Serenity symbol

POSTED BY: Shiny1
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 20:08
VIEWED: 29282
PAGE 1 of 1

SHINY1

Wednesday, January 25, 2006 10:52 PM (P)

I am searching for a good clear shot of the Serenity Chinese symbol. I have searched online, but I have found a couple that are different, so I am not sure which is the correct version. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

LOSTNO1FAN

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 6:59 PM (P)

Did you ever find the symbol, cause I have been looking for it too! Let me know if you did, or do! Thanks, Sandi

"Smells like crotch"

FOLLOWMAL

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 7:37 PM (P)

Did you look in the Blue Sun Room?

" You hold. Hold til I get back." Mal

SHINY1

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 10:35 PM (P)

I will look there, Thanks!!

"I love my captain"

ACRAZYIVAN

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 10:42 PM (P)

This is just something I've noticed. Sometimes the Chinese characters are side-by-side, and sometimes they're on top of one another. I think this might be a difference between Firefly and Serenity - or maybe just the quality of some merchandise. But I was wondering if anyone else had noticed that as well.

"We've gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero."

SHINY1

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 12:46 AM (P)

I noticed that too. Are they correct either way? What is the difference I wonder?

CITIZEN

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 1:37 AM (P)

I think, though I'm not sure, that one is Mandarin for Serenity and the other is Cantonese. Chinese and English are very different languages though, so there are often many different ways to say one word or sentence in English in Chinese (in varying degrees of "correctness").

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
You should never give powers to a leader you like that you’d hate to have given to a leader you fear

MURKYMERC

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 1:59 AM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
I think, though I'm not sure, that one is Mandarin for Serenity and the other is Cantonese. Chinese and English are very different languages though, so there are often many different ways to say one word or sentence in English in Chinese (in varying degrees of "correctness").

I don't speak chinese so I am guessing here, but I belive that modern Madarin and Cantonese use the same symbols the the difference are only when spoken. Can one of you hippy college kids confirm? There wasn't a big push to learn Chinese when I was in school.

DAVESHAYNE

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 2:02 AM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by ACrazyIvan:
This is just something I've noticed. Sometimes the Chinese characters are side-by-side, and sometimes they're on top of one another. I think this might be a difference between Firefly and Serenity - or maybe just the quality of some merchandise. But I was wondering if anyone else had noticed that as well.

All of the Serenity tie ins that I have seen have the characters in the logo stacked. On Serenity herself the characters are side by side. Now in clasic printed Chinese the charecters are read top to bottom and then left to right; however in places where english is the dominant language it is not uncommon for the charecters to read left to right and then top to bottom - particularly in signs and the like.

So both are correct for differing values of correct. As to the series I'm trying to remember if we ever got a look at the logo. Guess I'll have to watch it all again and pay more carefull attention. Work, work, work.

David

"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon

DAVESHAYNE

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 2:07 AM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by Murkymerc:
I don't speak chinese so I am guessing here, but I belive that modern Madarin and Cantonese use the same symbols the the difference are only when spoken. Can one of you hippy college kids confirm? There wasn't a big push to learn Chinese when I was in school.

It's been a long time since I went to college and I never made a study of the chinese language (though I am a bit of a hippy) but the answer to your question is correct. Chinese characters are ideograms (ie they stand for ideas) not phonograms (which stand for sounds.)

David

"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon

CITIZEN

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 2:10 AM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by Murkymerc:
I don't speak chinese so I am guessing here, but I belive that modern Madarin and Cantonese use the same symbols the the difference are only when spoken. Can one of you hippy college kids confirm? There wasn't a big push to learn Chinese when I was in school.

Like I said not sure. All dialects of Chinese share a common written language (which is why they're called dialects, rather than being seperate languages) but I think that different symbols can be used between them. But then I could be utterly wrong...

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
You should never give powers to a leader you like that you’d hate to have given to a leader you fear

NOSADSEVEN

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 6:44 AM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by daveshayne:... As to the series I'm trying to remember if we ever got a look at the logo. ...

We get a look at the ship's name in the series (I believe in the pilot at Eavesdown Docks), but it is not the logo from the movie - in fact, I recall it being pretty not-exciting.

The logo from the movie was designed for the movie by Serenity's graphic designer, Geoffrey Mandel (with "lots of input" from Joss). CABridges posted an interview with him on SerenityStuff.com:
http://www.serenitystuff.com/2006/02/10/interview-with-geoffrey-mandel
-graphic-designer-for-serenity/

The interview doesn't say anything about the differences between the promotional logo and the actual logo on the ship. There is an image of the ship-logo within the interview, if anyone is still looking.

As for the Chinese characters, my understanding is that different dialects have some of their own characters, but they share the main (historic) ones. In fact, even Japanese uses Chinese characters (Kanji) for nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. So, I would not expect the characters from the logo to need to be translated, especially since there is no need for grammatical context. Any inconsistancies (not that I've noticed any) would be more likely based on an error by the movie designers/translators, as we saw with the Blue Sun logo. (There are nuances of meaning...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't. We. Just.

BIGMIKE

Monday, February 25, 2008 5:39 PM (P)

Check out:
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese-symbol-serenity.htm

and

http://www.formosa-translation.com/chinese/s/sz71.html

BigMike

HISGOODGIRL

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 1:12 PM (P)

It's true that the Japanese use many Chinese characters. I have a dear friend who has been teaching English in japan for a number of years. I showed him the Serenity logo from the movie, without mentioning what it was from and asked him to translate the symbols. His interpretation was that they literally translate as "Quiet Strength".

Sounds like "Serenity" to me!

RAVEN1

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 8:08 PM (P)

where can I find all the serenity symbols ever drawn? English/Chinese/Shanti?