Material Identification Help Please

[absynthe1972]

*sigh* I have NO idea what language this is. I was thinking of using it for some sort of kimono type outfit for one of the dolls I have - thinking of my goaty footed Puck (RS Mu)...but I want to make sure that the style I use matches the language on the material. And what does it say?

Thanks for the help.

[embyquinn]

It looks to me like Chinese pictographs, but either they're so stylized I can't read them or they're upside down. I don't read Chinese that well, so I wouldn't have a clue to what it would be saying anyway. However, that patch of red writing looks suspiciously like a chop (a stamp made from a seal which many Chinese use traditionally as a signature, particularly artisans and politicians). So I think it's Chinese, or at least it's meant to be.

I'd just want to make sure what it says, before using it. You don't want your dollieh wearing something that says "Good stuff for sale cheap". Or worse yet, "Sucky sucky five dolla, me love you long time!"

[absynthe1972]

ROFLMAO! @ that last one. That's soooooo true. I don't want my dollieh to be saying that. *giggles*

I'm so lost with this material. Thanks for at least identifying the country. lol! I can read German a little... but Asian languages? I'm LOST.

[Yanagi-sen]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is Chinese, and yes the picture is upside down. If was Japanese I might be able to help a bit, but no such luck with Chinese.

[skookum hime]

i used to have a chinese stamp set with the calligraphy symbols. I recognize the one but it is upside down.

[absynthe1972]

i used to have a chinese stamp set with the calligraphy symbols. I recognize the one but it is upside down.

I hope I have this right side up now.

[DollyKim]

As I said over at JS most of the stuff like this is gibberish and related to Engrish. It was picked more for it's looks than the designer understanding what they're using. It might be possible to pick out a word or two.

[tigerbaby]

I used to have a t-shirt in HS that had one of those ideograms on it, iirc. My chem lab partner was from Hong Kong, and fluent in Chinese, and he told me it was part of a traditional New Years' greeting, roughly translating to 'large benefits', lol. But, my t had 2 symbols on it, so it's anybody's guess what the one symbol on its own might mean.

It's a pretty fabric. If it says something ridiculous, that makes it better, imho.

[Greyhaunt]

It's definitely right side up now - you can tell because the ^ shapes in some should always be pointing up. Other than that, I can be of no use - don't know any Chinese.

[embyquinn]

Okay, I'm going to take a stab at translating this, but understand that (1) it's probably not real Chinese and (2) Chinese isn't my first, second, third or even fourteenth language. I translated this with radical lookup and some of them--most of them in fact--weren't exact matches, but the closest I could get, allowing for the artistic license of the calligrapher.

Since Chinese chop stamps are stylized signatures, I can't even begin to translate the red boxed character, so I won't. However, here is the key for the black characters:



And here are my poor translations:

1. I THINK this one is "yue", moon or month.
2. I'm almost sure this one is "ming", bright.
3. Maybe "hui", meeting, or maybe party...hard to tell, really
4. I'm thinking this is "ji", good luck.
5. Could be "ke", must not
6. It's either a dressed-up "shi", ten, or it COULD be "ji", soup, but I don't think so.

So what I'm getting from this is "The moon is bright, let's have a party for good luck! But let's not invite (more than) ten people." Or maybe "This month is the Shining Meeting of Luck, but let's not have soup."

Or something.