The Ministry of the Interior announced its 20 winners for slogans to encourage Taiwanese to have kids. As my friend Dan Bloom pointed out, there are no slogans in any of the local languages, just Mandarin. I tried my hand at quickie translations of a few of these with their awful puns*, feel free to contribute/correct in the comments:多生寶貝,寶貝台灣
Bear a few more treasures, treasure Taiwan
人生要美好,養兒育女不可少
Life must be beautiful, children reared cannot be few
老爸老媽我準備好了,今晚就看你們表現了!
Mom and Dad, I'm ready! Tonight you'll see the results!
生個寶貝，幸福加倍！
One kid multiplies fortune.
圓滿人生，就是要生。
To fulfill life, bring forth life.
有子有女〝好〞幸福
A son and daughter are "good" luck. [a visual pun in Chinese]
「孩」好，有你。
Lucky we had you!
一〝生〞幸福！
One birth is good fortune!
孩子到位，幸福歸隊
A child joined is fortune rejoined.
生!就對了!
Give birth! It's the right thing to do!
帥哥美女靠創造， 不生永遠看不到!!
Studs and babes must be made, if they're not born they'll never be seen!
好孕好運到！
A good pregnancy brings good luck!
有子有女就是「好」。
A son and daughter are "good" luck. [a visual pun in Chinese]
結婚,我願意! 生子,我樂意!
Marriage, I'm willing! Childbearing, I'm happy to!
幸福很簡單,寶貝一,二,三!!
Fortune is as easy as baby 1,2,3!!
孕釀~~下一個希望
Incubation -- the hope of the next generation
為愛而生
Give birth for love
孕味、乳味，最有女人味。
The taste of pregnancy, the aroma of milk, are the most womanly flavors
孩子~是我們最好的傳家寶。
Children are the best way of passing on our treasure
誠徵下一代！
Be the next generation! [?] UPDATE: It's "WANTED -- The Next Generation!" Thanks go to (D) in the comments.
The government seems unwilling to make the hard choices to lower the cost of child-rearing and education, give women more time off to have kids, support single-parenting, and so on. It looks an awful lot like yet another of those policies that give the appearance of doing something without the reality of it.
*Not recommended for reading while sober
UPDATE: Some great corrections in the comments.
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Funny. I vote for
ReplyDelete"生!就對了!
Give birth! It's the right thing to do!"
Btw, "Studs and babes aren't made" should be "are" or "have to be"? And I think the last one is "Wanted (or 'Now Hiring') -- the next generation".
Aw .. mine didn't get through. :(
ReplyDelete孕味、乳味，最有女人味。
ReplyDeleteThe taste of pregnancy, the aroma of milk, are the most womanly flavors
umm ... gag?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh, okay, maybe I got ahead of myself. Too much background in Freud and Ferenczi, I guess. Also, I was recalling that episode of Friends in which Chandler cannot refrain from blurting out one of his jokes about what his duties will be. I could have sworn treasures meant something else besides just varieties of treasures.
ReplyDelete"The taste of pregnancy, the aroma of milk, are the most womanly flavors".
ReplyDeleteThis also happens to be my personal favorite Barry White lyric.
Thanks (d)!
ReplyDeleteCheers Michael.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "The taste of pregnancy..." one, the first word (yunwei) seems to be a pun, on 韻味, something like "sophisticated" or "elegant", but I don't know about the rest. Anyway -- it's still stupid!
Someone should sponsor a Taiyu version of this contest. I'm sure there would be some good ones.
I have a few other nominations, perhaps the great Turton can provide Chinese translation:
ReplyDelete1. Have a kid. like a real life Farmville, only better!
2. Kids: a great excuse to avoid intercourse with your nagging wife.
3. They're living proof you're not totally gay
4. Witness the fun of our education system sapping them of any personality or imagination
5. who else is gonna take care of you when you're old
6. They're tax deductable!
7. Hello Kitty is a lot less creepy on actual kids
MT:
ReplyDelete"give women more time off to have kids"
It shouldn't just be women who get time off, child rearing is both parents' responsibility. Only giving women time off also adds an imbalance in employers eyes resulting in women getting fired for getting pregnant or young women finding it hard to get jobs. If there was some parity between men and women situations like this would hopefully go away.
s
老爸老媽我準備好了,今晚就看你們表現了!
ReplyDeleteThis is more like, Mom and Dad, I'm ready. Tonight is your turn to perform!
Anyway, this is one promotion I certainly hope to see fail. Just about every problem this island faces has overpopulation as it's root cause.
Mind you, failure may be just the excuse the KMT wants to allow more Chinese in.
Les said, "Mind you, failure may be just the excuse the KMT wants to allow more Chinese in."
ReplyDeleteSadly true, most likely.
I'll second Les on his comment. I noticed the discrepancy between original and translation, thought about it, ... and left it at that.
ReplyDeleteMy version of " 老爸老媽我準備好了,今晚就看你們表現了!" would have been, "Mom and Dad, I'm ready. Tonight, I'll be watchin' (the going-ons)!"
I could tell you when and how I sired my daughter. But my (then too eager) ex never acknowledged it. Some impregnation scenes are better left in limbo.
1. Have a kid. like a real life Farmville, only better!
ReplyDelete2. Kids: a great excuse to avoid intercourse with your nagging wife.
3. They're living proof you're not totally gay
4. Witness the fun of our education system sapping them of any personality or imagination
5. who else is gonna take care of you when you're old
6. They're tax deductable!
7. Hello Kitty is a lot less creepy on actual kids
I like your version a lot better!
Of the others, the taste of pregnancy was my favorite... Did a double-take after reading the first time.
Another suggestion for encouraging kids: pass a Taiwanese with Disabilities Act.
ReplyDeleteEver try pushing a stroller around Taiwan? Those ramps that popped up everywhere in the U.S. to allow wheelchairs also work great for strollers.
Another suggestion, make the place safer for kids. Where do you let a kid go out and play? You don't have to childproof everything, but having passable sidewalks so kids can walk around without stepping into traffic would be nice. Also more parks would be good. I remember the pier in Tamshui had bars that were far enough apart for child to easily slip through and get killed on the rocks below. The restaurant had a similar dangerous situation.
As an single adult, Taiwan is great that it keeps you awake when you walk around. But with kids it can be a nightmare.
Haha, yeah right. You translated or Google translated plus English editing?
ReplyDeleteI get one "No pain, No condom, Drive your baby ikuyo!"
ReplyDelete撞不痛, 套不用, 讓你的另一半(寶貝)高潮吧!(日語:出來吧!)
I get gift on slogans ....
"The government seems unwilling to make the hard choices to lower the cost of child-rearing and education, give women more time off to have kids, support single-parenting, and so on."
ReplyDeleteplease show me where this works in any other country. no, seriously.
Check out European birth rates: even if you provide cradle to grave welfare and assistance for moms, birthrates are still low.
UPDATE
ReplyDeletethe MOI choose a winner, the "children are a family treasure" one, and the winner was a 32 year old Taichung woman unmarried who says she does not want to have kids, ever... takes the money and runs..... Chang is her surname, probably big news in newspapers tomorrow, already the Netizens are ganging up on her and saying she rigged the votes and stole the slogan from an advertising campaign for some product already on the market, she denies of course
"The government seems unwilling to make the hard choices to lower the cost of child-rearing and education, give women more time off to have kids, support single-parenting, and so on."
ReplyDeletethis winner Chang, 32, said the same thing today in media scrum.... winner, whiner?