Chinese Couple Wants to Name Baby @
Would you name your child the literal “@” symbol? In the US there’s probably no law against it. In Chinese, the name “at” even sounds a little bit like 爱他, or “love him.”
However, a Chinese couple who wanted to do so ran afoul of 国家语委, the national language commission. Chinese last names, recently expanded to four characters, have the unique problem of having 129 of 23,000 surnames accounting for 87% of the population.
War Movie: Jason Statham & Jet Li
Any movie with Jason Statham and Jet Li facing off as adversaries must be worth watching. War, a movie about “FBI agent Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) who becomes obsessed with revenge after his partner Tom Wynne (Terry Chen) and family are killed apparently by the infamous and elusive assassin Rogue (Jet Li). His world unravels into a vortex of guilt and betrayal.”
It also stars Steph Song who has a change of adding a bit of romance to an otherwise formulaic (BUT OMG JET LI) action movie.
The Asian Man
Overheard in New York posts:
Girl #1: So, was he at least hot?
Girl #2: No! He was Chinese!
How unfortunate. His date, and the stereotype.
Ben-Q Dog Tag w/ 9/11 Imagery
The following is a Ben-Q advert for an mp3 player that ran in China:
The Chinese reads something like “Even if the world turns dust, I still believe in music” and features images from the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. The singer is the lead of a group called Mayday.
Comments range from the intellectually absurd–”Snide nihilism is now officially my favorite phrase of this decade. thank you”–to the average American–”A-Holes anyway…. Zero respect to the victims. Period.”
Since this is marketed at an all-Chinese audience, my guess is the advertising firm simply ripped off the WTC rubble images without thinking about a possible emotional connection. This isn’t “disruptive advertising” like Microsoft’s Zune Orgasm, or Sony’s Racially Charged PSP ads. It’s just a bit of overreaction and repurposing.
Wee Shu Min is Who?
Wee Shu Min, a rich Singaporean wrote in her blog:
Derek, Derek, Derek darling, how can you expect to have an iron rice bowl or a solid future if you cannot spell? “There’s no point in lambasting the Government for making our society one that is, I quote, ‘far too survival of the fittest…’ If uncertainty of success offends you so much, you will certainly be poor and miserable. [...] Get out of my elite uncaring face.
Her father, Wee Siew Kim, is a wealthy worker for a multinational corporation in Singapore.
The problem? Elitism. And, the blogosphere in Asia reacted negatively.
Update: For a cartoon series detailing the problems with Wee Shu Min, see The Adventures of Elite Girl. I am personally indifferent.
