Stripe Less Tiger
From reader "Simon":
"Hey Tian, I viewed your site and found something that disturbed me. I have a tattoo of what I thought was meant to mean tiger. What does it need to actually mean tiger? Thanks, -Simon"
It is my regret to inform Simon that the tattoo he has is wrongly written and it has a horizontal stroke that is missing.
The correct character is this 寅.
If the character was written correctly, it means "to respect, reverence; respectfully; 3rd terrestrial branch".
By the way, the character shown above by itself does not mean tiger, it is only tiger when it is combined with 虎.
posted by tian at
1:24 AM
14 Comments:
Hi, This is Fred, a translator and writer whose native language is Mandarin Chinese (http://fredjame.com).
"寅" (pronounced as "Yin" in Chinese, "Tora" in Japanese) does mean "Tiger" in a literal way. An easy analogy is the Chinese astology which uses 12 animals to represent 12 signs/months/times-in-a-day/etc.
In the order of animals, tiger is the 4th, and "寅" represents the 4th animal, therefore "寅" is literally interchangeable with "虎" (tiger, "Hu" in Chinese, also "Tora" in Japanese). In fact, Japanese use "寅" to refer to "tiger" more than Chinese.
My 2 cents. :-)
This is the second time we've seen the "stripeless" tiger on this blog. I wonder why? Here's the first mention.
It's not a Chinese nor Japanese simplification. Is this the result of people passing on badly formed characters between tatoo parlors?
Inta-resu-ting...
Yo Fred, Mr. "translator and writer whose native language is Mandarin Chinese", somehow "Fred" does not sound Chinese at all. Or are you one of those posers that try to pretend to know a little bit Chinese so you can hook up with Asian chicks?
Anyway, all personal attacks aside, if you read carefully, Tian's original posting was about the correctness of "Simon"'s tattoo. Especially when the guy emailed with "I have a tattoo of what I thought was meant to mean tiger", therefore the character's intended meaning was already established. For the rest of us readers, we aren't senile old geezers that needed to be repeated over and over again.
The "tiger" character was obviously wrong! Come on, my grandma can even tell you that, and she is dead.
Having that said, next time you decide to show off your "蛋中尋骨" skills, do us all a favor, stick to your own website. Just want you to know, I have read your site, and I think it is total bullocks. Go look it up.
And keep your "2 cents", because that is what your comment really worth.
Wow, some heated comments are been exchanged here...
Wulong, I have a good idea where they got their tattoo templates from: link
Ok, here is my share of 2 cents, if you don't mind.
My understanding is that 寅 does mean "tiger" in the old days. But most of the kids nowadays won't know about that unless they are studying at high schools in Hong Kong, Taiwan or Mainland China. My understanding is that 寅 is old Chinese.
For Mr. Fred to point out that 寅 means "tiger", it's like me trying to tell you that "gay" doesn't really mean "homosexual people" but "beautiful"!
Mr. Fred is also so 一知半解 in telling people that Hanzi Smatter is a site to inform Western kids not to get wrong Chinese/Japanese character tattoos, and that our Tian is a Western kid. I really want to laugh!
Angela <-- who sent you that 勉族 tattoo picture.
Nice anonymous posters.. care to reveal your true identity?
C'mon guys, it is possible for Chinese people to have western names. During my travels in China and Hong Kong I came across many a "Fred," "Anson," "Cherry," etc. Chinese people learning English usually pick out their name and use it whenever they get a chance. The craziest names I came across were "Bear" and "Leg" (yes someone named themselves LEG). I think John from Sinosplice has a story about this.
So, it's not infeasible that Fred actually does speak Mandarin natively, and he just prefers to use his made up English name.
wulong, you remind me of all those Chinese girls who called themselves "Fanny" and "Penny"! ;)
(Girls! Trust me! Don't call yourself "Fanny"! Especially if you are going to study in Britian!)
And do you know that "Hui" is a swear word in Russian? Poor Hong Kong people who's last name is "Hui"! (I have a friend of mine whose Russian boyfriend has to share his office with a HK guy. His last name is Hui and the Russian boyfriend told me he couldn't stop thinking of all those dirty thing as he entered his office everyday.)
It seems that some Chinglish or Engrish are in order!
Angela
Oops! Spelling mistake! I mean Britain, not "Britian"! D'oh!
Angela
I think it is fine for Asian people to have Western names. Countries with a clash of Western and Eastern culture tend to have both English and Chinese names.
Yeah, like this taiwanese guy whose Western name was "Potato", and when hanging out with Australians they just called him "Spud".
I still don't get it, Fred is trying to point out some misunderstandings of Tian on the meaning of 寅 and all he got was flame posts? 寅 indeed means tiger according to the Chinese zodiacs nomenclature. Pay him due credits cos' he deserves one.
Joe Thong,
If you look at the TATTOO closely, the middle stroke is missing in 寅. It got nothing to do with the definition of the character.
ps. You should read both the original posting and previous comments carefully before deciding to leave a comment.
Hi,
As I know, in the Eight Diagrams in Chinese mythology, there are 12 characaters:子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥，which also represent the Twelve Branches used to desighate years.
The Twelve Branches should be: 鼠、牛、虎、兔、龍、蛇、馬、羊、猴、雞、狗、豬.
Comparing with these two sequences, "寅" truly represents the year of Tiger. But in a more conscientious way to treat this case, "寅" does not equal to tiger, except in the use like this: "寅虎".
Willie, a Mandarin teacher from Taiwan.
Excuse me Fred who calls himself anonymous! But the year of the tiger is the 3rd year in order of animals. Rat, Ox, Tiger, rabit... and so on. I'm born in the year of tiger (as my nickname suggests) *sigh... when will westerners learn!
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