Japan Urges the U.S. to Remove Comfort Women Memorial
HT to reader gabriellelost
Okay, so this is the reason why I’m in law school and I really recommend that everyone looks into this issue.
The Japanese government is playing a game where they wait out the lives of these women. Through the colonization of Korea, China, and then movements southwards into South East Asia, Japan’s sexual slavery camps have affected huge swaths of the population.
There is no number to this atrocity. Shame, death, censure, and a ton of other factors have kept women from coming forward and that is fine. But the Japanese government needs to do right by them. No textbooks in Japan mention this event. There are academics in Japan (thankfully only a handful) that say the women chose this or that it was a wartime necessity (see the works of Ikuhiko Hata [major trigger warning there] and contemporaries).
These women were kidnapped and tricked into this situation of utter exploitation and humiliation.
There is so much I want to write about this right now but I really can’t do it justice. I have sources and stuff if anyone is interested. The U.N. Report on Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery, and Slavery-like Practices During Armed Conflict by Gay McDougall is really well-done. She’s brilliant and I love her.
Also to add a couple links specific to the Philippines: On Filipino Comfort Women and a briefer on some suits filed by the Malaya Lolas. Many of the petitioners in these suits have now died of old age, and those remaining are still denied justice.
![fireofspring:
asianhistory:
“In his Web blog entry dated October 7, 2010, Neil Gaiman, author of the Newbery-winning title The Graveyard Book (2008), quoted a passage from a Chinese reader’s message to him:
[O]ne sentence in Graveyard Book said “mass graves is a good place for munching a meal”. [I]t is insulting to Chinese!I know you are just for fun, but I cannot bear it!
Gaiman quoted further communications between him and the reader, and showed the process of how both reached the revelation that the source of “insult,” or offense, came not from Gaiman’s original English text, but from a word choice in the Chinese translation of his book, published as Fen Chang Zhi Shu [坟场之书] in China in 2010. The last quote, written seemingly in a beginner’s English, from that reader says, By now I know it is translator’s fault, not of yours…. “Plague pits is good eating” in Chinese that I translate means “鼠疫坑很好吃” is not insulting. [A]nd the translation in the book that the translator wrote “万人坑很好吃” is insulting (as cited in Gaiman, 2010) Most Westerners will require some explanation of Chinese language, history, and culture to fully understand what caused this peacefully resolved conflict. From Gaiman’s book, the word “plague-pits” in “ ‘Plague-pits is good eatin’,’ said the Emperor of China” (2008, p. 84) is translated into “wan ren keng [万人坑]”, literally meaning “ten-thousand people’s pit.” The lure and danger of adopting this translation are both strong. “Ten-thousand people’s pit” is a colloquial term in Chinese and semantically a good match for “Plague-pits.” The term has been found in an ancient text “Jiashen Zaji” [甲申雜記], written by WANG Gong in the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1127), to refer to massive graves for people who die in a famine, thus “ten-thousand people’s pit” makes a more colloquial choice than “shu yi keng” [鼠疫坑, or plague-pit], a made-up word combination in Chinese. However, 900 years after Wang’s time, “ten-thousand people’s pit” is no longer a neutral noun, but in certain contexts can be a politically and emotionally charged term, thanks to the history of Japanese colonization and military aggression during the first half of the 20th century in China. Though not its only usage in contemporary China, the term is frequently used to refer to the massive pits, discovered in various parts of China, prepared by the Japanese colonizers and army for Chinese forced labor (coal miners, in particular) and victims of massacres, including those who were buried alive. Any ghoulish humor in “ten-thousand people’s pits is good eatin’ ” can be lost to a Chinese audience. In the case of the anonymous Chinese reader who took the trouble to send an electronic message to Neil Gaiman and exchange information and opinions with him back and forth, he or she was greatly offended—imagine how a Western audience would feel about a ghostly joke like “Auschwitz is perfect for partying.”
(source)
I can only assume that an overseas Chinese was responsible for the translation?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m34mvjKU9X1qh6o2ho1_500.jpg)
“In his Web blog entry dated October 7, 2010, Neil Gaiman, author of the Newbery-winning title The Graveyard Book (2008), quoted a passage from a Chinese reader’s message to him:
[O]ne sentence in Graveyard Book said “mass graves is a good place for munching a meal”. [I]t is insulting to Chinese!I know you are just for fun, but I cannot bear it!
Gaiman quoted further communications between him and the reader, and showed the process of how both reached the revelation that the source of “insult,” or offense, came not from Gaiman’s original English text, but from a word choice in the Chinese translation of his book, published as Fen Chang Zhi Shu [坟场之书] in China in 2010. The last quote, written seemingly in a beginner’s English, from that reader says, By now I know it is translator’s fault, not of yours…. “Plague pits is good eating” in Chinese that I translate means “鼠疫坑很好吃” is not insulting. [A]nd the translation in the book that the translator wrote “万人坑很好吃” is insulting (as cited in Gaiman, 2010) Most Westerners will require some explanation of Chinese language, history, and culture to fully understand what caused this peacefully resolved conflict. From Gaiman’s book, the word “plague-pits” in “ ‘Plague-pits is good eatin’,’ said the Emperor of China” (2008, p. 84) is translated into “wan ren keng [万人坑]”, literally meaning “ten-thousand people’s pit.” The lure and danger of adopting this translation are both strong. “Ten-thousand people’s pit” is a colloquial term in Chinese and semantically a good match for “Plague-pits.” The term has been found in an ancient text “Jiashen Zaji” [甲申雜記], written by WANG Gong in the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1127), to refer to massive graves for people who die in a famine, thus “ten-thousand people’s pit” makes a more colloquial choice than “shu yi keng” [鼠疫坑, or plague-pit], a made-up word combination in Chinese. However, 900 years after Wang’s time, “ten-thousand people’s pit” is no longer a neutral noun, but in certain contexts can be a politically and emotionally charged term, thanks to the history of Japanese colonization and military aggression during the first half of the 20th century in China. Though not its only usage in contemporary China, the term is frequently used to refer to the massive pits, discovered in various parts of China, prepared by the Japanese colonizers and army for Chinese forced labor (coal miners, in particular) and victims of massacres, including those who were buried alive. Any ghoulish humor in “ten-thousand people’s pits is good eatin’ ” can be lost to a Chinese audience. In the case of the anonymous Chinese reader who took the trouble to send an electronic message to Neil Gaiman and exchange information and opinions with him back and forth, he or she was greatly offended—imagine how a Western audience would feel about a ghostly joke like “Auschwitz is perfect for partying.”
(source)
I can only assume that an overseas Chinese was responsible for the translation?
Things to watch for:
- One of Zhang Yimou’s classics! The most expensive Chinese film ever made, every second of this is pure eyegasm
- gong li’s face is flawless, i struggled not to take 5 screencaps of her
- jay chou is in it and he’s really sulky
- actually a film with ladies who are badass!
- can be interpreted as alternate universe Azula
- chow yun fat resembles a koala more than ever
- warriors literally dropping down/rising up to the sky
- if you like boobs just watch this film
Things to watch out for:
- tw: incest, violence, mentall illness/pstd
- don’t be an orientalist jerk
There is nothing to disagree with in this post
Except the boobs were not strictly speaking historically accurate (though I love them anyway)
Zhou Youguang: The Father of Pinyin
The name may not register with the majority of expats in China, but it should. Pinyin (拼音), the method by which every foreigner learns Chinese, was designed in the late 1950’s by Zhou and his team of 20 in under three years.
Adeline Koh’s ‘Digitizing Chinese Englishmen’ is now live!
Digitizing ‘Chinese Englishmen’ is a project that involves both digitization and academic commentary on the Straits Chinese Magazine, a literary magazine published in colonial Singapore from 1897-1907 by a combination of Southeast Asian-born Anglophone Chinese subjects, European colonial writers and mixed-race Eurasian writers.
Digitizing ‘Chinese Englishmen’ documents how British colonial culture created a group of “Asian Victorians” in Southeast Asia through the establishment of a colonial intermediary class within the diasporic Chinese group known as the “Straits Chinese.” While the Straits Chinese had established roots in Southeast Asia from the seventeenth century, under British rule they became an important comprador class serving as mediators between the British and the rest of the Empire. Digitizing ‘Chinese Englishmen’ is an attempt to give voice and representation to formerly colonized subjects, and to attempt to work against the “imperial meaning-making” of the archive by implementing new types of reading and commenting technologies that disrupt the idea of dominant and subjugated knowledges.
Please check out the project and support. Learn more about the ‘Asian Victorians’.
(I’m so excited about this…and not only because this humble tumblr was linked on there but I get to be a part of the project too! excited.gif)
Fascinating!! I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to learn classical Chinese and find literatures written by Chinese peoples in SEAsia, particularly in the Straits. Way awesome!
Extraordinary 298-Million-Year-Old Forest Discovered Under Chinese Coal Mine
American and Chinese scientists are flabbergasted after discovering a giant 298-million-year-old forest buried intact under a coal mine near Wuda, in Inner Mongolia, China.
(Read more at Gizmodo)
Guys, if I posted a picture for this entry I would totally have to make this blog NSFW, and you’ll kinda see why. Since it’s February, the month of loooove, we’re gonna talk about all kinds of love and relationships, including homosexual ones. (This is so I can introduce a god to you later.)
Homosexuality in China (Sharing the Peach and Cutting the Sleeve)
So we’re gonna talk about the first figure of speech, and this totally happened wayyy back, during the Three Kingdoms era. See, there was this dude, called Duke Ling of Wei, and he and this official, Mizi Xia were obviously having the sexytiemz with each other, and apparently Mizi Xia had a face that was “as pretty as that of a blossoming maiden.” (Oooooh.) So anyways, they were like, walking and holding hands in the Duke’s Eastern Garden, and Mizi Xia picked up a peach and started nomming, and after he was done, he pushed the leftovers into Duke Ling’s mouth. Errbody who saw that like, totally gasped, ‘cause it was so damned rude! But All Duke Ling did was say, “This tastes good ‘cause it was in yo’ mouth,” so that’s how this scandal started, and that’s how ‘sharing the peach’ meant that two men were totally gettin’ it on.
Now for the second figure of speech. See, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty also had it goin’ on with Dong Xian, who was like, also one of his court officials. And they were pretty cute, too, ‘cause one day, they took a nap together (awwwww) and like, Emperor Ai was called to do some shit, ‘cause Emperors never really rest. And the thing is, Emperor Ai totally didn’t wanna disturb his beau, so he cut the part of the sleeve which Dong Xian was lying on, and went to do his official duties. Hence, the term ‘cutting the sleeve’ also meant that two people were in a homosexual relationship.
Homosexual Relationships (Manchu Style!)
So we’re gonna fastforward stuff a little, towards the end of the Ming Dynasty and the start of the Qing, yo. Aaaanyways, durin’ this period of time many scholars and poets were like, totally havin’ sexytiemz with boys, and these boys were called “shu tong” （书童）, or book carryin’ boys. And y’know, since these poets and scholars had no wimminz when they went on long journeys, guess who ‘accompanied’ them - yes, that’s right. These boys.
Homosexuality was also like, totally allowed in the Qing court. Why? ‘Cause the Manchus were like, rulin’, yo, and if a Manchu married a Han Chinese it was like, a super no-no ‘cause they wanted their blood to be pure, and so sodomy was allowed between two Manchu males.
Emperor Xianfeng also liked them boys, and durin’ that period of time, Peking Opera was like, the trend, and all the women’s parts were like, played by boys who were kinda effeminate. Hmmm… Backstage, these boys totally had to please the court officials if they totally wanted their careers. Emperor Xianfeng liked this man, Chu Lianfeng (not too sure about the spelling). This man really looked like a woman on stage, and of course Emperor Xianfeng took a fancy to him. But the thing is, Chu Lianfeng already had a bf, called Lu Maozhong (again with the spelling!) and so when Lu learned that his bf was like, having the sexytiemz with the Emperor, he was so upset that he said, “His Majesty should totally concentrate on rulin’ and not having so much sexytiemz, yo.” Of course the Emperor was like, real pissed and banished Lu. Chu was so upset he committed suicide (he was suffering from TB anyways) and had to renounce his association with his now ex-bf.
Sigh.
Emperor Tongzhi, the son of Xianfeng, also loved them males, too. The thing is, this happened when the Emperor was like, a teenager, and after he got married, he was like, “Oh man, women are boring. Imma go look for men,” and that’s what he did. See, he pretended to be a son of a rich merchant, and met this young scholar in a restaurant. So the thing is, they had an affair for quite some time, and then Prince Kung heard about it, and so errbody went on this search for him. The totally found the Emperor and the scholar making out in some wine shop. So like, the general found him and said, “Uh, your majesty, you kinda needa go home now.” The scholar heard, flipped his shit, and went back to Hunan and totally didn’t bother to sit for the Imperial exams, LOL.
Thing is, there were like, many male prostitutes around, too, and yes, many court officials loved them ‘personal attendants’ and took them errwhere, hint hint, and some generals even had ‘personal aides’ wearin’ make-up. Hmmm. But yes, gays did exist, and the Han Chinese didn’t like them, and so called them ‘mock women’ or ‘rabbits,’ which was like, super derogatory ‘cause it meant that they had a lower status compared to female sex workers.
From Rabbit to Prime Minister, yo
One ‘rabbit’ was also lucky enough to be like, Prime Minister ‘cause he was basically sexing up the Emperor Qianlong, yo. His name was He Shen, and basically, well, when the Emperor saw that He Shen looked like a very beautiful woman, and he was like, “Oh my god! This totally reminded me of my dad’s concubine, which I totally tried to seduce when I was a kid.” So he also found out that He Shen was born on the day his the concubine was executed, he was like, “Yeah, this is the concubine I tried to seduce!” (Funny, wikipedia states otherwise.) So anyway, He Shen thought the Emperor had a few screws loose, but whatevs, ‘cause he was in the Emperor’s favour, which was awesome.
So basically, He Shen would go to the Emperor’s chamber to talk about ‘state affairs,’ and pretty soon he was like, promoted to handle all state funds, which he took a lot of. Anyway, to pretend that they were totally not sexing each other, the Emperor made He Shen get married, and He Shen’s son was like, totally betrothed to the Emperor’s youngest and fave daughter. Too bad his luck ran out, ‘cause Qianlong abdicated and Jiaqing took over, ready to suss him out, ‘cause they knew he totally embezzled state funds. So, after Emperor Jiaqing tried him in court, he realized that He Shen’s accumulated funds was worth more than the state treasury. And the thing is, since Chinese people were all about face, he made He Shen hang himself.
Nearly all of this info is from the book, The Dragon and the Phoenix by Eric Chou, which is very educational but also super smutty!
And now, since we know all of this, Imma introduce you to the god of homosexuality, so hang tight!
2141. Imperial Chinese Clothing. Elegant and beautiful.
What dynasty is this? Would we say Tang? I’m guessing Tang.
The reason I haven’t reblogged the Chinese Redbud Woman post is because the translation annoys me. The ‘紫荆’ in ‘紫荆侠’ is defined as ‘cercis’ in my go-to online dictionary, for which I will grant ‘Chinese redbud’, but the ‘侠’ in ‘紫荆侠’?
That doesn’t mean ‘woman’, that means ‘hero’.
More specifically, it is the same ‘侠’ as in wuxia. Whenever you see a person introduced as ‘[given name]-hero’ or ‘Hero-[given name]’ in wuxia, the ‘hero’ (or ‘pugilist’, or ‘martial hero’, or ‘knight’) is translated literally from ‘侠’.
But — and this is why it particularly annoyed me to see that translation — when the person in question is female, they’re usually called not ‘侠’ but ‘女侠’, which is ‘female hero’. As opposed to a plain, default hero, I guess. It annoys the crap out of me.
So. She’s calling herself Chinese Redbud Hero, not Chinese Redbud Woman, if you must use the literal translation. I’d call her Zijing Hero because Chinese Redbud is a mouthful and you could just add a note that ‘紫荆’ means ‘Chinese redbud’.
