Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site weitek.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!amd!amdcad!cae780!weitek!neal From: neal@weitek.UUCP (Neal Bedard) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Worst of the Bay Message-ID: <255@weitek.UUCP> Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 04:05:46 EDT Article-I.D.: weitek.255 Posted: Fri Aug 16 04:05:46 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 04:49:10 EDT References: <450@olivee.UUCP> <132@cadsys.UUCP> <805@ptsfa.UUCP> Organization: Weitek Corporation, Sunnyvale Lines: 26 In article <805@ptsfa.UUCP>, rob@ptsfa.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) writes: > In article <132@cadsys.UUCP> bbaker@cadsys.UUCP (William Baker) writes: > >> Well, once again I've stumbled onto another incredibly BAD > >> > >> Its name - Tai Pan (Inc.) > > > >Ironically, a tai-pan is the chinese word for the master of a whorehouse > >or a public toilet. It's amazing the things you pick up from > >reading too many James Clavell novels... > > Not necessarily. Many different Chinese syllables get transliterated > the same way in English if only for the fact that distinguishing > tones are not indicated in the transliteration. > -- If you believe James Clavell's *Noble House*, Hong Kong chinese prefer the title "loh-pan" to "tai-pan", and the "foreign devil" preference for "tai-pan" is a small joke to chinese, due to its meaning stated above. I don't think "loh-pan" and "tai-pan" are the same chinese word transliterated differently. They sound too dissimilar. -Neal -- "mynd you, m00se bytes kann be pretti nasti" UUCP: {ucbvax!dual!turtlevax,ihnp4!resonex,decwrl!amdcad!cae780}!weitek!neal