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March 12, 2008
Drunken Pictography
Of all the wonderful highway signs in China, this is definitely one of my top ten favorites.
The transformation of the alcohol character 酒 (jiǔ) into a crashing vehicle ejecting severed heads and an empty beer bottle — hey, that's what it looks like to me — is one of the crowning achievements in the burgeoning field of Sino-pictographic morphology. (The 'booze car' is soooo much better than the 'running man' logo for the Beijing Olympics.)
Sure, this has nothing to do with Xinjiang (except for the Uyghur script on the sign), but I thought some of you might be amused nonetheless.
posted March 12, 2008 at 01:20 AM unofficial Xinjiang time | HaoHao This!
Comments
The Chinese letters could be translated into English as "Drunk driving forbidden", However "Drunk driving forbidden" and "NO DRUNK DRIVING" (in the plate) are more or less the same.
But the irony is when the Chinese letters are translated into Uyghur, they became "Don't drive when you are tired" as if there were no words referring drunk driving in Uyghur,...Errrrrrrr..........
Any idea?
Posted by: The Pirate at March 12, 2008 03:13 AM
I love this sign. it's like a new style of drunken fighting. Drunkendriving. :D
Posted by: yoshi at March 12, 2008 05:48 AM
I love this sign. I remember the first time I saw it in China, and I looked at it wondering. Then I clued in how clever it was to have the car/bottle and the 酒 together.
Posted by: Stephen at March 12, 2008 08:36 AM
Before reading your description I envisioned something that was crashing through a barrier and proactively deploying a paddle in preparation (dunno what that might do to help the situation)! The ejected occupants' craniums looked to be collateral damage that would reveal their origins in the ensuing chaos.
Kudos that in your remote part of the world there's one or more of three languages one can avail themselves of to translate the mayhem.
Great blog. Well done.
Posted by: Woodenboatguy at March 12, 2008 08:45 AM
myselfimgladtherearesignslikethistohelpkeepusallsafe.
Sino-pictographic morphology is so under-rated as an art, really.
Posted by: Ryan at March 12, 2008 09:04 PM
This is a class too:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/13/exploding-cars-forbi.html
Used to see these all over Shenzhen too
Posted by: Lucas at March 12, 2008 10:01 PM
It looks like the Uighur text actually says, "don't drive when tired," but my Uighur might be a little rusty.
Posted by: David at March 13, 2008 07:57 PM
The Uyghur text does indeed say don't drive when tired: "charchighanda mashina heydimeng" whereas drunk is "mest." Maybe that's because Uyghurs are extremely devout Muslims and never, ever drink alcohol?
Heh heh.
Posted by: Porfiriy at March 14, 2008 04:35 PM