Rovina Cai

The vast majority (around 80%) of Chinese characters are made up of a radical (the general meaning) and a phonetic.

Radical 女 nǚ (woman) and phonetic 馬 mǎ (horse) = 媽 mā, mother (your mum sounds like a horse).

But a small minority are pictograms, that is to say a picture of the thing they represent.

Pictograms are the earliest characters, thousands of years old, but many are still used every day.

If you look at the oracle bone script for rat, tiger and elephant you’ll see they are clearly pictures of the animal they signify.

But if you look at the modern versions, you’ll notice something odd, they’re all rotated 90 degrees onto their sides.

Why? Why are all these characters written with the animals balancing on their tails?

Well, it’s for a straight-forward, practical reason.

For a couple thousand years before paper was invented writing materials were limited. We had silk (expensive), bronze (expensive and impractical), and oracle bones (religious use only).

And one more…

That was cheap, plentiful, durable, and easy to erase and rewrite characters. The wonder that is…

Bamboo!

It was cut into strips, and tied into books. Long thin strips of bamboo contributed to the Chinese custom of writing vertically, from top to bottom (and right to left).

But it also meant that it’s much easier to write some characters length-ways so that they easily fit onto the strip.

So that’s it, mystery solved. That’s why a lot of Chinese picture characters are written at a right angle.

EP 3 Thoughts

Why do I always feel like there a bias against foreign trainees? Because of that, I find myself rooting for the G teams versus the K teams. Aju Nice was a snooze fest and they didn’t do Seventeen justice. The KTL G team was so clearly superior to the K team, although I have to commend their efforts. Highlight of the ep was definitely Jay and his outstanding vocals. I can’t imagine any other trainee will match his impact this round.

NW: Boys Planet (2023)

I just watched the first episode of Boys Planet (I know I'm super late). I went in expecting little but was pleasantly surprised by the talent on display and the minimal scripted bits meant to boost so and so's popularity. My favorite trainees so far are Haruto and Sung Hanbin. My favorite moment was definitely Lip J and Hanbin tutting and whacking (played that part over and over again). I really felt like I was watching SDC; it was that good!

https://x.com/gyuivns/status/1621129034674614272?s=20

[241216] 원우 Weverse Post Update

trans: carats, goodnight🌙

i think the apples rotten right to the core

House Tully. Another Great House from ASOIAF. I included additional image with names, just in case. Since I sometimes depict characters far from canon and fandom imagination. I included Lysa and Catelyn even though they already married into other families. But I had an opportunity to draw these women twice and imagine Riverlands female fashion, so I took it.

Credits: netcrow98 (Twitter)

sea, swallow me