Chinese translations for 'Out of Gas' by FFfan

FIREFLY CHINESE TRANSLATIONS

Chinese translations for 'Out of Gas'

POSTED BY: FFFAN
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 18:03
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Friday, October 25, 2002 3:43 PM

All of the Chinese in this episode was actually understandable. =)

1) Opening scene

Zoe: It's a piece of "fei-oo".
Mal: "Fei-oo"?

Translation: "fei-oo" means waste or junk.

2) ~15 minutes into OoG

Mal: I wasn't asking. I was telling.
Wash: "Chur ni-duh."
Mal: You're going to get to that bridge and you're going to get us back on our feet.

Translation: Not sure but I think "chur ni-duh" means something like "yeah, you wish."

3) ~25 minutes into OoG

Jayne (to Mal and Wash): What the "guai" do you two think you're doing fighting at a time like this?

Translation: "guai" literally means "devil" so "what the hell" is appropriate here.

4) ~30 minutes into OoG

Mal (to Kaylee): "Dong ma?"

Translation: "dong ma?" means "understood?"

5) ~55 minutes into OoG

"Pirate" captain: You and him are going to pilot this pile of "go se" out of here.

Translation: "go se" literally means "dog shit."

------------------------

Did anyone else notice that the ship's computer was speaking Cantonese and not Mandarin? It says, "life support failure, check oxygen levels at once" and then repeats that line in Cantonese. I thought it was funny that the crew speaks one Chinese dialect, but the ship speaks another. ;)

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Sunday, October 27, 2002 9:06 AM

BILLIAM

I also noticed that the ship spoke Cantonese instead of Mandarin. I guess they couldn't find a good Mandarin speaker to do the computer voice?! I suppose by using a competent AND current speaker for the computer voice, that the Chinese language/dialects in the show are pretty much the same as the current dialects. I guess the cast should go to Chinese school on saturdays now to improve their pronunciation

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Sunday, October 27, 2002 10:41 AM

EVANS

Quote:
Originally posted by MollyBloom:
Does anyone know what Mal was saying when he walked in on Kaylee and Bester (the original mechanic)?

From the transcription by Shrift ==

MAL: What in the name of [suo-yo duh doh shr-dang - "all that's proper...?"]
(long beat) Bester.

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Monday, October 28, 2002 7:37 AM

JHSIAO

Quote:
Originally posted by FFfan:
2) ~15 minutes into OoG

Mal: I wasn't asking. I was telling.
Wash: "Chur ni-duh."
Mal: You're going to get to that bridge and you're going to get us back on our feet.

Translation: Not sure but I think "chur ni-duh" means something like "yeah, you wish."

My understanding was that it was merely mispronounced. Literally "Go you" it means "Get outta here".

Quote:

Did anyone else notice that the ship's computer was speaking Cantonese and not Mandarin? It says, "life support failure, check oxygen levels at once" and then repeats that line in Cantonese. I thought it was funny that the crew speaks one Chinese dialect, but the ship speaks another. ;)

Took awhile for me to figure it out. I was wracking my poor Mandarin vocabulary trying to figure out what the hell the ship was saying.

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Monday, October 28, 2002 10:52 AM

ADBO

Quote:

2) ~15 minutes into OoG

Mal: I wasn't asking. I was telling.
Wash: "Chur ni-duh."
Mal: You're going to get to that bridge and you're going to get us back on our feet.

Translation: Not sure but I think "chur ni-duh" means something like "yeah, you wish."

No, he said "Qu Ni De!!" It means, literally, "Up Yours!!" That's so funny... he should have said "Qu Ni Ma De", which is like "Up Yomama"....

And yeah, I noticed the Cantonese too. And I see that all the Chinese characters are in traditional, not simplified form (thank goodness). That could mean that someone from HK helped them with their Chinese part (hence the terrible mandarin pronounciations! Cantonese are not known for their accurate mandarin)

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Monday, November 11, 2002 10:48 AM

IKENTICUS

probably not HK or Taiwanese technical help on the set, because the sign during the "virtual pool hall" scene in another episode was written in Simplified Chinese, not Traditional --- something most Taiwanese and Hong Kong folk balk at.

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Monday, November 11, 2002 6:57 PM

JASONZZZ

PLEASE! Everyone go and learn pinyin and stop
making up your own romanization system.

Go to

http://www.zhongwen.com

if you need help.

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Thursday, January 2, 2003 1:08 PM

GUAILO

Quote:
Did anyone else notice that the ship's computer was speaking Cantonese and not Mandarin? It says, "life support failure, check oxygen levels at once" and then repeats that line in Cantonese. I thought it was funny that the crew speaks one Chinese dialect, but the ship speaks another. ;)

Obviously by my handle 'round here I know "go se" about speaking Mandarin or Cantonese. But my understanding is that Cantonese is sort of the "common tongue" and is generally spoken by the "poor and undereducated". This is, of course, a huge generalization, but it is factually derived from Canton, the main trade province during pre-Communist China.

The Mandarin dialect is typically thought of as "high speak" and is typically attributed to the upper class and is considered more propper, more formal and all around better. Shiny, if you will.

I think if those facts are true, then the fact that the ship speaks Cantonese makes sense in it's role as a freighter and all-around commoner class ship. Likewise, it tracks that if people are speaking mandarin, it's because it's considered (or was considered) fashionable and more formal.

I'd be interested to see if Inara's ship speaks/displays Mandarin or formal script.

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Thursday, January 2, 2003 3:57 PM

NONOLUNA

On the official Fox site, which is giving me a great deal of trouble tonight (is this the end?) there is an interview with Joss where he says that he didn't realize until later that they were using Mandarin instead of Cantonese...don't know how that happened though. I myself know nothing of any Asian languages so all of this is very interesting. Thank you...:)

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Wednesday, January 8, 2003 4:43 PM

QUIXOTE13

Quote:
Originally posted by FFfan:
2) ~15 minutes into OoG

Mal: I wasn't asking. I was telling.
Wash: "Chur ni-duh."
Mal: You're going to get to that bridge and you're going to get us back on our feet.

Translation: Not sure but I think "chur ni-duh" means something like "yeah, you wish."

That's pretty close--it's actually a bit stronger than that (more like "get the hell outta here" as a response to something offensive or ridiculous).

Take care,

Quixote13

Ivan Chan Studio: Invite Beauty: www.ivanchan.com

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Wednesday, January 8, 2003 5:09 PM

QUIXOTE13

Hello Guailo,

Very interesting extrapolation, but unfortunately not based on accurate information.

Cantonese is, as you stated, derived from Canton, and to add to that, it is spoken by the vast majority of Chinese emigres due to the coastal location of the province and the diaspora that happened due to political, economic, and climactic situations. Many of the Chinese emigrants from China were poor and undereducated, but there were also a class of scholars and professionals that moved about in the world (in fact, for the Chinese bourgeoisie and upper classes, of which all provinces had, it was rather standard to send their children to foreign countries for an education) and were allowed to come in during the Chinese Exclusion Act in the U.S. The reason that the majority of emigres were Cantonese and poor may have lead to the appearance that the dialect itself was rooted in the poor, when in actuality, you can have very wealthy and educated Cantonese speakers in China, and in Viet Nam, Canada, etc. who come from the middle and upper classes. Interestingly enough, the wealthy and well-educated doctor's last name can be construed as Cantonese(Tam), although it may be a bit ambiguous (like the way "Lee" appears in several cultures).

Mandarin, however, is the "common tongue" of China, being the national language and so is used for official business. Mandarin speakers often appear snobbish about their dialect because of its stature in the country--somewhat similar to the way people in the U.S. have a standardized way of speaking (most of what we hear in the media in the States) and hold a mild prejudice against those with a southern accent (those who speak that way are thought to be less educated "rednecks").

I think as mentioned by another poster, the mix of dialects was more by accident (and lack of more thorough knowledge of Chinese and its dialects) than anything representing a class distinction, although if it had been true, I think it would have been fascinating.

Why I think Chinese is spoken in the future is because there are so damn many Chinese people on the planet (I think we're the most populous?) that it eventually influenced what became, for sci fi convenience or proposed reality, the dominant language of English (which already has quite a knack for incorporating foreign words into its vocabulary). The idea is similar to the street language in Blade Runner, which was a mix of English, Japanese, and Spanish (and possibly Chinese, I forget).

Now, the lightning bug up my ass is, where are the Asians on the show? I get so tired of Asian-influenced sci fi with no human Asian presence. The world of Firefly uses Chinese, the Romulans wear kimonos, the Jedi are samurai, the Matrix is written in Japanese, the Company in Aliens uses Japanese on its hardware. Let's see some celestial bodies, eh?

Take care,

Quixote 13

Quote:
Originally posted by Guailo:
Obviously by my handle 'round here I know "go se" about speaking Mandarin or Cantonese. But my understanding is that Cantonese is sort of the "common tongue" and is generally spoken by the "poor and undereducated". This is, of course, a huge generalization, but it is factually derived from Canton, the main trade province during pre-Communist China.

The Mandarin dialect is typically thought of as "high speak" and is typically attributed to the upper class and is considered more propper, more formal and all around better. Shiny, if you will.

I think if those facts are true, then the fact that the ship speaks Cantonese makes sense in it's role as a freighter and all-around commoner class ship. Likewise, it tracks that if people are speaking mandarin, it's because it's considered (or was considered) fashionable and more formal.

Ivan Chan Studio: Invite Beauty: www.ivanchan.com

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Wednesday, January 8, 2003 5:15 PM

QUIXOTE13

Although most Taiwanese and Hong Kong folk (now part of China) originally balked at the simplification of Chinese written script, it's been adopted and is used in newspapers and other printed material. Given that China is what it is, and that in the world of Firefly Chinese has been integrated into the English language, it would make sense that the simplified version would be what people would be using, I believe--it's much more practical (the reason for its creation) and has by far the larger political/cultural momentum behind it to carry it into the future. Not that I like it, but what the hey, languages change.

Take care,

Quixote 13

Quote:
Originally posted by ikenticus:
probably not HK or Taiwanese technical help on the set, because the sign during the "virtual pool hall" scene in another episode was written in Simplified Chinese, not Traditional --- something most Taiwanese and Hong Kong folk balk at.

Ivan Chan Studio: Invite Beauty: www.ivanchan.com

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Thursday, January 9, 2003 6:01 AM

GUAILO

Thanks, Quixote13. That's sort of what I meant, but quite obviously didn't accurately describe. Must be my southern accent...(lol)

I knew Cantonese was the provincial/trade dialect and my understanding was that the Mandarin dialect was only truly used in the palaces and by officials of the ruling classes. Then when the comunists came to power, they adopted Mandarin as the primary dialect to be the official spoken word of China and it's regions, much to the chagrin of the Cantonese and Tibetans, to name a few. Largely, though, it's managed to unify the culture in exactly the way expected and Mandarin is still the most spoke dialect.

Is that close?

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Saturday, January 11, 2003 2:10 PM

QUIXOTE13

Hello Guailo!

Quote:
Originally posted by Guailo:
Thanks, Quixote13. That's sort of what I meant, but quite obviously didn't accurately describe. Must be my southern accent...(lol)

LOL! Not that I heard it and could be prejudiced against you for it, of course. :) Besides, southern accents have a special place in my heart, whether in the States, France, Italy, or China.

Quote:
I knew Cantonese was the provincial/trade dialect and my understanding was that the Mandarin dialect was only truly used in the palaces and by officials of the ruling classes.

Mandarin was used by officials and the ruling classes (which came from all the provinces) as a lingua franca, but it was also a living language used by "common people" (non-officials) who lived in areas where Mandarin was the dialect spoken--what I'm trying to say is that Mandarin was not restricted to official use or the ruling classes in China. Anybody could speak it, and if you traveled across China, then it was handy to know this particular dialect because it was the unifying dialect for the country--much the same way that you could travel through Europe and if you speak French or English (the so-called "international languages"), you were pretty much set to find somebody whom you could communicate with.

Cantonese, or really, whatever was convenient, could be a trade language--Shanghainese, I imagine, was probably another great dialect to know. However, what I imagine is that Mandarin was probably the most useful dialect of them all--it was the common tongue of the entire country and so you could trade with anybody using this dialect (theoretically), and failing in Mandarin, you could (this is a tangent)at least write messages back and forth (the writing system is the same for all dialects, but there are characters for words that exist in one dialect but not in another).

Just think of Mandarin as the common language (one of its names in Mandarin is "Pu3 tong hua4," which literally means, "common language/talk." The numbers I've added reflect the tone used for the pronunciation of the particular character, of which there are five in Mandarin and I think like 14 or so in Cantonese? Someone more familiar with that dialect can speak up here. :) ), spoken by everybody as their primary or secondary (or tertiary, etc.) dialect in China, as a means to have an agreed upon dialect to communicate with in a vast country.

Quote:
Then when the comunists came to power, they adopted Mandarin as the primary dialect to be the official spoken word of China and it's regions, much to the chagrin of the Cantonese and Tibetans, to name a few.

I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with this part of the dialect's history, but my impression had been that Mandarin as an official dialect preceded the Communists coming into power. Having an official dialect or language (like English in the U.S.) can be very oppressive, despite its practicality. I know many native Taiwanese (not the indigenous people) resented having to learn and speak Mandarin in school, just as they resented having to learn and only speak Japanese during that period. It's not something easy to reconcile, for Cantonese, Tibetans, Native Americans, Mexicans, etc. that there is an official language other than what you speak. The thing with Mandarin in China, though, is that it is expected that it become one of the dialects a citizen uses, but that a citizen's primary dialect, be it Cantonese or something else, isn't given up (they're not asked to linguistically assimilate).

Quote:
Largely, though, it's managed to unify the culture in exactly the way expected and Mandarin is still the most spoke dialect.

Is that close?

Pretty much. :) Although Mandarin may be the most spoken dialect for the reason that there are so many Chinese people in China, it's not necessarily the most common dialect outside of China/Taiwan, due to emigration.

I hope I haven't confused you!

Take care and thanks for your interest and openness to this discussion!

Quixote 13

Ivan Chan Studio: Invite Beauty: www.ivanchan.com

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Wednesday, January 15, 2003 6:03 PM

LUCHANAN

Quote:
Originally posted by Quixote13:
Hello Guailo!

I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with this part of the dialect's history, but my impression had been that Mandarin as an official dialect preceded the Communists coming into power. Having an official dialect or language (like English in the U.S.) can be very oppressive, despite its practicality. I know many native Taiwanese (not the indigenous people) resented having to learn and speak Mandarin in school, just as they resented having to learn and only speak Japanese during that period. It's not something easy to reconcile, for Cantonese, Tibetans, Native Americans, Mexicans, etc. that there is an official language other than what you speak. The thing with Mandarin in China, though, is that it is expected that it become one of the dialects a citizen uses, but that a citizen's primary dialect, be it Cantonese or something else, isn't given up (they're not asked to linguistically assimilate).

Mandarin has been the official language more or less since the Qing Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchurians were in power. During the Qing Dynasty, the Westerners made official contacts with China and called the language they spoke "Mandarin".

However, after the Nationalists overthrown the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China, they knew that in order to reestablish China as a strong nation, China would need a common language. As many of you may already know, there are many dialects spoken in China (7 main groups to be exact). China is at least more than twice the size of Europe and Europe has numerous languages spoken. Anyway, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Nationalists revolution (a Cantonese himself) decided that Mandarin should be the official language since it's the most simple one. The Communists reinforced the establishment of Mandarin as the official language after they defeated the Nationalists and that's why you can travel across China only knowing one dialect, Mandarin.

Yes, I'm glad that Quixote pointed out that unlike here in the United States, speaking your own dialect isn't discouraged. When you travel around China (especially in the south) you can hear people speaking different dialects but if you approach them with Mandarin, 9 out of 10 times they instantly respond back with Mandarin.

Ni hao, wo shi Lucha Nan.

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