Category Archives: language

Signing Off From Bird’s Nest: Ai Weiwei in English

Posted on September 26, 2012 by AXM

Some two years ago, in the spring of 2010, Jennifer Ng and I founded Bird’s Nest: Ai Weiwei in English, with a great deal of help from a number of volunteer designers and translators (including our brilliant anonymous designer Fat Sun who set up the two-column format). What started as an experiment in collaborative translation [...]

Greetings from Gwangju, Korea

Posted on August 19, 2011 by AXM

Despite being only about 1000 kilometers (~600 miles) by the way the crow flies, the journey from Beijing, China to Gwangju, Korea requires nearly a 12 hour odyssey. Early wake-up in Beijing, cab ride in the morning sun to Beijing Capital International Airport, land in Seoul Gimpo International Airport (lovely, by the way–much faster and [...]

The Enduring Value of Soho

Posted on June 3, 2011 by AXM

A sign outside Jianwai SOHO, a home office complex in Beijing’s Central Business District. The enduring real estate value of the word “Soho” is amazing to me. It apparently started as a hunting cry that became associated with a fashionable part of London. Then New York sprouted SoHo, of course, which has arguably outshone its [...]

Name for the Moment

Posted on April 29, 2011 by AXM

What’s your name? George, Larry, Beth, Sue? In China, English speakers often have three names. Their Chinese name, their Chinese nickname, their English name. I often have to learn all of them, so I can refer to the person properly depending on whether I’m speaking to an English speaker or Chinese speaker. In the West, [...]

Modes of Literacy

Posted on March 9, 2011 by AXM

Thinking lately about modes of literacy. Ever since moving here, my Chinese literacy has shot up, but I still struggle. While I can scan a heavy text of philosophy swiftly, I read even basic characters slowly, piecing together meaning one by one. Foreigners I know who’ve lived here for years and can carry on conversations [...]

Not Allowed

Posted on January 23, 2011 by AXM

Hard to see in this photo, but the sign above reads，请不要在此停放自行车哦, or “Please don’t park your bike here.”

Heaven, Earth, Wind, Rain

Posted on December 31, 2010 by AXM

Chalsea Chen sent me a lovely tweet for New Year’s that I wanted to share in English. Here’s my stab at a poetic translation: Friendships are heaven Friendships are earth Some friends can support both heaven and earth Friendships are wind Friendships are rain Some friends can call up the winds and the rains Riches [...]

What would Globese look like? Reflecting on a Chinese language future

Posted on December 24, 2010 by AXM

Could Chinese become a dominant language, a new lingua franca? Almost certainly yes. A new infographic shows that it will quickly become the dominant language on the Internet in just a few years. But what I wonder is: how long until it’s dominant outside of Chinese-speaking countries, and what will it look like? I’m not [...]

Layers of Experience

Posted on November 1, 2010 by AXM

More design thoughts from Ai Weiwei’s talk at the Tate. The presence of a sign interpreter got me thinking about methods of communication. There was the live talk. The sign interpreter. The live Twitter feed both projected on the wall behind the speakers and online. The live video feed for audiences outside. Different layers of [...]