(Jamie Rector for the New York Times).
The caption of this picture from the New York Times says it all:
Shad Magness thought his tattoo said “One Love.” Six months after he got it he found out it says “Love Hurts.”
Don’t ask me why, but getting a tattoo in a language that you do not speak – specifically Chinese – is the new “in” thing from loving fathers, bikers, to NBA stars according to this article in The New York Times.
Best among the anectdotes was Britney Spear’s request for a tattoo that said “mysterious” in Chinese, and she got one that said “strange.” Someone NBA player wanted his initials – Chinese is not a phonetic language! I can’t remember if he got the one that turned out to be some weird moth-eating insect.
Humor aside, this trend is both worrisome and very familiar to me because growing up in an all-white area, I was either ignored, called names, or…given unwelcome attention as a “China doll,” etc. When our skating club put on a show, of course I was stuck in the Chinese number, with the pointy hats, the awful costumes with the frog closures, and the supportive comment from the parent doing my stage makeup, “And you already have the chinky eyes – it makes doing the makeup so much easier!”
There’s all sorts of issues here, foremost among them that I’m Korean, but no one seemed to bother with that thought or care. But also, as I’ve welcomed more and more Korean culture into my life, I see how it has lasted through thousands of years … and I don’t want it being commodified for mass consumption (so far, only tae kwon do has pierced the mainstream consciousness – I think kimchi is a little too much for people to take – and as much as I respect the aspects of Korean culture that come from China (quite a bit, as a matter of fact), I don’t want Chinese culture to be something you merely buy, or wear, either.
But it’s all around me, even in my progressive college town. I went to drop off some photos the other day and saw that the clerk was wearing a Chinese symbol around his neck (I can read, a little; in Korean this writing system is called han-ja or han-mun, and I knew enough that it was backwards. I don’t know why, but I mentioned that to him.
“Oh, really?” he said, and laughed. “I got it because it’s a dog, and it’s Year of the Dog.”
I really don’t get it. I’ve never had an urge to get a necklace that said Ich bin ein Berliner or anything like that (note: also a bad translation; it says “I am a doughnut” in German). Why on earth would I want to? But everything from the mysterious (strange?) East is sooooo cool. I had a doctor once who flew into the exam room wearing Buddhist mala beads, some Native American bead thingie, and some African charm. There was a Guatemalan huipile and a dream catcher on her wall. Talk about mixed messages!
All I can say, if you think Chinese characters look cool, why don’t you take a class and learn what they mean? It will be less “strange” that way, I guarantee it.
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