both Korea and Japan, but some of the worst damages are done in the 황해남도 黄海南道 South Hwanghae Province in the 조선민주주의인민공화국 朝鲜民主主义人民共和国 Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is located adjacent to the 인천 광역시 仁川广域市 Incheon Metropolitan City in South Korea.

Last night's KCTV news reported of the flooding and damages to infrastructures and agriculture near Haeju 해주시 海州市, specifically in the counties of 청단군 青丹郡 Chongdan (Cheongdan), 배천군 白川郡 Paech'on (Baecheon) and 연안군 延安郡 Yonan (Yeon-an).

Uniqueness of the Hangeul

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:44:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Recently, the 조선신보 朝鲜新报 Joseon Sinbo newspaper in Japan ran an article on how the Korean alphabet 한글 Hangeul was constructed.

The Hangeul, unlike Chinese characters, is phonetic and denotes sounds rather than symbolic meanings.

One remarkable aspect of the invention of the Hangeul is its influence from traditional Chinese cosmic triad of 天地人 tiandiren ("heaven, earth, and human"). The symbols for vowels are made of vertical lines, horizontal lines, and "dots" (in reality they are short strokes). The horizontal line as in 으 (eu) is the symbols of the earth, while the vertical line as in 이 (i) is the person.

The one and only Hillary?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:22:00 +0000

Cover via Amazon
I have been noticing the weirdness in the style guidelines used by the 조선중앙통신사 朝鲜中央通信社 Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Every news organization and newspaper have their own stylebook, while often times they follow that of the Associated Press or other wire agency, but it is kind of strange that every time when the KCNA news story mentions the current U.S. Secretary of State, her name is always singular 힐러리 (Hillary).

For instance, from this story dated on July 25:
"24일 미국무장관 힐러리가 이와 관련한 성명을 발표하였다."
(On the 24th, American Secretary of State Hillary issued a statement related to this.)

Not Hillary Rodham Clinton, not Hillary Clinton, not Clinton, but always Hillary. Did her husband and ex-president offend the DPRK so much that "Clinton" is not even allowed to be mentioned? That does not make sense, since Bill Clinton did visit the DPRK in 2009 and I do not recall KCNA referring to him as 빌르 "Bill" or "William Jefferson."

In Korean, the "Secretary of State" is referred to as 무장관 mujanggwan. Literally, it is 武装官, "armed officer." The foreign ministers in other countries are referred to as 외무 대신 waimu daesin 外务大臣.

David Wu gone

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:58:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
The U.S. House of Representative member David Wu (吴振伟 Wu Zhenwei), from Portland, Oregon, announced today that he would resign as soon as the budget crisis is resolved, amid yet another sex scandal. In American politics, allegations of sexual improprieties create much welcome distractions from real, more serious issues, such as debt ceiling limits and potential catastrophic effects on world economy should the Republicans continue to sabotage the budget negotiation.

Congressman David Wu comes from a line of Han Chinese family from 江苏省苏州市 Suzhou, Jiangsu, China (Portland's sister city). He was born in 1955, in 台湾新竹 Xinzhu (Hsin-Chu) in Taiwan. His parents and David immigrated to the State of New York in 1961.

With his departure there is no Chinese-Americans represented in the U.S. Congress.

Speaking of 苏州 Suzhou, the Portland's classic Chinese garden, the 兰苏园 Lansuyuan, is a replica of a garden in Suzhou. Aside from the elegant naming of the "garden of awakening orchids," the Lansu comes from 兰 "lan" from 波特兰 Portland (Botelan) and 苏 "su" from 苏州 Suzhou.

Fake Apple Stores in Kunming?!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Apple Stoer!

http://birdabroad.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/are-you-listening-steve-jobs/

North Korea elections update

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:16:00 +0000

Image by Borut Peterlin via FlickrAccording to the latest from the Korean Central News Agency, 99.97 percent of eligible voters have voted in yesterday's provincial (directly-governed city), municipal (district), and county deputy elections. Those who could not go to the poll apparently were visited by a "mobile voting car." The remaining 0.03 percent are reported to be abroad.

My guess is that, aside from all the propaganda hypes to encourage the voting -- and that election day is on Sunday in order to ensure the maximum turnout (this is the case also in Japan, where elections have long been held on Sundays -- something the U.S. could have learned, instead of insisting it on Tuesdays) -- it is most likely a crime not to vote (kind of like Australia).

The Great Leader casts his vote.

Differences in how country names are written

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Morrigan) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia
Long ago, during the Meiji period, Japan came into contact with European and American "civilizations" and experienced a period of 文明開化 (文明开化) bunmei kaika, or "opening up to the civilization." Along with it, they felt a need to either translate or transliterate foreign words into Japanese, mostly using kanji. Hence piano became 洋琴 youkin ("western-style zither"), and baseball became 野球 yakyu ("field ball"). As one might notice, this is different from Chinese -- 钢琴 ("steel zither") and 棒球 ("bat ball"), respectively. Names of countries also sometimes differ when written in Chinese characters, between China and Japan.

English name Chinese name  Japanese name
Britain   英国   英国
Germany          德国   独逸
France   法国   仏蘭西 (佛兰西)
Spain   西班牙   西班牙
Italy   意大利   伊太利亜 (伊太利亚)
Russia   俄罗斯   露西亜 (露西亚)
Australia  澳太利亚   豪州
America (USA)         美国   米国
Canada   加拿大   加拿大
Mexico   墨西哥   墨西哥
India   印度   印度
Thailand  泰国   泰国

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