Signese

spotted in a corner of the cbd on the way home from dinner. positive taken: got my new word for the day, 違著

Longan's for sale at a shop in New York City's Flushing Chinatown.

Spotted on the way back from a wedding in a local 祠堂 surrounded by chaotically half built houses, attended by 400 people, lots of burning incense and sacrificing animals to ancestors, copious pyrotechnics,  unbelievable amounts of money given and received in 红包's and no doubt a massive 聘礼.

So this isn't a sign, but it does have Chinese characters. That counts right? Not complicated, weird, or confusing. Just historically interesting. Found in the bottom of a drawer. All up there's 15kg worth and not enough 分 to even make a 角

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone. 

Because even the finest of us need to be reminded.

Here's a contribution from @stapler - a bright and happy sign outside a local restaurant in... not sure where, maybe stapler will tell us. Or maybe he's busy trying to figure out what 菜饭 and 常米 are.

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

I wonder what a non-民用 key is. 

Here's another dim sum menu, sort of. This one is especially useful because it features only 12 items from a busy upstairs restaurant that offers probably a hundred items. (I ate upstairs.) These take away selections are available for purchase on the street level; no need to go inside. My guess is they are some of the house's best sellers. This place was across the street from my Hong Kong (Wan Chai) hotel 華美粵海酒店。

If you figure out and learn these 12 items, you might not be a dim sum virtuoso, but you won't go hungry and will be able to gain a toehold in the dim sum world.

Here is the menu for the recent food article in which I reported on three mornings of Cantonese dim sum. This menu is from Yulong Seafood Hotpot Restaurant in Macau, near Ponte 16. The dim sum article is here: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/54982-enjoying-dim-sum/?tab=comments#comment-424075

(You can click the photos to enlarge them.)

The waitress brings a pencil along with the menu, and you put a check mark below the items that you want to eat. She told me it didn't matter which box I checked, one of which is for ordering an item a la carte 单点 and the other for ordering an item as part of a larger meal 加单。

She returns later with a typed receipt for the order as it was entered into their system. Always a good idea to double check at that point to be sure there was no mixup. Pricing category designations appear beside the name of the item: 特点，大点，中点，小点。

I always try to pick up a blank extra menu so I can study it at my leisure later in the day and do a better job of ordering tomorrow.

In some places this kind of thing could get you into a lot of trouble.

So, what do we think of the calligraphy on show here?

With that spirit of sacrifice common to all members here at Chinese-forums.com, @DrWatson has provided us with pictures of the menu at Kiroran. Our correspondent writes:

Quote

 

I most definitely snapped a photo of the menu as well, that was the primary purpose of taking the photos, and it was only then I thought of Signese. Sorry...my stomach thinks before my brain sometimes!

 

Any thoughts on the menu, any of these dishes worth trying? The prices are a bit high, but I am guessing for some of those dishes they are meant to be shared in a group.  I thought the 麻辣鸡 and the Loulan Spicy pot looked good, also I'm always up for hot pot, unfortunately the hot pot menu was not posed on the shop window.

 

I am more hesitant about the noodle dishes though, I don't know why but it looks like Spaghetti in some of the photos, but hopefully it is actually pulled noodles...

 

葱爆羊肉 for me. What's everyone else having?

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

I like to think of some poor foreign student recognising the first character and assuming from context he can get his puncture sorted out off to the left.

A submission from @DrWatson from his friendly neighbourhood restaurant. Hands up if you think we should send him back to get a photo of the rest of the menu. 

Quiz: The Chinese name doesn't match up with the English one. Who or what was it named after? Where does Kiroran come into it?

And if you already know the answer, don't post ;-)

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

Signs like this are (or were) common, as people tried to order their own surroundings a bit closer to the heart's desire.

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

It's clear what it means, but I like to think of someone trying to just rent a meaty stick.

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

Love of your own safety and respiratory health optional.

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

You can all write this from memory, can't you? Taken by Randall in Beijing in 2006. 

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

This one was from Skyee, taken in Pingyao. Now, what shouldn't you do to the produce?

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

Road safety this week.

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until sometime in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone.

This one's a message to anyone who thinks people are interested in a weekly picture of Chinese characters.

One fairly random photo of Chinese characters in action, per week, until around this time in 2018. And perhaps longer if I'm encouraged. Those who want to contribute their own random photos of Chinese characters are welcome, just get in touch and I'll add you to the contributor list so you can post directly, from computer or phone. 

And what better to start with than breakfast?

Once again I am at the Thyssen-Bornesmisza museum in Madrid. This is one of my favourite museums which I have visited repeatedly. It has just occurred to me that the Museum has chosen to use Simplified Chinese in some (not all) of its signs (as shown), which seems a bit unusual / unconventional. I mean, usually, such museums would only use their native languages and the better ones would have English (like Prado, which is another great museum that I visited again yesterday). If a musuem chooses to use an Asian language, I think it would usually go for Japanese. The museum's brochure is of course in several different languages, including Chinese and Japanese. And as usual there is not a Korean version. At Prado yesterday I actually saw a group of Korean tourists with their own translated guide to the masterpieces, which I assumed that the tour guide / company had done for them.

I appreciate that all three of the grand museums in Madrid are open for free for everyone (every evening for Prado and Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-B on Monday PM). I think it is very generous of them.

PS - And the British Museum is always free (but suggests donation of like 5 pounds, haha).

Sevilla is gorgeous. It is cold and sunny so a good way to spend some time is to sit under the sun and type up a blog post.

I have just done the obligatory visit to the Cathedral (the third time), and I took these pictures there. The first one is about the lack of Chinese, and the second one is about 出力.

I took these photos at Taipei Fine Arts Museum today. What do you think about the Chinese translation?

I am currently at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I think it is kind and generous of the church to let tourists in and take pictures during mass. Many churches don't allow it. (But then at the same time the church is also selling souvenirs to and making money from tourists.)

Most signs are in multiple languages including Chinese. I have noted an interesting inconsistency. While most Chinese signs are in simplified Chinese, the sign asking for donations for the new bells is in traditional Chinese. Possible reasons: (1) general confusion over the two scripts in the "western" world; (2) the translations were done by different translators; (3) users of traditional Chinese are much more likely to donate money than users of simplified Chinese as the majority of the latter group are from mainland China where there are church problems (although the latter group is rich nowadays).

I think (3) is likely to be the reason.

Another interesting thing is the different names for the Treasury in Japanese, Korean and Chinese - 秘寶、 寶物、珍寶.