Just a few days ago I read some article (sorry I forgot from where, Next Magazine perhaps) claiming that, despite the I’m-Not-Actually-The-Boss picture the slogan “I’ll Get The Job Done” paints, Sir Bowtie’s team is actually ecstatic because of all the noise it generated. They thought people would keep talking about it for weeks at least, and that’s good.
Then came Czar Li and Burnt Rice, who jointly usurped the number one position in the town’s most talked about quote chart, with “I’ll Remember This. You’ll Pay!” and “Watch Your Mouth, Mister!”
Now that’s what they mean by “administrative-led governance.”
Who would’ve thought? At just the right time, too. I wonder who’ll pay.
In case I forget…
Lemote is the name of the company.
Loongson is the name of the CPU used to be called Godson.
Fulong is the name of the PC using the Loongson processor.
Both Loongson and Fulong are developed by Lemote.
Like countless other people, I too have noticed the general decline of English language proficiency around here. Nowadays it’s often not difficult to pick out Engrish even from stuff that’re meant to be presentable—like promotional materials from large corporations, just to give an example. You’d think their marketing and PR departments would catch these, but they’re becoming increasingly commonplace. Sigh.
For example, this just arrived in my Inbox:
Mcmug and Mcdull Sold Octopus Premium Sets
Huh?
I couldn’t figure out what it was on about until I checked the Chinese version.
Second Life may be the most hyped up virtual world around, but this is just ridiculous [The Age]:
Sweden plans embassy in Second Life
Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life, officials said. “We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden,” Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Waestberg has told AFP.
If I am a Swede I’m not sure if I want my country to be associated with what appears to be the online haven for money laundering and pyramid schemes.
Regarding the iPhone I’ll continue to reserve judgement until after more details are available, which is unlikely before its release in the US in June. But suffice to say, I won’t be getting it until it supports WCDMA. Simply because, without WCDMA, the phone cannot roam in Japan.
After a few satisfying rounds of Wii Sports Tennis, YP wondered why most of the blogs I read are in English rather than Chinese.
I’ve wondered the same thing myself. Even though I’m a HK-born native Cantonese speaker—heck I read the Apple Daily every morning—I simply find reading and writing in English more natural for me. Despite what Sharon thinks of my Chinese writing ability, I still find it uncomfortable reading and writing long Chinese passages; not so much as giving me a headache, perhaps, but still less easy than in English. (Except for technology-related stuff, a topic I simply find unbearable reading in Chinese.) Yet I converse in Cantonese and even Mandarin perfectly fine (at least before people start referring to Chinese history, classics and proverbs, where I simply fail miserably.) I even think in Cantonese most of the time.
But that still doesn’t explain why I don’t read blogs in Chinese. After all, most blogs’ entries are nowhere near the limit of my Chinese language tolerance. YP thinks I’m simply being 崇洋 or worship everything foreign. But I think it’s simply the consequence of spending all my teenage years flippin’ burgers in Melbourne. In fact come to think of it, I’m surprised my Chinese is still as good as it is now. But as good as my Chinese is, it is still English for me. For now.
I noticed a strange new development in Beijing since I last visited here (and practically since the last time I wrote something here); almost all restaurants now require payment immediately after ordering. Even ones that didn’t use to do this, the ones that you wouldn’t expect to require this now do.
Does anybody else see this? Why? It’s not as if people are running off or something…
The banner reads, “Register as a voter by law, exercise your voting rights”. Shot at a residential development in Beijing.
See, even they are more democratic than us in Hong Kong, at least superficially…
A model of the Long March rocket, part of the Ice Sculptures exhibition at Cityplaza. Beautiful.
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