grasshopper Posted April 19, 2004 at 10:27 PM Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 at 10:27 PM Hi, I have two shirts with chinese characters. I'm wondering what they mean. Can someone help me out ? Shirt 1, bought in thailand, got it from my mother a while ago. Shirt 2, just bought it today at a local store. If you have a link to a page or document with character explanation, it's welcome as well. Thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted April 19, 2004 at 11:08 PM Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 at 11:08 PM The word on the red T-shirt means "new". Its mandarin pronunciation is "xin", which sounds like "shin" in English. I think the words in the second photo are upside down. If I read them starting from the bottom one, they look like "吉圖案", but that don't seem to make sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuchi Posted April 19, 2004 at 11:22 PM Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 at 11:22 PM is the second one japanese? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted April 19, 2004 at 11:29 PM Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 at 11:29 PM Not Japanese (if they are, they are still kanji). They look upside down ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jizhu3 Posted April 20, 2004 at 06:22 AM Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 at 06:22 AM 新 means "new" 吉 means "lucky" 图案 means "pattern or picture" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoH Posted April 20, 2004 at 06:26 AM Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 at 06:26 AM The upside down one says: ji2 tu2 an4 - 'lucky', plus 'pattern' or 'design'. Maybe it is the name of the clothing company - Lucky Design??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted April 20, 2004 at 08:37 AM Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 at 08:37 AM Hmm, that's probably why the second shirt was quite cheap, because it's upside down ;) The company which sells these shirts is called 'Zeeman' which is the dutch word for sailor. It's a company which sells cheap clothes and household goodies. I will go back to the store fore some other goods and check if the other shirts are the same, i'm not expecting them to be able to give some explanation on this. The company probably thought no one would find out it's printed wrong since we are not familiar with the characters, so it's easy too fool us europeans.. Funny to have a wrong spelled shirt but in the end it still looks like chinese to me Probably the guy who printed them also didn't know the characters . Thanks for translating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nnt Posted April 20, 2004 at 09:39 AM Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 at 09:39 AM 吉祥圖案運用人物、走獸、花鳥、器物等形象和一些吉祥文字，以民間諺語、吉語及神話故事為題材，透過借喻、比擬、雙關、象徵及諧音等表現手法，構成“一句吉語一圖案”的美術形式，賦予求吉呈祥、消災免難之意，寄託人們對幸福、長壽、喜慶等願望 http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/www.sd.xinhuanet.com/news/2004-04/14/content_1972294.htm Just "magic words" to bring you luck (too bad it's upside down, so ... Maybe the seller was superstitious too Very chinese, still...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted April 20, 2004 at 01:24 PM Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 at 01:24 PM So...all the other shirts in the shop are exacly the same So i'm the owner of an exclusive shirt since i never saw text printed upside down on shirts. Reading good luck signs while visiting the jon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hparade Posted April 20, 2004 at 04:59 PM Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 at 04:59 PM i like the red one with white font, i think it may look great on people with whiter skin, no, i don't know fashion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted April 21, 2004 at 03:10 PM Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 at 03:10 PM I don't like Zeeman, but a shirt with the characters upside down is so totally wrong that I'd almost consider buying it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted April 23, 2004 at 07:39 AM Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2004 at 07:39 AM Don't like Zeeman much either, besides socks and t-shirts i'm not buying much there. Since i needed two white t-shirts for training i went to the newly opened store close to work. That's how i got there and found out about the other shirts, probably it was some leftover stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shandongcn Posted May 3, 2004 at 11:01 AM Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 at 11:01 AM Hmm, that's probably why the second shirt was quite cheap, because it's upside down ;) The characters are upside down,yes,that is true.but ,maybe the designer did it on purpose. In my opinion,"upside down"means 倒了(dao4 le)，which have the same Pinyin with the phrase"到了"(dao4 le).And "到了" means "something is coming."So,the implicit means" Good luck is coming." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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