Shenme the H? Taiwan...

Temple Merry-Go-Round

2008-06-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

So, with a Catholic upbringing, I have no room to talk about church extracurriculars (BINGO!), but a lot of temples around here tend to make an amusement park out of their most beloveds...

For example, at this Daoist temple in Keelung, families can ride go-karts, play ring-toss, and line up to bang the 20 foot religious bell, all under the merciful eye of Guanyin and playful smile of a jolly-fat Buddha.

Diligent Property Exploitation

2008-05-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Yilan County （宜蘭縣） is becomingly an increasingly popular tourist destination in Taiwan, and with fresh air, stunning coastlines, well maintained hiking trails, affordable and luxurious hot springs, a wealth of culture (from the National Center for Traditional Arts 國立傳統藝術中心 to aboriginal communities abound), and great food, quite rightfully so.

In addition to tourism, building up-scale houses nestled in rice paddies with mountains and Turtle Island 龜山島 in the background is also all the rage. Friends who lived here just a year ago have told me they are surprised at the changing scenery, once flat, now speckled with houses.

Well, so it goes with any kind of development. When is too much too much? Not for a while I'd imagine if the business philosophy and mission statement of this real estate company really have any relationship to their English name: Diligent Property Exploitation.

Thanks to Meg for documenting this one for us.

Sin House

2008-04-22T20:50:00.001-07:00

This advertisement for an overnight stay is posted on the wall of my favorite Stinky Tofu shop in Luodong (羅東).

新 or 心 or 信 (new, heart, true/letter - all positive or neutral things) can all be written as "xin" in Pinyin, or "sin" in another romanization system.

Clearly unintended, but the website is definitely preventing me from booking a night for my family when they visit.

God Is Lonely Too

2008-04-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

This idea has popped into my head a few times over the years: if gGod is everything, all-knowing and all-being, then there very well can't be anything outside of it (sat and asat), so he must be a lonely bugger (life that is).

Thus the breakdown of all-being into multiple forms, and these forms necessarily complex, and limited in knowledge (the tree, the dog, the human) to it's own condition of existence, in order to mask the inherent oneness from which gGod can't separate itself. We call this life.

So, gGod as all-being is a lonely toddler with no playmate,

and too, gGod as all beings are as confused as toddlers, mesmerized by their own existence and intentionally made to live alone and unaware of their limitless connectivity,

in every form, needs snack food. Thus 浪味仙, or "Wave Flavor God." My Chinese isn't good enough to tell you if it's "a God that Tastes like Waves" or "a God who Brings Waves of Flavor", but either way he's just "Lonely God" in English. (re: the Chinese, I'd opt for translation 2 based on the chips being 泡菜口味 or "Kimchi Flavored", so no point in naming the chip flavor twice.

Thanks to Julie for this submission.

North or South?

2008-04-08T18:28:00.001-07:00

Road signs in Taiwan are pretty tough for foreigners. There are numerous romanization systems used to translate (pinyin, zhuyin, tongyin?) a street name, so your map may say Lotung, and the sign read Luotong, and your friend's note read Luodong.

That's tough enough, but what do foreigners do to differentiate "North" from "South" in this picture from Erik Bashaw?

Fortunately, if you are driving in Taiwan, you should know that 南 is South, and 北 North, making it a no-brainer.

Breakfast?

2008-04-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

On the whole, I would say the average Taiwanese loves their cutsie dog oodles and oodes and tons of cuddles more than is safe for keeping me from gagging. I have heard from a number of friends "He doesn't know he's a dog" or "she thinks she's a person."

Thanks to Julie for sending in this submission, which makes me think otherwise about the motives for love.

Rarr!

2007-12-23T08:09:00.000-08:00

This isn't so much "Shenme the H: Taiwan" as "Shenme the H: Kids"

3rd grade Ping Pong Class (yes, there is a separate class for the ping pong kids) drawing.

Somewhere out there, there is an angry mouse king with a grass-colored fire-breathing dinosaur chasing you and your sibling. Somewhere out there, evil is just waiting on the playground.

"No Child Left Behind!"

2007-12-20T04:33:00.000-08:00

It's common to trade soundbytes and catchphrases from one culture to another, however, as the label under this school motto indicates, social and political connotations don't really carry over.

This was taken at SinSheng Elementary School in Yilan City, Yilan County.

See bottom left of photo:

Little Chicken's Wooly Mammoth

2007-12-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

This piece of artwork is framed in the Yilan County Teacher's Center. The grade is not listed, but compared to the work around my Elementary school, I would peg this at the 3-4th grade level.

The captions read as follows, left to right (disputes on my translations welcome).

有小雞雞的長毛象－ "Has Little Chicken's Wooly Mammoth"
沒有小雞雞的長毛象－ "Doesn't Have Little Chicken's Wooly Mammoth"
小雞雞－"Little Chicken"
小姐姐－"Little (Big) Sister"

The artist named the boy Chicken, his parts a "Wooly Mammoth", then drew two Wooly Mammoths (one in hat and scarf) with the corresponding parts.

Think of the implications of eternal return in this picture. The existence of a penis on a boy, and the absence of a penis, result in the literal manifestation of a figurative label for the genitalia. This manifestation produces its own binary, "wooly mammoth with a wooly mammoth" and "wooly mammoth without", a division which not only does not answer the sad question on 小雞雞's face, but demands further figurative representation (how do you represent a wooly mammoth's wooly mammoth and the absence of a wooly mammoth's wooly mammoth?).

小姐姐's left-dominant smile and lazy eye paint a picture of contented ignorance. I love 小雞雞's confused look. He seems a little jealous.

”Don't randomly touch emergency valve!"

2007-12-10T21:52:00.000-08:00

80 sends this photo of a warning not to "randomly" touch the emergency valve.

The adverb in Chinese is 隨意 (sui2yi4) which means to do "as one pleases".

Clearly one shouldn't go about hitting emergency buttons at will, or "as one pleases" (Wenlin v3.3.6), but randomly? Randomly means "done without method or conscious decision" (OED), a condition clearly negated by a self-willed move to do "as one pleases."

Define Marijuana, Please

2007-12-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

These Happy Go Lucky Western lookin' kids grace the back cover of a Chinese Dictionary designed for students.

They're playing the recorder, a popular instrument here (all the kids in our school take their recorders to music class).

But why does the music look like a cloud of smoke? And why are the rising clouds green? And why are the kid's eyes who's playing (smoking) now seem glazed over? And his friend, giggling like baked, I'd say. It's perfectly innocent. Most kids here certainly have no context for a drug reference. And I'm sure it was designed completely unintentionally. But still...

"Hear Beautiful Sounds of Advertisements"

2007-12-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

My coteacher recommended playing this for 308, an overly energetic classroom that has trouble staying seated during class.

All I could think about was how much my mother hates the background noise of television commericals.

The translation at the bottom of the CD really doesn't gel with the rainforest photo on the cover.

Although, truth be told I am curious to hear the FIAT-ALL NEW PANDA edit of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" or the theme for the HONDA ALL NEW ACCORD.

Shenme the H?

2007-12-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

Story behind the blog: You can read about life and (frequently skewed) insights on my life in Taiwan at this other blog. Please do. Maybe some pretty pictures too.

This blog's for things that have made me, turn my head, ask "come again?", smile, or perhaps exclaim "Shenme the H?!?" Most frequently this will be (mis)use of English on clothing, signs, etc., funny pictures and cartoons (love the toons here - even construction sight warnings are friendlier), or those self-explanatory head-turning items.

Story behind the name: Half English, Half Chinese expression from coworkers. "Shenme" is pinyin for 甚麼/什麼/什么 or "what" in Chinese. You fill in the "H". Trust me, there be reasons aplenty to say this on a regular basis.

****Disclaimer****
"Shenme the H?" is a borrowed expression, like every funny and unfunny thing I've said in my life (outside the rare creative recant of something that did/didn't happen to me during the day).