Date in chinese writing

[lillebaek]

Hi'

Want to translate the date 02/03/2013 or 2 March 2013 into chinese and use it for a tattoo

Please Can you mé

[Lu]

In its most basic form, 2013年3月2号. But why in Chinese? Isn't just writing the date obscure enough?

Also, keep in mind that for the rest of your life every other person you meet will ask you about what makes this date so special to you. The date may not be so special anymore in ten years, or what once made it special (wedding!) may become painful (divorce). Also consider how quickly being asked about this date will get wearisome, then annoying, until you'll want to strangle the person asking, then you'll need to get another tattoo that says 'please don't ask' and people will still ask. Perhaps get it on a ring or a necklace instead?

[edelweis]

2013年3月2日

or

二零一三年三月二日

(difficult to make numbers look pretty though - on this website you can try it in various fonts)

Have fun.

[skylee]

Can you turn the info into a barcode or QR code and have the tattoo artist mark it on you skin exactly as the code? I think that would be cooler than Chinese. I think Angelina Jolie has done something similar. And when people ask you what that means, you could give them some deep talk about commercialisation of self worth or how you have embraced the virtual world, etc.

[Shelley]

As has already been said be careful that you really want this forever.

Before you ink - think and then think again and again.

The numbers given above are correct and are not very attractive as edelweis says, but you can use a set of characters that were developed to help prevent forgeries and are much more complicated. Not sure what they are called but I am sure someone here will know.

Even having said that why do want it in Chinese? I don't understand, Chinese characters are not special or magical.

QR code sounds like a brilliant idea, you have a webpage that is associated to it and when people point their phones at you, all the info about your special day comes up on their screen and there's no need for explanations If for any reason this date stops being significant you can have something else come up or hire out you QR code to someone else for advertising etc. I must say I think that's a really neat idea.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide.

[xiaojiang216]

Shelley, are you talking about these?

貳零一叁年叁月貳日

I'm not sure what these particular character variants for the numbers are called either. But writing the date this way doesn't seem to be very visually appealing either, does it? Perhaps if there was more of a variety of numbers.

Maybe writing the date according to the Chinese calendar would make it more visually appealing? But would that create a problem of referring to a different date? I think it would be something like:

癸巳年甲寅月丁卯日

[Shelley]

Yes those are what I meant. They don't look much better.

Well confirms my original idea that it is probably not the best plan to tattoo it in Chinese.

If it's something romantic try a nice heart with the date across it, or sports use the ball or bat or what ever and the date across it or..............well you get the idea.

But not in Chinese:)

[Lu]

貳零壹叁年叁月貳日 is 大写, it looks more complicated and interesting, but some people might like 二〇一三年三月二日 better because it's more simple and straight.

Either way I don't think you can use 大写 for dates, it's used to write amounts of money, to avoid falsification: it's easy to change 一 into 三 or 十 and thus increase the amount of money paid to you, but hard to change 壹 or 贰.

[Shelley]

Yes I agree Lu, the reason I suggested it is because although mainly used to prevent fraud, I have a watch that uses them, I thought they were just an older variant of numbers not used exclusively for anti-fraud purposes.

It looks like some research in to these numbers is called for. I wondered if anyone here knows more. I shall go and have a look in my books and around the web and see what I come up with.

[renzhe]

Can you turn the info into a barcode or QR code and have the tattoo artist mark it on you skin exactly as the code? I think that would be cooler than Chinese. I think Angelina Jolie has done something similar. And when people ask you what that means, you could give them some deep talk about commercialisation of self worth or how you have embraced the virtual world, etc.

Or they could scan it directly with their smartphone and get redirected to a webpage which explains it.

EDIT: I'm too late, should have read the thread till the end...