How accurate are Chinese symbols in games?

[Deleted]

It's interesting to see all the enmities between various asian cultures. I was engaged to a Korean girl who's mother hated me sight-unseen for my Japanese blood. Then again, my mother has said on numerous occasions that black men only exist to rape white women, so I guess everyone's a bigot.

[Yuan]

Yah, I understand that perfectly. Her heritage is Taiwanese, too.

But I've been through all that and MORE...

I am what is known as a HALF. Just like Alucard. Like half-vampire (Caucasian), half-Asian... It was kinda hard growing up as a half during the 90s, but now I'm hearing they're all the rage...

Oh well... Even politics can't win against fashion.

[Trickless]

Jan 17, 2011 14:17:10 GMT -5 Yuan said:

老果奴 ----> old pulp slave = someone who loves fruit PASS TEST

I see, so that's what it meant.

I guess DeusEx3 passes the Chinese test after all!

[Ganelon]

Yeah, I entirely agree with Yuan. If some folks object to "Fruit Slave's Fruit Shop," then they either don't know Chinese very well or they think it's supposed to be a common term when it's not. Some of the signs are proper nouns. How silly would it be if every fruit store was just labeled "Fruit Store?"

And yeah, Yuan, I'm Chinese like you apparently (and no, I don't differentiate between mainlanders and islanders). Cell phones are apparently referred to the same way in both cultures. My Japanese is fairly limited besides knowing the alphabets, some of the most common toddler-level phrases, and a few kanji that resemble the Chinese counterparts. In that respect, knowing only simplified characters has been detrimental.

[derboo]

Jan 17, 2011 13:17:19 GMT -5 Yuan said:

*By the way, BANANA means an asian that grew up/was born in the US or away from the orient. Yellow outside, white insidie.

The self-induced "mild racism" (for lack of a better word) of minority groups can sometimes be irritating to members of the ethnical majority. Some "bananas" in my college used to call exchange students from asia "imports".

Jan 17, 2011 13:17:19 GMT -5 Yuan said:

** 「老果奴水果店」 OMG who wrote this? How in heavens do you ppl write in Chinese? I have friends who speak Mandarin who can't

One doesn't have to know one bit Chinese to write that phrase, as it doesn't contain any simplified characters. Some education in Japanese or traditionally Korean (and maybe traditionally Vietnamese?) is enough.

[Sketcz-1000]

So mystery solved - and actually, not only is it a legitimate store name, it's also a fairly cool slangy/informal type of name which would fit in the context of the situation. Suddenly I'm a tiny bit more interested in DE3.

Also, random trivia on the naming of ethnic groups:
In the UK the term "Asian" refers almost exclusively to people from India and Pakistan - at least that I've seen. Someone from China or Japan would be referred to maybe as East Asian, or simply by their country of origin. It's weird, because psychologically, when I watch American TV shows that use the word Asian, I couldn't help but think of people from India/Pakistan.

Also, when I went to Egypt, lots of restaurants claimed to have an Asian menu, or Asian dishes, and it took me a while to work this out, but when they used the word they actually meant Middle Eastern. It was surprising, because when I ordered the Asian breakfast I was served a local bean dish and the local flat bread.


If you guys are cool with it, I might re-use conversations from this topic for the HG101 blog. Or I might not, maybe, since I've been feeling especially slothful these days.

[KeeperBvK]

"Also, when I went to Egypt, lots of restaurants claimed to have an Asian menu, or Asian dishes, and it took me a while to work this out, but when they used the word they actually meant Middle Eastern. It was surprising, because when I ordered the Asian breakfast I was served a local bean dish and the local flat bread."

Well, the Middle East IS Asian after all. I'm studying Asian Sciences and while not everybody likes it, that includes anything from Japan all the way over to Turkey.

[Deleted]

I really like how this whole thing has covered potentially inflammatory subject matter, but everyone's remained exceptionally mature about it. This has been a really informative discussion (especially considering that I have zero interest in Human Revolution after Invisible War).

[Yuan]

Exactly. Asia can mean anything from Turkey to Japan. But we each have our own idea of what the world represents.

For instance, it is very common in "East Asian" maps to feature the "orient' right in the middle, and America all the way far to the right.

China, or [中國] literally means "Kingdom in the center", because every culture thinks they are the world's belly button.

A Chilean or Brazilian person are technically American, too, but if someone in, say, Japan, thinks about an "American", they will probably be thinking about a US citizen.

Ganelon: My family is originally from the North, [山東], so we really consider ourselves just "Chinese", but yah, I don't make the distinction either, but this can be delicate with certain ppl, so I am used to be very specific about it. I figured you might have some heritage. Finding non-Chinese ppl who can speak fluent Mandarin is not very common (though not impossible).

[derboo]

Jan 19, 2011 0:09:12 GMT -5 Yuan said:

A Chilean or Brazilian person are technically American, too, but if someone in, say, Japan, thinks about an "American", they will probably be thinking about a US citizen.

That's a very particular case, though, cause the country is called America, too.

[Sketcz-1000]

And we have an entry.

blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/01/asian-script-used-by-western-developers.html

Thanks to all who helped.