China’s netizens are all in a twitter over the account of a carpenter who was commissioned to make a cinnabar red high-backed chair with the finials at the top to be “in the shape of dragons’ heads” (chéng lóngtóu 成龍頭). Unfortunately, he misinterpreted the directions to mean “[in the shape of] Jackie Chan’s head” (“Chénglóng tóu 成龍頭”).
LMAO ok so to elaborate on this absolute gem, notice how the characters provided for “in the shape of dragons’ heads” and “[in the shape of] Jackie Chan’s head” are identical? That wasn’t a typo.
The thing you need to understand about Chinese names is that they all have meaning. And I don’t mean that in the sense of “if you trace the etymology back through two languages it has its roots in a Hebrew phrase that means “God is my ____” that many Western names have. I mean that in the sense of “almost all of these words are still in regular use today and my parents very literally named me “pretty [and] wise” in Chinese.
(Sidenote: This is why we get annoyed at made-up ‘Chinese’ names that just pull two random vaguely Chinese-sounding syllables together. It is blindingly obvious when it’s not a real name).
成
(chéng) means “to become”, “to turn into”. 龍 (lóng)
is “dragon”. Thus, Jackie Chan’s Chinese stage name,
成龍 (Chénglóng), literally means “become dragon”. (頭 (tóu), of course, means “head”)
(Further sidenote: This is actually a bit of a pun/reference. Specifically, it is a reference to Bruce Lee, whose stage name was 小龍 (Xiǎolóng), or, “Little dragon”. So Jackie’s chosen stage name means both “become dragon”, and “become [like] Bruce Lee”)
The other thing you need to know about Chinese is that we don’t put spaces between terms in written text.
What all this means is that the way you’d write “[carve] into dragon heads” can be identical to the way you’d write “[carve] Jackie Chan’s head”, and literally the only difference would be where you pause when you vocalise it: before lóngtóu, or after chénglóng. XD
My favorite professor ever introduced me as an undergrad to the concept of “impossible history” - histories that can not exist, even though they happened. His example was the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution cannot exist within the logics of capitalism, imperialism, and white European dominance. Enslaved black people liberating themselves without the help of “friendly whites?” A tiny island in the Caribbean, with an army of the aforementioned former slaves, defeating multiple global superpowers? Impossible! So this cannot be allowed to have happened. Haiti must be economically victimized forever, moreso even than other former slave colonies in the Caribbean, just so that we can point to it and say “look, how sad,” so that no one gets to see Haiti’s very existence as the triumph it is. We teach extensively about the American and French revolutions, but only mention in passing the Haitian Revolution which occurred at the same time. Most college courses on Latin American history exclude Haiti even if they cover the rest of the Caribbean. The Haitian Revolution was impossible, a dangerous fantasy that just so happens to have actually happened. So it must be forgotten, the name of Haiti must be made synonymous with poverty, ignorance, and suffering, while never mentioning that those are all the products of 200 years of political and economic warfare and subterfuge against the island, beginning with the presidency of Thomas Jefferson!! Because we cannot have anyone thinking that even the most poor and downtrodden people. when united and organized around a common cause, can make history and change the world for the better
*kid presenting meme* Iron Man 3 was a good movie you’re all just unnerved by the plot twist because it revealed that the white American mastermind was behind the whole terrorist ploy instead of just painting muslims as the stereotypical bad guy terrorist
Point but did we have to have Tony dump out his entire trauma on us, and that little boy, to get there? 😐
You mean addressing his ptsd and acknowledging that a hero can suffer from trauma and anxiety? why is that a bad thing?
Because we didn’t consent to that?? Like using I some random child to dump out your emotional trauma is wrong. 😞
Didn’t consent? Since when do we consent to a character showing mental illness and fighting his trauma and suffering? Like did you consent to Bucky being brainwashed or Natasha looking back at her past or Killmonger dealing with his anger/pain or…? And how did he dump all his trauma on Harley? Like I’m sorry but have you never met a child? They’re capable of being supportive and it’s not like Tony abused Harley or beat him up or hurt him to let out his trauma?
Buddy you consented when you sat down to watch the fucking movie
That’s the worst thing I’ve ever read omg is it real???
Why do I feel like people are whining because they don’t like how Tony’s PTSD was a more realistic and everyday portrayal of mental illnesses and not the romanticised version that they want?
White collar worker and executives: “Hurray, it’s labor day weekend! 3 full days off! We are so fortunate to live in a Great Country that Cares about it’s Workers!”
Service industry workers who know labor day weekend is one of the busiest 3 days of the year which means double or triple shifts and not seeing family all while being forced to be not only polite but cheerful:
While also knowing that Labor Day was intended as a holiday for them and they still have to put up with this shit
