cursing in chinese = dumb idea by ladyhawk3

FIREFLY CHINESE TRANSLATIONS

cursing in chinese = dumb idea

POSTED BY: LADYHAWK3
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 4, 2012 07:59
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:23 PM

if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:30 PM

BYTEMITE

According to the RP manual, most predominantly English speaking people in the future really only know how to SWEAR in Chinese... And not necessarily very well.

It could be just via degeneration and common use as slang from people who originally couldn't speak much Chinese in the first place has caused non-standard (incorrect) pronunciation to become widespread.

But, if you mean in the modern day, yeah, I hear it's pretty bad.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:34 PM

MINCINGBEAST

who's to say when gutter-chinese sounds like 500 years from now, if not joss whedon?

always sort of felt that the cursing-in-chinese thing was uncomfortably akin to white dudes with awkwardly shaped chinese pictograms tattooed on 'em, that they'd can't even read in the first place.

"dude, this tattoo, like, stands for spirit and duality and stuff."

and a chinese guy looks at it and recognizes that it says douche...

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 4:26 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by ladyhawk3: if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.

I'm inclined to agree. If it takes too long to learn how speak the words / phrases properly, or darn near close enough, well.... what % of viewers would ever really know ?

I don't speak Chinese, and w/ out a proper primer on the show, it took me a while to figure out what was going on. While a novel idea, I think it sells the idea short if it's not done right.

Bones: "Don't 'rawr' her!" Booth: "What? she'rawred' me first.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 5:32 PM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, executive producer of Hollywood award-winning Pirate News TV at PirateNew.org

But it IS creepy. Like the future is far more terrifying that were were led to believe. Too bad the future is now.

That's what Joss was doing... not trying to say Commie China is 'cool'. Perhaps that's why none were in the show? Maybe that's why the Chinese owner of Fox, Deng Wen Di Murdoch, banned FF before it's first epp?

In fact, Commie China has a recent history of cannibalism, during it's "Cultural Revolution". School teachers were considered especially tasty. Reavers were made by the jew banks in NY and UK who founded Communism with the British Fabian Socialists. Now the Chinese just eat babies, thanks to mandatory abortion ordered by sodomite jew Heinz "Henry" Kissenger Knight of the British Empire.

Gruesome discovery in China: Aborted baby as herbal soup http://greenteachat.com/2009/05/17/baby-aborted-and-eaten-afterwards/ http://www.abortiontv.com/Glitch/AbortedBabiesSoldAsHealthFood.htm http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/04/02/cannibalism-in-china-acceptabl
e-if-for-health/

Reavers... jew banksters made them

"I am not a crook!" -Old Dead Guy, a/k/a Tricky Dick, who opened the West to Commie Chinese invasion

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Thursday, February 25, 2010 6:19 AM

ZEEK

I recently found out that Serenity wasn't even an actual spaceship. I mean wtf if they aren't going to make an actual ship that can travel through space then they shouldn't even make the show. Am I right?

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Thursday, February 25, 2010 7:39 AM

TUJIAOZUO

I always liked the use of Mandarin in the show.

Sure, the cast butchered the pronunciations in Mandarin. But I think in that case it helped sell me the idea. Slang in all cultures is an ever changing aspect of the human vocabulary. It bastardizes words, adopts different definitions, alters spelling and can warp an original word's pronunciation. If you look up American slang from just fifty years ago, it's vastly different from what's being used now.

So to hear some horrific use of Mandarin set 500 years in the future feels logical to me. If the States joined with China to create a superpower, both countries languages could meld over time. If America was still a superpower, English could be more prominent for formal/business occasions whilst Mandarin would be for more personal aspects of life (as it's used for cursing or showing affection on the show). And Americans could be horrible at picking up the Mandarin, leading to more of a lax diction as time goes on.

That's just my theory though.

Your Indian Pirate Lord, Ash

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Thursday, February 25, 2010 7:53 AM

THESOMNAMBULIST

Quote:
Originally posted by ladyhawk3: if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.

Yes that's like those war films where the German officers speak to each other in English but with a German accent?!... Sometimes you just have to let things slide no?

I'm fairly certain that if you maintain your rigid stance on entertainment you'll probably ruin all TV for yourself.

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Sunday, November 28, 2010 11:14 AM

THESCARREDMAN

I think we need to employ a little suspension of disbelief here. While it's true some show and fic fans obsess over the use of Mandarin in Firefly, it's really a great illustration of the 'Verse's polyglot nature. As for pronunciation and translation issues (who can forget Atherton Wing's mangling of the word 'go se'), as long as the meaning is revealed by context, who cares? Think about what English sounded like 500 years ago, forsooth. I'm just glad we can understand what the characters are saying, neh?

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010 1:11 PM

DREAMTROVE

Oh come now, like no chinese film has ever has people speaking bad English in it?

Half my family is Chinese, and none of them were bothered by it. They commented on the actors ability or lack there of with the language, the idea is to present the impression of a culturally merged world, and it is similar to at of bladerunner.

Many remarked that the actors were not created equal, people thought Jayne did pretty well, etc.

But there was one complaint that drew Somme fire from my various family members: okay, given that River and Simon are vaguely Asiatic, like some sort of Slavic, still, where are the actual Chinese? There are many more Chinese than westernerks today, but how would a future culture evolve as a merger between east and west in which the result would be racially diverse, there are after all two black crew members, but there would be no actual chinese people left alive?

Also, another comment I got a lot was that the swearing was all derived from Beijing street slang, and while modern and legit, did not show a spectrum of the chinese language and would be meaningless to most Chinese. But this skips the point that it wasn't made for a chinese audience, it was made to create the impression of an east meets west world.

The answer to the missing asians is obvious, of course. Hollywood. There are precious few Asian actors available, the town is primarily made up of blacks and whites, with ther largest ethnic group being Jews, though i never did a head count to see who was jewish, I'm sure someone here has ;)

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Saturday, February 26, 2011 2:48 AM

SGTLOBO

Yes, I was actually a sergeant.

Quote:
Originally posted by ladyhawk3: if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.

I just don't think it sounds very menacing to curse in Chinese ... not that I know how. Now cursing in Japanese sounds mean ... Cursing in German or Afrikaans sounds pretty fierce too.

While the Anglo-Sino plot is interesting, it does make it tough for the use of Chinese characters. I would have preferred an Anglo-Russo or even an Anglo-Nippon background ... but it is what it is.

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Saturday, February 26, 2011 5:10 AM

CYBERSNARK

Quote:
Originally posted by SgtLobo: Cursing in German or Afrikaans sounds pretty fierce too.

Being polite in German sounds pretty fierce.

----- We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 5:49 PM

NAOE

Quote:
Originally posted by SgtLobo: I just don't think it sounds very menacing to curse in Chinese ... not that I know how. Now cursing in Japanese sounds mean ... Cursing in German or Afrikaans sounds pretty fierce too.

While the Anglo-Sino plot is interesting, it does make it tough for the use of Chinese characters. I would have preferred an Anglo-Russo or even an Anglo-Nippon background ... but it is what it is.

I realize I'm late to this discussion, but... the Japanese don't really have swearing like most languages. Ask anyone from Japan and they'd all say that. There's crude language, but when they want to swear they tend to use English or other foreign languages. Their idea of "crude" language gets translated into swearing in English because we often don't have the, um, shame level? for having been called something like "you" (but with derogatory slant meaning "it," as in "you are not worthy enough to be given a human pronoun"). I mean, in English, if we called someone a "turtle," they'd just stare and be very bewildered. In Chinese, that's equivalent to "bastard." Just doesn't sound the same, does it?

Not only that, but the characters used for a lot of the writing was actually Japanese. Since Japanese uses simplified Chinese characters and actually has an alphabet for foreign language, it makes sense, seeing as the Chinese pronunciation is slack. Japanese only has two tones, and, I myself have been advised to use the two-tone Japanese pronunciation for Chinese characters, since my oral Chinese is an abomination to humanity's ears. I wouldn't do it, though, since it sounds awful to use Japanese pronunciation for Chinese words (plus Japanese sometimes uses Chinese characters separately, whereas in Chinese they're always in pairs or more). I'm just lucky the character meanings carry over. I can read Chinese, but I'd need to install a new tongue to be able to speak it. Ha ha... complex.

Hm... I think they should have used Korean myself. Korea has a wealth of bad words that puts most other Asiatic languages to shame. Or Spanish. You can't go wrong swearing in Spanish, and it still sounds like a poem.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 7:44 PM

WISHIMAY

Quote:
Originally posted by Naoe: I I mean, in English, if we called someone a "turtle," they'd just stare and be very bewildered. In Chinese, that's equivalent to "bastard." Just doesn't sound the same, does it?

Not only that, but the characters used for a lot of the writing was actually Japanese. I'm just lucky the character meanings carry over. I can read Chinese, but I'd need to install a new tongue to be able to speak it. Ha ha... complex.

Welcome, Samurai... The geta racks are over there, are you a otoko no ko? Tea? Please don't let my ramblings in other areas scare you, I'm actually quite sane a good third of the time :biggrin:

Some animals don't translate well, but Turtle definately means slow, and ostrich means denial, and leech,well, you get my point. We use 'em just not as much...

There are sooo many things about translating Asian culture to English which are very complicated, I think at some point Joss just had to go with what felt and looked best, not what was the most representative.

And just a tongue transplant? You are doing well, as I would need a brain transplant as well :knife:

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Monday, December 03, 2012 9:12 PM

JAMERON4EVA

Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews: But it IS creepy. Like the future is far more terrifying that were were led to believe. Too bad the future is now.

That's what Joss was doing... not trying to say Commie China is 'cool'. Perhaps that's why none were in the show? Maybe that's why the Chinese owner of Fox, Deng Wen Di Murdoch, banned FF before it's first epp?

In fact, Commie China has a recent history of cannibalism, during it's "Cultural Revolution". School teachers were considered especially tasty. Reavers were made by the jew banks in NY and UK who founded Communism with the British Fabian Socialists. Now the Chinese just eat babies, thanks to mandatory abortion ordered by sodomite jew Heinz "Henry" Kissenger Knight of the British Empire.

Gruesome discovery in China: Aborted baby as herbal soup http://greenteachat.com/2009/05/17/baby-aborted-and-eaten-afterwards/ http://www.abortiontv.com/Glitch/AbortedBabiesSoldAsHealthFood.htm http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/04/02/cannibalism-in-china-acceptabl
e-if-for-health/

Reavers... jew banksters made them

"I am not a crook!" -Old Dead Guy, a/k/a Tricky Dick, who opened the West to Commie Chinese invasion

Ughhhhh, you're still on here? Didn't you say the world would end in 2010?

"Time was you're ally human. But you're time has run out. The Forerunners have returned. This will be you're tomb." - The Didect

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Tuesday, December 04, 2012 5:06 AM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
Turtle definately means slow

The Chinese swear for turtle doesn't have much to do with slowness. >_> It's more to do with what the turtle's head and neck looks like and how it withdraws into the shell/sheathe. In other words, translates to a vulgar term for male human anatomy.

Then turtle's egg, which is probably the more common curse than turtle by itself, translates to offspring of the vulgar male human anatomy, or people also more simply translate it as "bastard."

I had no problem with the Chinese. I understand the grim future that Joss was trying to imply - making the characters polyglot with Spanish or French or German or African languages doesn't have the same impact as suggesting that China and America/Britain basically divvy up the whole world before humanity abandons ship. And Russian would have really only worked to the same impact in the Cold War.

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Tuesday, December 04, 2012 7:59 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by ladyhawk3: if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.

You say that like it's his go-to method of having characters curse, and there was no other rationale behind it.

Pretty weird complaint, really.

As for Chinese people and pronunciation - language and pronunciation changes over time. Who's to say that in a few hundred years, that isn't how things may be pronounced?

Excuse me while I soak in all these sweet, sweet conservative tears.

"We will never have the elite, smart people on our side." -- Rick "Frothy" Santorum

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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