This girl caught me in the act, and clearly does not look too pleased at being captured in her role as a human signpost. The sign was pointing towards a shoe shop in a narrow alley off the main shopping street.
Archive for November, 2009
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Friday, November 13th, 2009囧 :O
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Some weeks ago, in a shop selling all kinds of small accessories, my eye fell on this object:
a little cushion shaped hanger, the sort of thing kids here might attach to their cellphone, or, as in my case, attach to the key chain. It caught my eye, firstly because of it’s graphic quality, and secondly it seemed to be a Chinese character, that, at the same time, also clearly is meant to be a face.
On seeing it hanging around my neck, along with my key, my students laughed, and seemed to think it was cool (or ridiculous, I’m not quite sure which) that I was wearing it.
Being curious about this character/face I decided to see what I could find out.
Only to discover, unbeknownst to me, that I was wearing the hippest, subculture internet thingummy of the moment. It’s based on the character 囧.
Pronounced jiong in Mandarin, en gwing in Cantonese, it originally meant “bright” or ” brightness shining from window”. Starting from Taiwan, then spreading to Hong Kong and mainland China, this ancient character, out of use already for many years, gained a new lease of life, and meaning, on internet messageboards. 囧 is used to express shock, embarrasment, surprise, sadness, and stupidity.
According to this article 囧 has moved outside of the internet community and into the off-line world, becoming a valuable asset to brands trying to connect to young internet-savvy consumers.
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So it seems that 囧 is a type of Chinese emoticon. I find it intriguing that a smiley, 
, or any other emoticon, is composed of keyboard characters that are chosen for their shape, not their meaning or sound, in order to convey a sentiment.
Whereas 囧 is an existing character, made up out of radicals, each radical already representing an object, and the combination of these radicals representing the idea “brightness shining from window”. This ancient ideographic character, is then transformed into a pictographic image, with a meaning that now is determined by it’s shape: a sad, surprised face. 囧 :O
added 08 12 2009:
Wang Nan, (student from my class) spewing jiong
(photo by xin xiao yan)
shanghai > flower power (& no heels)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
shanghai > on a platter
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
shanghai > haibao
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
shanghai > cricket match
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
shanghai > matchmaking
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
October 22nd till 25th, I was in Shanghai to attend a wedding, and meet up with some friends. Although I did not spend a lot of time exploring the city, which I have visited before, of course, in passing, I made the occasional photo.
For instance of this scene in Renmin Park: a large gathering of mainly middle-aged people was peering at notes hanging from the bushes, lining the footpaths, and suspended from makeshift “washing lines”. As it turned out, each note was singing the praises of some young Chinese man or woman…sometimes accompanied by a photo. Their character, their education, their length, their skills were all listed.
What I had encountered was a giant matchmaking market, where parents, professional matchmakers and grandparents go in search of a partner for their child, client or grandchild. Supposedly, many young Chinese are too busy studying or working, to have time to meet a prospective partner and woo them. Or they are too shy. So some parents use this kind of gathering to search for prospective partners for their children.
It lacks somewhat in the romance department, and I wonder how often it works out.
> click on images above and below to enlarge
