Chinese symbols - Writing represents spoken language.
Chinese symbols have become very popular as tattoo designs in the West in recent years. Why is there such an interest? Of all things, why use Chinese symbols for tattoo? One thing that is evident as soon as one examines this phenomenon a bit closer is that only people who cannot read Chinese want to have Chinese characters tattooed on their skin. So this must be some kind of Orientalist fetish that works only for those who are illiterate in Chinese. A fascination with the East, a key to the mysterious power of Oriental wisdom, etc. Or something along these lines.
A modern pragmatic look at this issue tells us that the Chinese symbols so coveted are simply the way people in China write. This is their writing system. They use Chinese characters to publish newspapers, to list nutrients in food products, or to write the words “Coca Cola” on a Coke can. There is nothing mysterious about it; it is very much like our alphabet: a tool of everyday life.
Chinese symbols on a Coca Cola can. The other photo shows four Chinese symbols and a dragon as a tattoo design. The
symbols say, "Long time no see," which is an odd message to have on your arm.
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On the other hand, we cannot deny that these “symbols” can have a great deal of aesthetic appeal. The art of calligraphy in China goes back for at least two thousand years, and it enjoys a status unparalleled in our Western society. So this is the artistic side of Chinese symbols. To put it simply, they can be beautiful.
Yet when it comes to Westerners ordering tattoos of Chinese symbols, we are facing a whole lot of problems. First of all, people usually try to have an idea they have “spelled” in Chinese. In a lot of cases, these are not translations of English phrases into Chinese but the original English phrases pieced together from Chinese characters. In other words, our Chinese tattoo enthusiast buys a number of separate Chinese characters from the Internet, such as “love,” “mother,” “brother,” etc. Then he uses these as if they were English words and puts together English phrases. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It would also be a basic requirement, of course, to know the direction in which Chinese write.
To cut to the end, if you are trying to get some Chinese symbols as a tattoo, think it over and talk to someone who reads Chinese. Chinese is the third largest language in the US, there must be lots of people around you to turn to.
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