New Members raceviper13 Posted May 3, 2011 at 02:00 PM New Members Report Posted May 3, 2011 at 02:00 PM We just moved int our new (to us) home and the previous owners had placed some oriental characters on the shed. See attached photo. I tried to use OCR on these characters using: Chinese Traditional Chinese Simplified Korean Japanese Indonesian Vietnamese But the services I used were unable to help. If you can at least tell me what language it is, that would be a great help. If you can tell me the unicode characters or even the translation, that would be even better! Thank you. Quote
skylee Posted May 5, 2011 at 02:21 PM Report Posted May 5, 2011 at 02:21 PM From vertically from left to right - an upside-down 囍 (double happiness) - upside down means the arrival of double happiness 福 祿 壽 (FU LU SHOU) - happiness, wealth, longevity 菲力浦 (FI LI PU) - transliteration of the name Philip or similar names Quote
jbradfor Posted May 5, 2011 at 02:23 PM Report Posted May 5, 2011 at 02:23 PM How frequently is 囍 placed upside-down? I don't recall seeing it. I see 福 all the time, though. Quote
New Members raceviper13 Posted May 5, 2011 at 02:24 PM Author New Members Report Posted May 5, 2011 at 02:24 PM Thank you. This is very helpful. Philips used to live in this house. Makes sense now. Quote
Hofmann Posted May 5, 2011 at 05:41 PM Report Posted May 5, 2011 at 05:41 PM Never. Even placing 福 and stuff upside down is quite 俗. Most likely the previous owners can't read Chinese and just screwed up. Quote
Kiz Posted May 6, 2011 at 02:24 PM Report Posted May 6, 2011 at 02:24 PM Most Chinese place 福 upside down. 囍 mostly occurs during and shortly after Chinese weddings. It's a Chinese tradition. But it is quite 俗. Quote
Kiz Posted May 7, 2011 at 06:57 AM Report Posted May 7, 2011 at 06:57 AM there's another thing about 囍. 囍 means 双喜临门(Double blessing descends upon the house./Two happy events come at the same time). And it is always a decoupage post on the door during Chinese weddings. Quote
jbradfor Posted May 13, 2011 at 06:04 PM Report Posted May 13, 2011 at 06:04 PM quite 俗 What does that mean exactly? Does it mean something similar to American-English "hick", as in rural and uneducated and uncultured? Or more like "old-fashioned"? Or just "traditional"? Quote
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