Category: Asian culture

Lovely collection of Leung Kit Wah’s paintings

by Fiona

A friend of mine was doing some research of 梁潔華 (Annie Wong-Leung Kit Wah)and since I am a huge fan of ancient China (especially Tang Dynasty), he decided to shared his findings with me. I was amazed by the lovely paintings, which were created by their modern, renowned artist. Her artwork had quickly became a favorite of mine.

Dr. Wong-Leung is a Hong Kong native and committed to promoting Chinese culture, arts and education throughout the world. For the past few years, she has visited mainland China, the United States, Europe, Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, Australia and Canada, exchanging of Chinese and Western culture and education.

Her paintings consist of fine brushwork, soft color palette and beautiful calligraphy; mostly illustrating historical and religious (Buddhist and Taoist) female figures. Definitely something not to miss if you are interested in ancient Chinese culture.

Of all modern painting illustrating historical figures, I would have to say that 梁潔華’s are the most beautiful and elegant.
Only portion is shown below, please click on image for full view.


Images copyright of 梁潔華, courtesy of bbs.tecn.cn & 中國禪林畫院秘書處監製

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Lost in Translation

by Fiona

I always get a good chuckle when Chinese words and phrases are translated differ than the actual meaning. This is especially true when Westerner tattoo themselves with Chinese characters and have the slightest idea what they mean. I really don’t think having a tattoo saying “危機” or “妓” or “猛威勝” is really attractive. For Pete’s sake, do some research before having something permanent added to your skin, it only takes 5 minutes or so! :?:

I came across Hanzismatter, a site dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture with loads of examples. If you have a few minutes, you might like to drop by. I guarantee a few good laughs.

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Asian Culture – The order of Japanese and Chinese names

by Fiona

Upon reviewing my stats on Site Meter, it appears that many people had visited my blog when search the following keywords:

  • What is the first names of Arashi members?
  • Arashi members first names
  • What is Ohno Satoshi’s first name?

This is quite intriguing. Though, I am not surprised that this topic provides confusion to many people since the Western name structure differs.  Mainly due to the interchangeable order of Asian names.

In Eastern culture,  a name usually consist of one’s surname/family name followed by a given name. Middle names are not generally used.  However, many tend to Westernized their names by the “surname–given-name” order to “given-name–surname” to simplify the confusion.  Unfortunately, this does not provide clarity. Though, many talents such as the Arashi members use the “surname-given-name” order, publications and other media sources may use otherwise, depending on the statistics on trends, popularity, etc.

Here are some “surname–given-name” examples….

Japanese names

Let’s start with Matsumoto Jun (松本潤). Matsumoto (松本) is his surname while Jun (潤) is his given name.

Here are additional examples with the rest of the Arashi members!

Surname First/Given Name
Ohno (大野) Satoshi(智)
Sakurai (櫻井) Sho (翔)
Aiba (相葉) Masaki (雅紀)
Ninomiya (二宮) Kazunari (和也)

Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of Chinese origin with Japanese pronunciation. Additional forms of the Japanese writing system include hiragana or katakana. Thus, a name could be written in several forms:

Romaji Kanji Hiragana
Matsumoto Jun 松本潤 まつもと　じゅん
Ohno Satoshi 大野智 おおの さとし
Ninomiya Kazunari 二宮和也 にのみや かずなり
Sakurai Sho 櫻井翔 さくらい しょう
Aiba Masaki 相葉雅紀 あいば まさき

Chinese names

Damian Lau Chung-Yan (劉松仁) will be the example. Lau (劉) is his surname while Chung-Yan (松仁) is his given. In most cases, the English name is placed prior to the full Chinese name, however, it could be less significant in some countries, and placed afterwards.

The Chinese writing system also consist of two forms – traditional and simplified. Traditional Chinese is mostly used in the Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in overseas Chinese communities. Simplified Chinese was adopted People’s Republic of China in the 20th century.

Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese
劉松仁 刘松仁

Hope you enjoy this very mini lesson as much as I did writing it. I’m thinking about writing some more every now and then, just for the fun of it. Free free to comment, I would love to hear your thoughts, both good and bad.

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