watch fob

[fholcomb]

hello,

i have a watch fob that i got from my father's estate. i am guessing that it came from china during WWII or the Korean War. i am trying to find out what it says. it is a bit worn on the back. i have 2 scans, on of the front (54k), one of the back (2.64m). i would appreciate any help you can give me.

thanks

frank

http://home.covad.net/~fholcomb/fobfront.jpg

http://home.covad.net/~fholcomb/fobback.jpg

[roddy]

Here's the back of it at a much more managable size (200KB, rather than 2.4MB)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/fobback.gif

Roddy

[skylee]

The two characters at the centre, from right to left are "朝鮮" (Chosun, aka Korea).

The five characters at the centre, top down, look like "XX會員章" (XX member badge). The second one seems to be Hanguel.

The characters around, anti-clockwise from bottom, look like "京城協X會 始XXX紀念 物產共X會" (Capital XX association commemoration of establishment produce XX association)

I could be very wrong ...

[fholcomb]

thanks for the interpretation. so, is this Korean?

i have to tell you, that this has been a frustrating adventure. i thought i recognized some of the characters as being Korean, so i sent a picture to someone who read Korean and they said it was Chinese. i then sent a picture to someone who read Chinese and they said it was North Korean.

i checked on Korean site and most of the characters where unrecognizable. i checked a Chinese site and it looked closer. so, here i am.

thanks again

frank

[galitonwu]

京城协赞会

始 五年纪念

物产共 会

赞助

朝鲜

[Claw]

The X in 物产共X会 has a 辵 (辶) radical, if that helps anyone. I can't seem to figure out the right side of it though.

[Quest]

朝鮮

物産共進會

京城協賛會

始政五年記念

賛助會員章

Can you read Chinese?

The words are in Chinese, and they mean:

Cho -- sun (korean)

Resources -- Products -- Collaboration -- Advancement -- Association

Capital -- City -- Contributions -- Donations -- Association

Commencement -- Governance -- Fifth -- Aniversary -- Commemoration

Contributor/Donor's Badge/Emblem

I believe your watch fob is a product of Korea. (they wrote in Chinese characters in the past, but the average korean can no longer read their past anymore, how sad!)

[holyman]

korean. that building is korean style, not chinese.

[Guest Yau]

is it korean style chinese character or ancient chinese character?

I can't read every word,

only 朝鮮/ 贊助會員章 / 京城協贊會/ 紀念 are easy enough to guess.

[Claw]

is it korean style chinese character or ancient chinese character?

I believe they're just Chinese characters written in 小篆 style (first used around the 3rd century BC, but now used mostly for decorative purposes).

Not everyone who can read Chinese can read 小篆 since there are some differences, and as Quest said, Koreans no longer write using Chinese characters, so this accounts for both your Chinese and Korean friends not being able to read it. However, it looks like Quest has already deciphered the whole thing.

[Claw]

I made an image so that it's easier for you to figure out which character corresponds to which. Just cross-reference with Quest's translation to get the meaning (note that Chinese used to be written from right to left, so you will have to reverse the characters that Quest wrote):

(I moved the image to tinypic.com since I don't want to host it anymore... tinypic will eventually delete it so if it disappears and you want to see it, then PM me.)

[skylee]

BTW, "始政五年" is 1915. "始政" ("commencement of governance" as Quest says) refers to the start of Japanese occupation, i.e. 1910. Take a look at this Japanese website -

１９１０年 - 日韓併合、朝鮮は日本の植民地となる。

(translation - 1910 - merger of Japan and Korea; Korea became Japan's colony.)

１９１５年８月 - 日本が韓国を併合して５周年を記念して、『始政五年記念朝鮮物産共進会』が開かれる。

(translation - August 1915 - To mark the fifth anniversary of the merger of Korea, the 『始政五年記念朝鮮物産共進会』(The fifth anniversary memorial Chosun products advancement association) was established.)

So the inscription should be Japanese Kanji, and the fob is quite a piece of korean antique from the colonial period.

[fholcomb]

thanks for the translation. i am very glad i found this site. you have all been a big help and i have learned something new, always a good thing.

thanks again