Puns Forbidden in China

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

I was struck by this line:

The official line is that the new rules—which ban the use of wordplay in the press, broadcasts, and advertisements—are intended to uphold the sanctity of the Chinese language

Because even if we believe that that really is the reasoning behind it, that's still a pretty bad motivation given that China probably has the most backward-ass language of any noteworthy world power.

It does, does it? By what standard?

They don't even have an alphabet!

It wouldn't have to be the latin alphabet; it could just as easily be cyrillic, or greek, or kana or a totally new system, but not having an alphabet at all is backward and makes the language needlessly obtuse.

YOUR IDEAS ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.

By this guy's logic, the very roots of history, written in the various Mesopotamian languages and Egyptian, are inherently backward. Because of how they wrote. You know, not because of all of the other fucked up shit like legal maiming or slavery.

It's a rich tapestry of backwardness.

[Doktor Howl]

I was struck by this line:

The official line is that the new rules—which ban the use of wordplay in the press, broadcasts, and advertisements—are intended to uphold the sanctity of the Chinese language

Because even if we believe that that really is the reasoning behind it, that's still a pretty bad motivation given that China probably has the most backward-ass language of any noteworthy world power.

It does, does it? By what standard?

They don't even have an alphabet!

It wouldn't have to be the latin alphabet; it could just as easily be cyrillic, or greek, or kana or a totally new system, but not having an alphabet at all is backward and makes the language needlessly obtuse.

YOUR IDEAS ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.

By this guy's logic, the very roots of history, written in the various Mesopotamian languages and Egyptian, are inherently backward. Because of how they wrote. You know, not because of all of the other fucked up shit like legal maiming or slavery.

It's a rich tapestry of backwardness.

Keep diggin'.

[Cain]

Chinese is backwards...because it is more complex.  OK.  Kinda like how Skyrim is backwards, because it uses a more complex engine than Pong.  Makes sense.

It's also written backwards.  Making it doubly backwards.  Or is that forwards? 

[Doktor Howl]

Chinese is backwards...because it is more complex.  OK.  Kinda like how Skyrim is backwards, because it uses a more complex engine than Pong.  Makes sense.

It's also written backwards.  Making it doubly backwards.  Or is that forwards?

I used to be an idiot, but I turned that around 360 degrees.

[Trivial]

Does Cantonese have tenses?  Had a friend from Hong Kong and with speaking English he seemed to get tenses usually, but I'd proof read his writing and it seemed to have no sense of "when".

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I was struck by this line:

The official line is that the new rules—which ban the use of wordplay in the press, broadcasts, and advertisements—are intended to uphold the sanctity of the Chinese language

Because even if we believe that that really is the reasoning behind it, that's still a pretty bad motivation given that China probably has the most backward-ass language of any noteworthy world power.

It does, does it? By what standard?

They don't even have an alphabet!

It wouldn't have to be the latin alphabet; it could just as easily be cyrillic, or greek, or kana or a totally new system, but not having an alphabet at all is backward and makes the language needlessly obtuse.

YOUR IDEAS ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.

By this guy's logic, the very roots of history, written in the various Mesopotamian languages and Egyptian, are inherently backward. Because of how they wrote. You know, not because of all of the other fucked up shit like legal maiming or slavery.

It's a rich tapestry of backwardness.

Hey, you might get something valuable out of this thread: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=34548.0;topicseen

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

Until the early twentieth century, hangul was denigrated as vulgar by the literate elite who preferred the traditional hanja (Han script) writing system.[4] They gave it such names as:

Achimgeul (아침글 "writing you can learn within a morning").[5] Although somewhat pejorative, this was based on the reality, as expressed by Jeong Inji, that "a wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days."[6] In the original hanzi, this is rendered as "故智者不終朝而會，愚者可浹旬而學。"[7]

Translation:
You're dumb and lazy if you need letters.

Considering that there are plenty of loud Americans who don't know how to properly implement a mere 26 symbols after at least a solid decade of training to express their thoughts in writing, there might be some sense in that sentiment. It ain't the writing system. It's the idiot whut weeldz it.

The problem isn't that it's 26 symbols. It's that it takes comprehending one of the world's most difficult, least consistent, most hybridized languages with among the least consistent rules, and that's what you're supposed to learn to read and write. That English, a total bullshit system that only has supremacy due to the combination of ships and guns alongside the lucky strike of not having a random epidemic just then.

The only system of symbols people have ever put together that are completely THE RIGHT THING are Arabic numerals, as is clearly evident by everyone who's ever come into contact with them switching over, because they make math work. Everything else is aesthetics.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

Until the early twentieth century, hangul was denigrated as vulgar by the literate elite who preferred the traditional hanja (Han script) writing system.[4] They gave it such names as:

Achimgeul (아침글 "writing you can learn within a morning").[5] Although somewhat pejorative, this was based on the reality, as expressed by Jeong Inji, that "a wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days."[6] In the original hanzi, this is rendered as "故智者不終朝而會，愚者可浹旬而學。"[7]

Translation:
You're dumb and lazy if you need letters.

Considering that there are plenty of loud Americans who don't know how to properly implement a mere 26 symbols after at least a solid decade of training to express their thoughts in writing, there might be some sense in that sentiment. It ain't the writing system. It's the idiot whut weeldz it.

The problem isn't that it's 26 symbols. It's that it takes comprehending one of the world's most difficult, least consistent, most hybridized languages with among the least consistent rules, and that's what you're supposed to learn to read and write. That English, a total bullshit system that only has supremacy due to the combination of ships and guns alongside the lucky strike of not having a random epidemic just then.

The only system of symbols people have ever put together that are completely THE RIGHT THING are Arabic numerals, as is clearly evident by everyone who's ever come into contact with them switching over, because they make math work. Everything else is aesthetics.

I've never thought about it before, but you're absolutely right, or at least, nobody's come up with anything better.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Cherokee has a syllabary, which has always made perfect sense to me because you can tell exactly how a word is pronounced by looking at it.

[Cain]

Does Cantonese have tenses?  Had a friend from Hong Kong and with speaking English he seemed to get tenses ususlly, but I'd proof read his writing and it seemed to have no sense of "when".

It does...but it's complicated.  In normally spoken Cantonese, there are no tenses and people normally rely on some form of time indication in the sentence or preceding/following ones.  Rather like Indonesian. 

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

Chinese is backwards...because it is not parsimonious

FTFY

[Doktor Howl]

Chinese is backwards...because it is not parsimonious

FTFY

Jesus.  Shut up.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Chinese is backwards...because it is not parsimonious

FTFY

Dig your heels in and screech, little monkey! 

I think possibly the most amusing thing about this is that you have all these opinions, but you don't actually either speak nor write any of the 298 languages in use in China, and are basing your opinions on something you heard that your sister's professor once said.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

(You are, however, doing an excellent job of making yourself look kinda racist).