Chinese Writing
I asked Sam (7) what I should write my blog about today and he said “Chinese letters.” Well, O.K. They are popular subjects for tattoos on white skinned people who have no idea what they mean, but on the other hand they will probably never make it in alphabet soup or as alphabet cookies. They are on all the signs on Chinese restaurants but on the other hand, all we need to know is that it is, in fact, a Chinese restaurant. You can ascertain that just from the fact that the writing is in Chinese and what else did you think it would be, a car wash?
So, to the Western eye, they look exotic and cool but are utterly incomprehensible. Sort of like Arabic writing but that sends a completely different set of signals. Which is a shame, because Arabic food is great, especially the desserts.
If we could actually read them, they would lose their exotic appeal and what would be gained in actual communication wouldn’t be worth it. After all, when you see a sign in a window there are only so many different things it can say. We are open for business, Sorry, closed today, back in 5 minutes, we don’t give change and this is not a goddamned information booth.
It’s pretty rare in this world that you ever see anything you haven’t seen before.
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