2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-Chinese Character Tattoos: Lost in Transl

Robert Siegel: English speakers traveling aboard have had the experience of seeing an English sign or a menu translation from the local language that just misses the mark and produces an entertaining malaprop. Well, think about someone who knows Chinese or Japanese and sees decals on cars and tattoos 2 on professional athletes that actually mean something or they don't mean anything at all. Well, that's the experience of Tian Tang, who is an engineering student in Tempe, Arizona, and who came to this country from China as a high school student. He is now the creator of a Web site called Hanzi Smatter. A Web site that tracks odd uses of Chinese characters in an American context 3. Welcome to our program, Tian Tang.

Tian Tang: Thank you.

Robert Siegel: And first, ur, why don't you tell us what the name of, of your Web site which I just mispronounced it badly--actually means?

Tian Tang: Oh, it's called a Hanzi Smatter. Hanzi is Chinese characters. And the smatter means superficial 4 knowledge.

Robert Siegel: A smattering of knowledge about these things?

Tian Tang: Yes.

Robert Siegel: Well, how did you start keeping track of the, the odd uses of Chinese characters in America?

Tian Tang: Well, I've seen odd use of Chinese characters since when I first stepped off the plane in 1990. But I did not really start to collect them until 2004 when I took a road trip with a friend to New Mexico. And there was a vehicle--it was Mitsubishi but had Honda stickers on it, so I took a photo of it and start collecting.

Robert Siegel: Were those Japanese Kanji characters actually or, or...

Tian Tang: Well, the Japanese Kanji and the Chinese Hanzi are the same.

Robert Siegel: Same.

Tian Tang: Yeah.

Robert Siegel: So somebody who knew what that meant and also could see what Mitsubishi meant in English would find that very funny seeing that on the...

Tian Tang: Of course.

Robert Siegel: Now, the first most famous American athlete I remember seeing tattooed 5 with Chinese characters was Marcus Camby, the professional basketball player. What does his body say?

Tian Tang: I believe he told the interviewers that it was "striving 6 for family". But I believe he just placed two independent characters that formed the meaning in English. But to a native Chinese speaker, it doesn't mean a thing.

Robert Siegel: So you mean all of these millions of National Basketball Association fans tuning 7 in in China to see Yao Ming and others, they would look at Marcus Camby's body and say, "what's all that about?" What...

Tian Tang: Yeah, of course. I believe Yao Ming's book, he mentioned about his fellow NBA players and, um, their tattoos, and he didn't have a very good positive thing to say about them.

Robert Siegel: I see. Now there are also, of course, many people who are not professional athletes who've gotten tattoos. You've seen lots of them don't make any sense.

Tian Tang: Yes, that's correct. A lot of people getting tattooed in United States or Europe, they say, "You know, so what if I get my character incorrect? And what's up if somebody's gonna read it or understand it?" Well, the, the fact is that there's many Chinese speakers, they can spot the error.

Robert Siegel: You have one tattoo 1 on your Web site. Somebody was trying to make it say "bad boy".

Tian Tang: Right.

Robert Siegel: Did he succeed?

Tian Tang: But, no he did not. Two characters were reversed 8, so to, ur, dyslexic Chinese person, that would say "bad boy", but not to the rest.

Robert Siegel: Well, Tian Tang, thank you very much for talking with us.

Tian Tang: Thank you.

Robert Siegel: And there is a link to your Web site, which you can, you can now pronounce.

Tian Tang: Hanzismatter.com

Robert Siegel: Hanzismatter.com, and our Web site npr.org. Thank you very much.

Note------------
malaprop: 用词错误可笑的
Kanji: 日本汉字
tune in: to watch or listen to a broadcast on radio or television; 收听
dyslexic: a condition that makes it difficult for someone to read and spell; 诵读困难者