30 August 2008

Where are they now?

In June the V&A shop was selling these stamps of Chinese characters for £1 each. I limited myself to a few, but the choice was hard. Took them home and put them ... somewhere ...

Now that I've found the photo, I need to find the stamps. They'll be somewhere in the studio ... won't they?

Ah, found 'em! A mantra for Pollyanna -
In case anyone from chinese class is reading -- the character given for cheerful is le4 [fourth tone]; the New Oxford Pocket Chinese Dictionary says it also means laugh. Gracious is en1; it also means matrimonial happiness. Kind is shan4; hmm, this means good deed - or good and honest; wise; friendly; familiar - and also be good at, be apt to - but not "kind" per se. For strong, they got the character wrong- qiang2 is written with a square at top right. This character isn't among the 52,000 in my dictionary and -delightful thought- could be nonsense.

If this bit of Schadenfreude pushes your buttons, check out this website showing misuse of "hanzi" - usually in tattoos. (Or maybe tattoos don't have to make sense?) btw, the word for tattoo, wen2shen1, cconsists of the character for "writing; language; culture - which also means "civil; gentle" and "cover up" - along with the character for "body". If Chinese language (and culture) interests you, you can learn more at chinesepod.com - they have a free trial period.

Errors like this wrong character just go to prove that proofreaders are needed everywhere in the world, and not just in the book publishing industry!

Back to the studio now, though. While looking for the stamps I also found this old block:Wonder what it will look like when it's printed...

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