Chinese 'classical poem' was brothel ad

Science journal mistakenly uses flyer for Macau brothel to illustrate report on China

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Tuesday, 9 December 2008

A respected research institute wanted Chinese classical texts to adorn its journal, something beautiful and elegant, to illustrate a special report on China. Instead, it got a racy flyer extolling the lusty details of stripping housewives in a brothel.

Chinese characters look dramatic and beautiful, and have a powerful visual impact, but make sure you get the meaning of the characters straight before jumping right in.

There were red faces on the editorial board of one of Germany's top scientific institutions, the Max Planck Institute, after it ran the text of a handbill for a Macau strip club on the front page of its latest journal. Editors had hoped to find an elegant Chinese poem to grace the cover of a special issue, focusing on China, of the MaxPlanckForschung journal, but instead of poetry they ran a text effectively proclaiming "Hot Housewives in action!" on the front of the third-quarter edition. Their "enchanting and coquettish performance" was highly recommended.

The use of traditional Chinese characters and references to "the northern mainland" seem to indicate the text comes from Hong Kong or Macau, and it promises burlesque acts by pretty-as-jade housewives with hot bodies for the daytime visitor.

The Max Planck Institute was quick to acknowledge its error explaining that it had consulted a German sinologist prior to publication of the text. "To our sincere regret ... it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker," the institute said in an apology. "By publishing this text we did in no way intend to cause any offence or embarrassment to our Chinese readers. "

But publication of the journal caused some anger among touchier internet users in China who felt the institute had done it on purpose to insult China, or that it was disrespectful to use Chinse as a decoration. But generally, the faux-pas sparked much amusement among Chinese readers.

On anti-cnn.com, a foreigner-baiting website set up after a commentator on the US broadcaster made anti-Chinese comments following the crackdown in Tibet in March, the reaction was mostly "evil fun". One wrote, "Next time, please find a smart Chinese graduate to check your translation", and another said they should try writing "I am illiterate".

The journal has since been updated online and its cover now carries the title of a book by the Swiss Jesuit, Johannes Schreck (1576–1630). The Jesuit text in question was "Illustrated Explanations of Strange Devices".

Chinese is a tonal language, which means words sounding the same can often have very different meanings depending on how they are spoken.

There are tales of drunken teenagers walking out of tattoo parlours with characters reading, "This is one ugly foreigner" or "A fool and his money are easily parted".

Another web-user wrote: "I recently met a German girl with a Chinese tattoo on her neck which in Chinese means 'prostitute'. I laughed so loud, I could hardly breathe."

Read more >> MaxPlanckForschung

Popular Tattoo Translations

Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Swahili, Hindi and Arabic are popular target languages for tattoos.

Why are translations into these languages such a popular tattoo choice?

Tattoos, like clothes, cars, music and celebrities, are subject to trends and culture. We have had fads for particular tattoos at particular times in our history. It doesn’t take a tattoo expert to tell us that the trend in the forties of having naked women tattooed onto men’s arms is now seriously out of fashion. And, although it is more of a cultural behaviour as opposed to one of trend, the prison tattoos (which advertise to those who see the tattoos that the wearer has been in prison, killed someone, is a member of a gang etc.) are becoming far more naff than they ever were in the past.

Instead people seem to be taking their time with tattoos. Home made tattoos are far less common now and, as such, individuals primarily visit professional body artists.

Translation of tattoos is certainly very popular. In particular, the translation of individual’s names seems to be extremely popular. The result, when translated into Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Swahili, Hindi and Arabic can look extremely stylish.

The trend for the translation of tattoos appeared to take off in the 1990’s. Individuals primarily opted for a translated tattoo as the art involved in reproducing the fonts is generally extremely elegant and the translations, once tattooed onto the body can look both artistic and attractive. Second to this, is also the fact that the translations chosen are less likely to ‘go out of fashion’ The translation of a name, once tattooed onto a body is time insensitive.

Issues are only likely to arise if an individual has the name of their current partner translated and tattooed onto their body ….. One there was a man who approached a translation company for a tattoo translation. He had the names of all of his wives tattooed onto his arm. He was now on his third wife and had had to have the tattoos of his ex wives changed into a different tattoo. The result looked messy and lacking in style. In this particular case, the tattoos were not translations, but at least with such a tattoo it is less likely that the new partner would know what it referred to!!!