If they don’t know Pac-Man, then I doubt they would understand the references above.
Even for the Sino-phile-phobes, I doubt they understand the 1st set of characters and what they mean.
(Even if they manage to translate the 1st set of characters, they might only guess the superficial meaning, and don’t see the underlying 2ndary word-play meaning. I’m certainly not going to explain it to them here).
🙂
Let’s see how long they can scratch their heads and figure it out!
raventhorn2000says
I’ll give another day or so for the guesses in the meanings of the 1st line.
The first line might mean — Democracy, but not “implanted” democracy. The second line, harmony, not harmony defined by US.
C. Custer can translate better. He lives in China 🙂
Alsays
I think Raventhorn was mostly referring to the first line…And yes, it’s my idea also that he’s playing with the concept of 殖民主义 (colonialism) and 殖民地 （colony)…like saying “democracy” not “colonial/implanted-democracy”…
Yes, I think it’s been said already. Literally, “Democracy, not colonialism”. A more nuanced translation could be “[Native / People’s] Democracy, not [Colonial-style / alien] Pseudo-Democracy”
raventhorn2000says
You guys got the 1st connotation in the 1st line, but there is 2nd connotation in the 1st line.
@raventhorn2000
“‘Democracy’ won’t breed democracy”? Meaning Western-style “democracy” can’t be transplanted, as it’s not really democracy in the first place?
OK, the answer for the 2nd connotation in the 1st line:
殖 when used in 殖民主义, is pronounced as “Zhi”, which means, “to transplant”, meaning “colonialism”.
However, 殖 has a 2ndary context and pronounciation (not often used in Chinese), “Shi”, used in 骨殖 (gǔshi), meaning 尸骨 (corpse and skeleton).
Thus, 殖-民主, pronounced “Shi – Min Zhu”, would mean “Skeleton – Democracy”, or corpse-democracy, or dead/decaying democracy.
It plays on the double meaning that 殖-民主 would also mean a transplanted Democracy is not a viable democracy, but a dead democracy.
raventhorn2000says
As for the 2nd line,
“Harmonious” is not “harmonious (where the “mouth” characters are replaced with US flag Pac-Men)”.
the 1st connotation is Harmonious is not defined by US “Mouths” speaking.
the 2nd connotation is that arbitrarily altering Chinese “characters” with foreign “symbols” naturally make the Chinese characters look ridiculous, thus Chinese people should not be looking for foreign “equivalents” to determine the true meaning of Chinese “Harmony”.
raventhorn2000 says
Alright, I declare myself a Chinese “Artist”.
Charles Liu says
Dude for “artist” creds you need an awsome middle finger in there somewhere. Young’uns nowadays don’t know who Pac-Man is.
raventhorn2000 says
@Charles Liu
If they don’t know Pac-Man, then I doubt they would understand the references above.
Even for the Sino-phile-phobes, I doubt they understand the 1st set of characters and what they mean.
(Even if they manage to translate the 1st set of characters, they might only guess the superficial meaning, and don’t see the underlying 2ndary word-play meaning. I’m certainly not going to explain it to them here).
🙂
Let’s see how long they can scratch their heads and figure it out!
raventhorn2000 says
I’ll give another day or so for the guesses in the meanings of the 1st line.
Sweet & Sour Socialism says
@raventhorn2000
You want people to try to guess the meaning here in the comments? I could try.
raventhorn2000 says
Give your shot.
Al says
Ｔｈｅ ｍａｉｎ ｉｄｅａ Ｉ ｇｏｔ ｒｅａｄｉｎｇ ｔｈｅ ｆｉｒｓｔ ｌｉｎｅ ｉｓ ｔｈａｔ ｕ ａｒｅ ｐｌａｙｉｎｇ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｅ ｗｏｒｄｓ 殖民地 ｏｒ 殖民主义．．．ｉｓ ｉｔ ｔｈａｔ？
tc says
The first line might mean — Democracy, but not “implanted” democracy. The second line, harmony, not harmony defined by US.
C. Custer can translate better. He lives in China 🙂
Al says
I think Raventhorn was mostly referring to the first line…And yes, it’s my idea also that he’s playing with the concept of 殖民主义 (colonialism) and 殖民地 （colony)…like saying “democracy” not “colonial/implanted-democracy”…
Sweet & Sour Socialism says
Yes, I think it’s been said already. Literally, “Democracy, not colonialism”. A more nuanced translation could be “[Native / People’s] Democracy, not [Colonial-style / alien] Pseudo-Democracy”
raventhorn2000 says
You guys got the 1st connotation in the 1st line, but there is 2nd connotation in the 1st line.
Keep trying.
Sweet & Sour Socialism says
@raventhorn2000
“‘Democracy’ won’t breed democracy”? Meaning Western-style “democracy” can’t be transplanted, as it’s not really democracy in the first place?
raventhorn2000 says
@Sweet & Sour Socialism
No. keep trying.
raventhorn2000 says
OK, the answer for the 2nd connotation in the 1st line:
殖 when used in 殖民主义, is pronounced as “Zhi”, which means, “to transplant”, meaning “colonialism”.
However, 殖 has a 2ndary context and pronounciation (not often used in Chinese), “Shi”, used in 骨殖 (gǔshi), meaning 尸骨 (corpse and skeleton).
Thus, 殖-民主, pronounced “Shi – Min Zhu”, would mean “Skeleton – Democracy”, or corpse-democracy, or dead/decaying democracy.
It plays on the double meaning that 殖-民主 would also mean a transplanted Democracy is not a viable democracy, but a dead democracy.
raventhorn2000 says
As for the 2nd line,
“Harmonious” is not “harmonious (where the “mouth” characters are replaced with US flag Pac-Men)”.
the 1st connotation is Harmonious is not defined by US “Mouths” speaking.
the 2nd connotation is that arbitrarily altering Chinese “characters” with foreign “symbols” naturally make the Chinese characters look ridiculous, thus Chinese people should not be looking for foreign “equivalents” to determine the true meaning of Chinese “Harmony”.