Lu 3,206 Posted May 11, 2004 Report Share Posted May 11, 2004 Skylee: that was Xu Bing, pictures of his script can be found on the net. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
skylee 1,912 Posted May 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2004 Lu, thanks a lot for the info. I remembered the name of the work was "天書" but could not find any info when I searched for it using google. Now, here is a picture on "天書" from the website of Xu Bing (徐冰) - Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ian_Lee 6 Posted May 11, 2004 Report Share Posted May 11, 2004 These characters look like those invented by the western Xia during Song's era. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pazu 9 Posted May 12, 2004 Report Share Posted May 12, 2004 I think his idea was to make fun of Chinese and Foreigners. Foreigners thought they knew those were Chinese, but they were wrong. Chinese thought they were some strange Chinese characters, but they were wrong, because those weren't Chinese at all. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lu 3,206 Posted May 12, 2004 Report Share Posted May 12, 2004 Was it to make fun of people? I think it's just creativity. It's fun to invent characters. Too bad Xu Bing had the idea before I had, but then, he can carve and calligraph the characters, I could never do that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
skylee 1,912 Posted May 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2005 I saw another of Xu Bing's installations called "bird" at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo yesterday. It shows how the character has changed through time. Different shapes of the character "bird" float in the air like they are flying. Very delightful. Relevant websites -> http://www.xubing.com/ReadingLandscape/main.html http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/eleganceofsilence/info/index.html Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Glenn 65 Posted May 4, 2005 Report Share Posted May 4, 2005 Sunyata: what does that third character mean, the one with the dragons? I found it on this site (in Japanese), and it basically says that the character's existence hasn't been confirmed yet, and that it seems that it's only being spread in rumors. According to the rumors, it's a kokuji myouji, or a Japanese made kanji for use in names, and it's readings are taito, daito, and otodo. It also says that it's registered in Konjaku Mojikyo, but that there is no detailed explanation. So it seems that this is just something that someone made up, and doesn't actually exist. As soon as I saw that I knew I had seen it somewhere. I had to do a little digging, and what I found wasn't what I thought I would find; I was pretty sure it existed and the meaning was listed, but oh well. I do like the poem version of it, though. : Quote Link to post Share on other sites
in_lab 2 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Back on the original subject, words that I can't write (or even read): hair band: tou2ku1 percent: pa1 (not sure if this is Chinese) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
skylee 1,912 Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 hair band 頭箍 (tóu gū) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
in_lab 2 Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Thanks Skylee! For this word, like a number of other less common words, I can also teach a Chinese-speaking friend the proper pronunciation. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
skylee 1,912 Posted January 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 I have started to keep a list in my PDA on words that I use but don't know / always forget how to write / pronounce. Some are already on this thread, these are not yet (since I am a Cantonese speaker, I need the cantonese pronunciations) - 搋 - Cantonese - 猜; pinyin - chuai1 e.g. 搋麵粉 撬 - Cantonese - giu6; pinyin - qiao4 e.g. 撬起 擤 - Cantonese - 試凳切; pinyin - xing3 e.g. 擤鼻涕 饔 - Cantonese - 雍; pinyin - yong1 飧 - Cantonese - 孫; pinyin - sun1 e.g. 饔飧不繼 俎 - Cantonese - 左; pinyin - zu3 e.g. 越俎代庖 糴 - Cantonese - 笛; pinyin - d12 e.g. 糴米 狼戾 - Cantonese - long1 lai2; pinyin - lang2 li4 e.g. 發狼戾 騸 - Cantonese - 扇; pinyin - shan4 e.g. 騸雞 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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