Of Two Minds

Check your Chinese characters before you make it the cover of your journal

Posted by The Omnibrain on December 9, 2008
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i-75fa6f7cebb4145668724f37f5a52b36-steve_icon_medium.jpgI’ve always joked around about girls who would walk into a tattoo parlor and ask for a Chinese character that means something to them… like love, hope, or faith. Of course the tattoo artists don’t know one damn character in Chinese so they just pick a random character from the internet and the girl ends up with something that actually says slut, pink slippery Christmas tree, or something else random. I never imagined a scientific magazine would fall prey to something absolutely ridiculous like this.

Science journal mistakenly uses flyer for Macau brothel to illustrate report on China.

A respected research institute wanted Chinese classical texts to adorn its journal, something beautiful and elegant, to illustrate a special report on China. Instead, it got a racy flyer extolling the lusty details of stripping housewives in a brothel…. There were red faces on the editorial board of one of Germany’s top scientific institutions, the Max Planck Institute, after it ran the text of a handbill for a Macau strip club on the front page of its latest journal.

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So can someone tell us exactly what this says?

-via Improbable Research-

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  1. #1 knownothing
    December 9, 2008

    A poster on fools mountain says: “We have offered a lot of money to hire two managers — KK and Jaime — to lead the girls stationing in the club during the daytime. Our young girls are elegant northern beauties with attractive physiques. We also have housewives who are coquettish and enchanting. They are appearing here and now.”

  2. #2 Badger3k
    December 10, 2008

    Now that’s a journal I want to read! I only read it for the articles. Seriously….

  3. #3 Adrian Morgan
    December 10, 2008

    This was on Language Log about a week ago: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=881 (contains a translation).

    As for the girls you’ve already joked about, there are whole blogs dedicated to that topic: http://www.hanzismatter.com/

  4. #4 Anon E Mouse
    December 10, 2008

    Unfortunately they seem to have changed the cover in the actual journal already. The issues with the original ad might become collectibles, so run to your local science library now :-)

  5. #5 xcelr8
    December 10, 2008

    Another link with some details:
    http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=881

  6. #6 Sigmund
    December 10, 2008

    It rather sounds like they were the victim of a prank.
    Personally I blame the referees on that paper.
    “Points for Authors:
    In figure 1 ‘Madam Fifi’s bad boy treatment room’ there appears to be a distinct lack of appropriate controls.”

  7. #7 Ian
    December 10, 2008

    The Chinese text says, “Watch this goofy cover get those people at the “Of Two Minds” science blog going.”

  8. #8 jrhs
    December 10, 2008

    Hahahah… LOL!
    I am sooooo tempted to translate it. Well, better not make it worse.

  9. #9 Katherine
    December 10, 2008

    how did this happen in the first place?!

  10. #10 MarshalN
    December 10, 2008

    Whoever is the referee who vetted the poster must be rather ashamed of him/herself now.

  11. #11 ttvfwong
    December 11, 2008

    I am happy to translate the text in English:

    We paid handsomely to hire Manager KK and Camay full time;
    They personally present young and beautiful girls;
    Northern beauties in million swaying poses;
    Young housewives of fiery figures;
    All bewitching, seductive and are here on board today.

    –translated in English by ttvfwong, Hong Kong

    The piece of calligrahy is an ad copy usually placed outside a “ballroom” in the streets of Hong Kong (not Macau as the earlier report suggested).

  12. #12 Chinese Symbols
    January 26, 2009

    the Chinese writings on the journal cover are actually an ad for the brothel.

  13. #13 sohbet siteleri
    February 1, 2009

    Unfortunately they seem to have changed the cover in the actual journal already. The issues with the original ad might become collectibles, so run to your local science