Hangzhou Lovin’

Drunk and Disorderly’ Chimps Attacking Ugandan Children

So the new york times has decided to make it’s op-ed page even more sucktacular by hiring this idiot named JOHN TIERNEY. Just look at his smirking face is enough to make you want to kick him in the spleen. Usually I avoid reading his article all together, but for some reason I decided to read his most recent attempt Good News Bears. I was inspired to write this email to him:

to: tierney
subject: Special ed?

I am dumber after reading your article about polar bears and global
warming. Are you retarded? Is that why the new york times pays you to
write op-ed pieces? Seriously, I want to know how you could have
written something using 2nd grade reasoning skills and still get it
published in our nations most important newspaper. Or maybe you just
give great head?

Alf Hickey

I was mucking around in wenlin, my computerized dictionary, and I happened upon the definition for “submissive.” it listed two Chinese words:

I “伏/服帖 fu2tie1 (I guess different parts of china use different fu’s.) 1. Comfortablee; cozy 2. Obedientt; submissive; docile 3. Fittingg perfectly”

II “温良忍让 wen1liang2ren3rang4 1. submissive.” This is a compound word combining:

“温良 wen1liang2 1. gentle and kindhearted”
“忍让 ren3rang4 1. to be conciliatory”

These definitions imply that in Chinese, the word submissive has a positive connotation while to me English “submissive” to me is almost totally negative The only places I can think of with positive connotations are in BDSM, which is the exception which proves the rule, and religious sense of be submissive to god,” which I personally feel is fairly old fashioned usage, but that’s just me.

But Chinese usage just blows me away. How 服帖 (futie) can mean cozy, fitting perfectly and submissive at the same time. Those concepts just aren’t close together in my head. I can kind of see how you might fit them together, but a person who would fit them together has a very different world view than me. A world view that finds comfort and perfection in obedience.

The second word 温良忍让 (wenliangrenrang) just as especially since 温良 (wenliang) is often described as a desirable trait in women.

Maybe I’m making to much out of this; it is very hard to translate connotations correctly. But I just can’t remember another time I learned a word were the Chinese definition and roots so clashed with the English sense of the word. It’s also disturbing because it seems to be a vindication of western stereotypes of China. On the other hand the language is surely evolving. At one time in English, being submissive was probably thought of as generally a good thing, e.g. to be submissive to god, the king, your husband and your father. So perhaps the connotation is changing in modern Chinese as well. Personally I hope so, nothing grates against me more than praise of blind obedience and the assumption those in power are all knowing and good.

Note: Blogger did some very stranges things to this post when i tried to use their spell check. It started cutting out words at random and making weird compound words. The font’s also seem to be messed up. But I’ve been up all night doing nothing, so I can’t be bothered to fix it all now if there are a few mistakes left