Lost in translation...

Dear Gentle Reader,

That last post was meant to be shorter.

Arriving at Shenzhen airport (in Guangdong Province, just North of Hong Kong), on a recent trip, heading to Yunnan Province (far further North, but still only halfway up the country), we became worried about how long the authorities wanted us to stay, judging by the admonition to slip on the pillars around us...

Was this marketing for the local orthopaedic surgeons, or a bad translation?

Xiao xin (小心)(Careful/Be cautious), Chris... don't go there...

Much later, long after being disconcerted by the warnings, or the commands, in the airport, we would climb the belfry in Dali, Yunnan Province, to be frightened, again...

The belfry in Dali houses the Nanzhao Jianji bell, cast in 871 A.D.

First off, the belfry in Dali is not the big cultural deal in Dali, Yunnan Province.

Historically, and historically/culturally, the big deal would be the Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple.

But, your humble scribe will show you those, the three pagodas, on some other day and some other posting.

And the Nanzhao Jianji bell is housed in the belfry which makes up part of the massive Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple complex in Dali.

So, while the belfry is not a big deal, the Nanzhao Jianji bell in the belfry is a big deal.

The Nanzhao Jianji bell is a rather substantial Buddhist bell (its clarion call purifies the structure and the listeners, when struck, as its purity of tone allows the worshipers to purify their thoughts and therefore sanctify themselves).

The bell stands almost four metres tall, is more than two metres wide at its mouth, and weighs in at almost 16,300 kilograms (16.3 tonnes or 17.97 US short tons).

Now here is the frightful bit of information...

Despite those substantial dimensions, and its hernia-inducing mass, the Nanzhao Jianji Bell was lost.

And they don't even know when.

The loss occurred sometime between 1856-1872 A.D., it is reported.

Yikes.

The idea of losing 16,300 kilograms of bell is a bit terrifying from either a liturgical or an architectural inventory control perspective...

Anyway, the bell was recast in 1997. Here is a "close-up" of one of the six images (each as large as your humble scribe) cast into the bell...

What caught our attention, in the belfry, though, was the notice by the narrow stairs winding up and up (or down and down)...

Good cop, bad cop signage?

I don't know...

The final bit of translation that I liked, however was really just marketing via the mechanism of translation.

This time the object in question was a restaurant sign.

First, though, context...

Yunnan Province is located beside Szechuan Province and Yunnan's residents love their chilli peppers as much as Szechuan's residents love their chilli peppers...

(Aside. Note that while Spanish variants include chili and chile, the Aztecs used chilli and the English, as far back as the mid seventeenth century, were using chilli, also, as their spelling. So that is why I go with this spelling choice.)

Spelling be damned, dried chillis can be found in every market in Yunnan...

And on every street corner...

And in every balanced meal...

So, I particularly enjoyed this particular restaurant sign, aimed, after questioning the proprietors, at foreigners who said that they (the foreigners) wanted plain, as opposed to spicy, food...

Nice bit of translation there... ...after all, behind the sign, you can see the red lantern and the ubiquitous garland of drying chillis...

Tschuess,

Chris