I'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.
So can someone tell us exactly what this says?
-via Improbable Research-
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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."
Now that's a journal I want to read! I only read it for the articles. Seriously....
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/
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 :-)
Another link with some details:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=881
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."
The Chinese text says, "Watch this goofy cover get those people at the "Of Two Minds" science blog going."
Hahahah... LOL!
I am sooooo tempted to translate it. Well, better not make it worse.
how did this happen in the first place?!
Whoever is the referee who vetted the poster must be rather ashamed of him/herself now.
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).
the Chinese writings on the journal cover are actually an ad for the brothel.
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