Misfits at the Same Table
Saturday, August 25th, 2007
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You know that wedding reception table where the bride and groom seat misfits who don’t belong at any other table? Well, that oddball table is ours today! We’ll feast on a smorgasbord of random, cool things pertaining to 中.
Speaking of seating, we encountered two seat-related compounds in the last blog:
中座 (chūza: leaving before an event (e.g., a meeting) is over)
in the middle + gathering
座中 (zachū: in the room, gathering, theatrical troupe)
gathering + in the middle
My definition of 座 as “gathering” may have seemed strange to you; 座 (ZA, suwa(ru)) more commonly means “seat” or “to sit.” Actually, the kanji 席 (SEKI) also means “seat.” And as it happens, both characters combine with 中 in compounds. If 中座 and 座中 refer to leaving or staying in rooms, what could 中席 mean? You’ll find out if you take a quick quiz!
Can You Be More Specific?
The compound 中席 is one of several 中 words with crazy specificity:
車中談 (shachūdan: informal talk given aboard a train (as by a politician)) car + inside + to discuss
中農 (chūnō: middle-class farmer) middle + farm
中腰 (chūgoshi: half-sitting, half-standing posture) middle + loins
This reminds me of the “fierce pose” or “chair pose” in yoga.
暑中見舞い (shochū-mimai: routine inquiry about (someone’s) health in the hot season) hot + during + inquiry (last 2 chars.,
which break down as to see + to dance)
Neutrality Isn’t Just for Switzerland
As you may know, 和 can mean “Japan,” as in 和食 (washoku: Japanese-style food, Japan + food) and 和服 (wafuku: Japanese clothes, Japan + clothes). One might therefore interpret 中和 (chūwa) as “China-Japan.” But as we saw last week, 中日 (chūnichi) is the way to write “China-Japan.” Turns out, both 中 and 和 have scads of meanings. In 中和, 和 means “mix,” while 中 means “neutral,” as an extension of “middle.” So 中和 means “neutralization” or even “counteracting of (poison).” That is, 中 neutralizes a toxic mix. And now, here’s a quick quiz about neutrality.
State of Mind
At last we’ve arrived at one of my favorite topics: state of mind. Yet another meaning of 中 is “to be absorbed in” or “to be immersed in.” Accordingly, the following words describe intense, deeply internal, all-encompassing experiences:
熱中 (netchū: enthusiasm, zeal, nuts!)
passion + to be absorbed in
暗中 (anchū: in the dark, in secret)
dark + to be absorbed in, inside
集中 (shūchū: concentration)
to collect + to be absorbed in
夢中 (muchū: rapture, absorption, intentness; in a trance)
dream + to be absorbed in霧中 (muchū: in the fog)
fog + to be absorbed in
This last word can refer to a literal fog but much more often serves a figurative purpose, meaning “lost,” “bewildered,” and “not knowing what to do.” Rarely does 霧中 appear alone; people often use it in the expression 五里霧中 (gori-muchū: five + Japanese mile + fog + to be absorbed in). This compound means “in the fog for five miles in all four directions,” which is to say, “really, truly, completely lost”!
For One More 中 Word
with a Cool Internal Rhyme …
And now we come to another great compound with 中, one that hones in on this sense of mental immersion:
意中 (ichū: one’s mind or thoughts)
mind + to be absorbed in, inside
This compound often appears in the following expression:
意中の人 (ichū no hito: one’s beloved, the one in one’s thoughts)
mind + to be absorbed in + ’s + person
Isn’t that beautiful? The one you love is the person in your thoughts. Your mind is in a state of absorption. But you can’t apply this word to everyone you love—not even to your spouse. To find out more, click the link below.
And what if the subject of your thoughts isn’t a person but rather kanji?! For that, I proclaim the following to be a new word:
漢中 (kanchū: to be absorbed in kanji)
But wait—since 漢 indirectly means “China,” it seems that my coinage could mean China + China. Well, then, perhaps the two muchū compounds can do the trick, collectively describing what it is to love kanji while feeling eternally lost.
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity |
August 29th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I must say I really enjoy your blog posts. Even for an experienced learner like myself, theres always something interesting (Like many others, writing kanji is probably my weakest skill though). I also really enjoy your writing style. Keep up the good work!
August 30th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Hi, Jonas! Thanks so much for the nice comment! Just when I was beginning to wonder if anyone is reading the blog, or whether I’ve just been talking to myself, your comment came along! Great timing and much appreciated!
P.S. This is not to say that I have a problem with talking to myself. I do it all the time!
August 30th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Hi Eve,
I’m gradually discovering all the layers of this site, and I just saw your blog for the first time today. As a long-time student of Chinese, I get _very_ lazy about learning how kanji really work in Japanese. (I just read them in Chinese and skim right by.) Your whimsical blog is a _much_ funner way to face up to them than flash cards. Thanks. I like “nakadaka.” What a great word to say.
The teaser quizzes are a great idea, too.
Have you read “Swallowing Clouds: A Playful Journey Through Chinese Culture, Language, and Cuisine,” by A. Zee? It’s a pretty amusing look at the origin of many Chinese characters. (And it will make you hungry, if you like Chinese food.)
Keep writing,
Marymoore
August 30th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Wow, two really nice comments in one day! Thanks so much, Marymoore!!!
I haven’t heard of “Swallowing Clouds,” but it sounds great! Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out. (Wonder if A. Zee is a real name or if it’s some play on A-Z!)
Since you’re a longtime student of Chinese, I’ll put this question out for you and others. It’s something I spent far too long trying to figure out this morning … ultimately getting nowhere.
Check out the picture in this article:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architecture/story/0,,2156966,00.html
It’s of architect Rem Koolhaas’s new building in Beijing, the China Central Television building. Great article, I thought, but it contained the puzzling statement that the building is “designed in the shape of a 3D Chinese character.”
Huh??? Which character? All I can think is 口 (kuchi: mouth).
Maybe that thing that looks like a lounge chair, just to the left of the 口-like structure, is part of the character, too. But … I’m utterly failing this Rorschach test. What am I supposed to be seeing?! Can anyone help me out? If all else fails, I just might have to write to the Guardian and ask the author.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Good question… 口 would be the only character that would fit that shape as far as I can see. Unless, as you already stated, the building on the left is a part of the character and you’re supposed to look at it from the right to get the correct perspective. But even if you did, it wouldn’t look like any character I know of. It would be like a 日 on the side, or something.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:44 am
I poked around, and what it looks like to me is that “loop” is the key idea of the building. Also, it’s supposed to be three L shapes intertwined, so that it’s an L from whatever direction you look at it. (L for loop, I guess.) One English site, though, said that the loop idea was inspired by a Sixties Japanese design in the shape of the character for “again, back,” which I assume must be 回. One of the Chinese sites said that one of the abstract ideas for the building is that it’s “中国了解世界的窗口” (”China’s window for understanding the world”). 窗口 (window) at least *uses* the character 口, which by itself doesn’t seem a terribly auspicious word. My (humble :)) guess would be that Koolhaas was just stylizing 回 into a loop.
Thanks for the article — I hadn’t heard about that building before.
August 31st, 2007 at 7:39 am
Hey, that’s great information! Thanks so much! (And I’m impressed that you checked Chinese sites!) Any chance you could supply a link to a useful English site about this? I’d love to read more about it!
Meanwhile, I ordered the book you recommended. Strangely, people are selling copies of it on Amazon for as much as $60! There’s nothing under $40! Fortunately, B&N had a much cheaper used copy.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:30 pm
More thoughts on 回:
I mentioned a Rorschach test earlier, and I’m fascinated to realize that I NEVER would have seen two concentric boxes in that building–only one box!
Does 回 tend to mean “again, back” in Chinese? I checked the Unicode page (http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=56de), where it says that it means “return, turn around; a time,” but that’s not quite the same…
Strange that if Koolhaas wanted to build something very much of the present or the future, he would reference the past, either with a 1960s design or with a character essentially meaning “same as before.”
Also odd that anyone would reference a roman letter (L) in China, of all places! I bet none of the Chinese sites said anything about this. Wonder if the English-speaking analysts were simply projecting their ethnocentric interpretations!
Anyway, thanks for providing info. that got me out of a LOOP! (I think I may have slipped into new thought-loops, though!)
September 11th, 2007 at 4:46 am
Ack — life took over and I forgot to check back here!
I hope you like the book. I thought your writing had a similar whimsical quality to it, so maybe it’ll work for you. And I’m glad you found it for less that $60 (!). (I just borrowed it from the library.)
I’m pretty sure the L-shaped idea isn’t made up. I saw it in enough places, both English and Chinese (立体L形). But you never know.
It looks like Koolhaas was very influenced by these Japanese Metabolists. He’s written about them in several of his books. And since he’s trying to create a “non-skyscraper,” and trying to historically tie into the bigness of Mao’s “Great Leap Forward,” maybe it’s no surprise that he’s circling back as he goes forward. That works well with the “回” character, don’t you think?
I don’t detect any difference between the meaning of 回 in Chinese and Japanese. I think maybe things just get translated with different emphasis into English. (Obviously, some of the usages are going to vary, especially when you get into 訓読み.)
I’ve kind of forgotten what sites I found before, but here are some I found today:
Detailed article (pretty fascinating) called Warchitecture:
http://www.iias.nl/nl/39/IIAS_NL39_2021.pdf
Book review of Koolhaas’s book “Content”:
http://www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/content/content.htm
Blog with cool pictures of the building and some info:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=179084
Statistical info about the building:
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/beijing/central_china_tv.htm
I never would have thought of 回 on my own, either. Maybe it’s because 口 by itself is a different character, and that was blockage from the left brain.
(I’ll just tell myself that.)
Marymoore
September 12th, 2007 at 3:56 am
Hi, Marymoore. Great to hear back from you! You’re a wealth of information!
The A. Zee book: I received it this weekend. Strangely enough, mine turns out to be a library book, too–only that’s not what I thought I was buying! It has that noisy plastic wrapping that makes a book seem less like a book somehow.
One odd question: Did you actually read the book in an A–Z (!) kind of way? Or did you dip in here and there, as one would with reference material? (I once had an eye-opening discussion with a book publisher, who said that people don’t actually want to have to read books; they want to absorb the material without going to the trouble of reading it! I think he was onto something! A random association: Another book publisher once told me that people only read books that support what they already think; they don’t want to expose themselves to new ideas!)
[Time passes …]
OK, I’ve been looking at some of the links you provided (and thanks for those!). Am having a few reactions:
1. What the hell are they talking about?! I started to feel stupid and then to feel really bad about my stupidity. Then I remembered how many architects I know who also don’t understand or like archi-speak!
2. I was also riveted! Can’t believe I’ve never heard of Japanese Metabolists (and what an incredibly strange name that is! Need to get to the bottom of that name!). Didn’t realize Kenzo Tange died in ‘05.
3. Was intrigued to find this sentence at the 3rd link you provided:
“The new building will involve two ‘L’ shaped high-rise towers linked at the top and the bottom at an angle to form a loop, which has been described as a ‘Z’ criss-cross.” So if L means “loop,” what does Z stand for?!?!?!
OK, I need to restrain myself here, as this is not supposed to be a blog about architecture. Plus, I have something due today (coincidentally enough, on a Chinese architect who has come up with designs for floating cities, no doubt inspired by Japanese Metabolists, only I never knew that!!!!). So I’m pretty much using your plethora of links as a big excuse for procrastination!
Thanks again for supplying so many answers! (I don’t think any part of your brain appears to be blocked! That’s my decidedly unprofessional opinion!)