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Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Browncoat, May 25, 2014.

  1. Browncoat

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    Hiya, I was just wondering if anyone could enlighten me in how these Chinese characters are supposed to be orientated in order to attain the appropriate meaning ("serenity" - in this case the name of a ship in the series Firefly):

    [​IMG]

    Or at least I hope it means something along those lines. Basically, I was just wondering if this is supposed to go across or down - or even if it matters at all? I believe the default here would be Mandarin, (obviously it's standard Chinese, but I wonder if the orientation would be different depending on the language being used).

    I apologize in advance for my general ignorance of the topic. Typical American, yeah? :lol:
     
  2. Emulator

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    I don't really get what you're asking, but those two characters do mean serenity the way they are shown in the image.
     
  3. Wuggums47

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    I speak japanese, and I believe the symbols would be the same, although I'm only sort of good with Kanji (chinese symbols in japan), I think that's the right order. You can also put the symbol on the right underneath the other symbol.
     
  4. Emulator

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    Also, it depends on the context. In times past, people would read the characters from right to left, in which case you should swap them across. They could also read the characters from top to bottom. In modern times people usually read from left to right, which puts the characters in this image in the correct order.
     
  5. Browncoat

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    I was basically just wondering if there were any cases where it's "absolutely don't do that or it loses it's meaning." So if top-down ruined the meaning I'd certainly keep it left-right.

    So it sounds like left-right would be the most modern but top-down isn't an absolute no. Alright, thanks guys!
     
  6. Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    This means serenity, don't worry. Since China has been exposed to the West ever since the Opium Wars, Chinese characters are written from left to right nowadays. In Taiwan, where Chinese traditionalists of fled to after the rise of the Communist Party in the 40's, some welcome mats are written from right to left due to their retention of traditional culture unlike mainland China. Calligraphic scripts are written from top to bottom and each line would be from right to left but that format isn't so commonly used anymore and is only used in shops where they sell calligraphic scrolls.
     
  7. Aquilo

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    First find the characters here or anywhere else:

    Chinese Character Stroke Order Dictionary - Chinese Calligraphy

    1)If you can't copypaste the characters and don't know the pinyin translate the word in translate.google.com, you can copypaste the characters the translator gives you to find the character.
    2)If you can copypaste the characters, just copy and ctrl-f to find it fast

    I don't think learning stroke order is that important, because most writing is done nowadays on the computer and there are easy programs to enter characters, but it can make handwritten things easier to read.

    ---------- Post added 25th May 2014 at 04:18 PM ----------

    Most sites with stroke order don't give stroke direction, because the standard is from left->right and up->down.
     
    #7 Aquilo, May 25, 2014
    Last edited: May 25, 2014
  8. venuss

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    Glad to see Chinese in EC..LOL I'm from Hong Kong and Chinese is my first language, so if you have any questions about Chinese, like the meaning of some words, I'm willing to figure them out for you guys.

    I would say most people nowadays write Chinese characters from left to right, over 98%. One of the exceptions is those characters from the tablets in the palace of some Chinese dynasties, which kept the right-left style. I saw those tablets in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
     
  9. sherlock

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    Taiwanese here. Although we normally use TradChi, the characters above mean serenity.
     
  10. Radioactive Bi

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    Only chineese food. Yummy....

    Happy days :slight_smile:
     
  11. Hexagon

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    Well, I can't say I know chinese, but I like what you're doing with this. :slight_smile: Are you getting it tattooed?
     
  12. An Gentleman

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    I use Traditional Chinese, but that looks right.
    It's nice to see people who actually check their facts.
    By the way, if you need to look up more Chinese characters, check out YellowBridge.
     
  13. Browncoat

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    Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    Thank you all for your input! That's 5 confirmations, so I think it's good to go. :lol:
    And thank you for the historical context behind the orientation, as well, which I found quite interesting.

    I am indeed. Which is why I wanted to double- and triple-check it. :lol:
     
  14. Re: Anyone fluent in Chinese - what is the appropriate orientation of characters here

    To tattoo Chinese characters on yourself, it's a different story now. You should tattoo the characters from top to bottom. This works on your arms, legs, and back, virtually anywhere except your neck.

    If you're doing it as a tattoo, you should use traditional characters. It looks much better. It looks like:

    寧靜

    The characters should also look like calligraphy and not as if you just typed it out. However, the aesthetics of the characters will be up to you. I was listing some suggestions.