Comments on: Lost Laowai gets comic-ized

By: ‘Electric Voices and Stinky Tofu’ on your bookshelf | Lost Laowai China Blog

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:21:51 +0000

[...] first heard of MandMX.com back about a year and a half ago when they featured Lost Laowai in a comic of theirs. So when Magnus, the “M” of MandMX, contacted me to let me know they’d [...]

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:57:52 +0000

Hilarious!! I love these comic strips!!
极客 [jíkè]

1. 1. noun [网络聊天用语] geek; someone whose main interest is electronic equipment, especially equipment connected with computers and the Internet, and who spends too much time buying this equipment and using it

I WIN!!

By: Duncan

Duncan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:12:41 +0000

Thought I’d just chime in with an opinion:

Beause ‘geek’ is very much a Western word with its own nuances and culture, just translating it as an odd person (something like ‘怪人 or 畸形人’) makes little sense.

I see in Chinese some tend to transliterate – “极客”是来自英文”Geek”一词的翻译，又译作“奇客”

（http://www.geekg.com/geek）

Like Charlie says, 中国通 and 中国迷 don’t have the right mix of 褒义 and 贬义 that makes ‘geek’ so interesting.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:09:48 +0000

Actually, I have no idea about Geek in Chinese either. When I was making the site, I had a long discussion with my (then) girlfriend about this, and we couldn’t come up with anything in Chinese that had the same meaning. The closest we got, I think, was 中国通 and 中国迷 (anything more literal ended up only having negative connotations in Chinese), but neither of those really fit for me. 中国通 makes it sound like we already know everything, and 中国迷 sort of makes it sound like we approve of everything China does.

Hence the Chinese motto of the site being 我看中国. It seems there is no word in Chinese that really captures the feeling of the English. Although to be fair maybe my (then) girlfriend and I just couldn’t think of one.

By: Magnus

Magnus — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:09:06 +0000

AH YA… not cute. They are supposed to be sophisticated STEPHEN!!!

Fine, Charlie, when I publish my first book of MandMX comics I’ll be sure to send you one. But not Stephen… Cute…ugh!

Nobody can help me with GEEK in Chinese??

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:03:53 +0000

@Charlie: That pisses me off too

By: Charlie

Charlie — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:55:57 +0000

Well, points to Magnus for taking that completely unprovoked criticism quite well…I continue to feel like a bit of a jerk for even posting it, and I’ll admit I haven’t read the whole archive Magnus…but I spent some time on the site today flipping through it and didn’t find much…different strokes for different folks I guess, anyway, I will just shut up now. Normally if I had nothing nice to say, I’d say nothing, I’ve just been feeling a bit of excess rage lately…I think it has to do with the Detroit Red Wings being in the Stanley Cup again this year.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:49:46 +0000

@Charlie Certainly they are not laugh-out-loud funny, and initially I thought the humor might come across better in their Chinese versions. But now I just think they simply meant to be cute.
(And if they are just fishing for links, what a creative way to go about it!)

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:27:58 +0000

There are certainly easier ways to getting links from Lost Laowai. I pretty much add anyone to our blogroll that asks.

As for funny – it’s subjective I guess. I browsed through a few and they got more than a chuckle out of me. This was one that did:

More than anything else though, I just like supporting people in our relatively small blogsphere – particularly those doing unique and creative things.

By: Magnus

Magnus — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:17:19 +0000

Fishing for links? Dang it! How did you know?

Not Funny? Come on, Charlie…in over 150 comics you didn’t chuckle once? I gotta work harder!

PS. how do you say GEEK in Chinese?