Click Here For The Comic Strips
Kai's name for his mouse is
"Mouse" which he pronounces "Mao". That's actually funny in
two ways, one of course is because it sounds like Chairman
Mao, and also because "mao" is Mandarin for cat! It was
suggested to me that perhaps Kai thought that Mouse was a
cat, but that isn't the case. "Mao" is his best effort at
saying "mouse". All mice are "mao" and all cats are
"kitty".
Mouse has became Kai's favorite "lovey" and is used
regularly by Kai for cuddling with, and fondling while
sucking his thumb. His constant use caused the development
of a very unpleasant odor. Thus he was given the title
"Stinky Mouse". (Unknown to Kai, we now actually have two
identical mice which we rotate and machine wash to keep the
odor away)
When I started this website I wanted to be able to write
Stinky Mouse's name in Chinese. My first attempt at the
name was through online translation software. I couldn't
get it to translate "stinky" so I switched to "smelly". It
gave me
有臭味的鼠标. That didn't look like
a name to me so I decided to consult with Alex, a friend at work who
speaks Mandarin. He told me that the online translation
I had meant "computer mouse that has a bad smell"!
鼠标 is "shu biao":
computer mouse. :-)
At first Alex thought that "chou shu"
臭鼠, or "chou laoshu"
臭老鼠 would probably be our best
bet but wanted to run it by his fiance who lives in China.
Her feeling was that in Chinese, calling someone or
something "chou" can mean "not nice". So really, if you say
臭老鼠, people could think of it
as "unpleasant mouse" rather than "stinky mouse". She
suggested that the best, most authentically Chinese way to
name Stinky Mouse would be to call him
臭臭鼠 (Chou Chou Shu).
Reduplicating words, especially in names, is very common in
Chinese, and creates something like a diminutive, a "pet
name" kind of thing. Chinese readers would know it's a
name, and it's cute, affectionate, and not a disparaging
term. So Stinky Mouse's official name in Chinese is:
臭臭鼠 Chou Chou Shu!
Technical Notes:
This site is currently hosted on Apple's .Mac service. The
site is built using RealMacSoftware's Rapidweaver program.
Comic graphic frames are built using Plasq's ComicLife
program. Photo and graphic editing is done in iPhoto,
PhotoStudio, GIMP, and GraphicConverter.