August 20, 2008 4:59 AM
A.M./P.M.: Dong Complications
There's a new word that's been bothering me here in Beijing. On the subway,
there are a number of stops that feature the prefix/suffix -- or
whatever it's called in Mandarin -- "dong."As in Tiananmen Dong, Dongzhimen, Dongsishitiao, Dongsi or, my personal favorite, Dongdan.
东, pronounced dōng, means east. All of those subway stations are on the east side of town.
But if not for that glaringly obvious fact, it'd be much harder to figure out exactly what all those dongs mean. Typing "dong" into the Chinese-English dictionary, two dozen results come up. Due to the four Mandarin tones, dong can actually mean a lot of things.
Pronounced identically to east, the word 冬 (dōng) means winter. The word for the boom of a drum -- 冬 -- is also dōng. As is 氡, which means radon, and 蝀, which means rainbow, and 苳, a Japanese rhubarb plant.
But that's just the pronunciation dōng. Change it up to dòng -- a seemingly minor yet important alteration -- and you might be talking about 冻 (to freeze), 洞 (cave), 胴 (large intestine) or 栋 (roof beam). A slight switch to dǒng can refer to either 懂, which means to understand, or 董, which means supervisor or landlord.
Then there's the Olympics' own -- and please, do not read these words too quickly -- double Dong. I'm talking about Dong Dong, the male trampolinist (pictured above) who won bronze on Tuesday. (I should mention here that Canada's Karen Cockburn took the silver in the women's competition.)
His name likely stems from a lineage dating back 2,000 years. An emperor needed to tame some dragons -- accidental humor, I swear -- and asked a man named Dong Fu to do it. Dong Fu managed to tame both the dragons and teach them to dance, though I don't know how.
Also, it's possible that the dragons were actually crocodiles, and that Dong Dong's name stems from the Jin Dian lineage, which means that his name translates as "title of official" or "leader."
Unless his name actually means Radon Radon.
Did I mention that this language is confusing?
It's 7 p.m. in Beijing, and 5 a.m. in Denver. Here are the stories that are making Olympic headlines on this Wednesday evening/morning:
>A link related to the above text that I just can't resist: Dongs around the world are meeting through Dong Prayer Journal, accessible via DongTeam.org. So your could-be-an-Onion-headline-of-the-day: "How Does the Olympics Affect the Dong."
>Unless your Onion-headline-of-the-day is this: "Internet, Xinhuanet glitter in Beijing Olympics."
>Or this: "Pingpong ball: I wanna kiss you, gaze at you."
>Foreign Policy magazine lists the 10 Worst Chinese Laws (via The Peking Duck).
>How the way China reacts to bad news has changed in the last 20 year, including one Li Ning-Liu Xiang comparison.
>An interesting thought on the benefits of broken English.
>Okay, one more thing about the trampolinist mentioned above. Per his Yahoo! Sports bio: "Dong will seek to avoid a repeat of his November performance at the men's preliminaries in Beijing, where he wound up with two unfulfilled actions in his second routine." Unfulfilled actions? I don't like the sound of that.
Join the discussion