Shanghaiist: Ping pong merrily on high

Shamus

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:59:07 +0800

Bloody internet! I thought every piece of information found on every single website could be trusted to be accurate. Seems I was wrong. That's the last time I'll go Googling for "Names for Santa around the world", trust me.

Z

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 16:16:41 +0800

With all due respect to Shamus, I'm a local so I figure I'm obligated to announce the verdict here. Santa is called Sheng4 Dan4 Lao3 Ren2 圣诞老人 in Chinese, like what Brad put. Have no clue where does "Dun Che" come from, doesn't make any sense to me.

Ashley

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:51:03 +0800

old man riding a bicycle=Deng Che Lao Ren Dun Che Lao Ren doesn't make sense. I cannot think of a meaningful Chinese phrase according to pinyin Dun Che.

yes_no_maybe

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:25:13 +0800

sheng dan lao ren=Xmas old man Dun che lao ren=old man riding a bicycle?

Brad

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:02:56 +0800

Oops...I don't know why I changed it to "deng che". I don't know what "dun che" means, and have never heard Santa called Dun Che Lao Ren. I couldn't find any reference to the Chinese characters from the several English-language sites that claim that's what he's called in Chinese.

Ashley

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 14:45:41 +0800

Actually I'm a bit surprised that the message was not removed. Construction workers have been renovating and cleaning the walls and old buildings on both sides of Weihai Road for the past month. (The noise was unbearable...Thank God that they're finally finished! ) Maybe they found the doodle quite neat, so they didn't bother to remove it or cover it up. They actually repainted it, I think. As for Dun Che Lao Ren, I have no idea where you got that pinyin. Lao Ren means old people, but Dun Che doesn't make sense. Guess that's why Brad changed it into Deng Che Lao Ren in his post. But still... I don't know any Chinese people who would call Santa Deng Che Lao Ren... It should be Sheng Dan Lao Ren.

Brad

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 13:27:24 +0800

Since Chinese people don't normally write in pinyin, using the actual Chinese characters makes for a better usage comparison: 圣诞老人 (Sheng Dan Lao Ren) gets 770000 Google hits, while 蹬车老人 (Deng Che Lao Ren) only gets 357000.

Shamus

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 07:29:51 +0800

Thanks for pointing that out, Ashley. The guy seemed to have his hands all over the wall, so I assumed he was painting the Christmas message. Maybe he, too, was frustrated at seeing Seasons Greetings in September and was actually trying to remove it ... As for Dun Che Lao Ren and Shen Dan Lao Ren, I have absolutely no idea. But the former beat the latter by 754 Google hits to 40, so I ran with the former. Perhaps someone can give us a definitive answer on this.

yes_no_maybe

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 03:09:26 +0800

what's "dun che lao ren"? I though it should be shen dan lao ren.

Ashley

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 00:40:37 +0800

those words on the wall, they were there a looong time ago. i assure you, it's much longer than just one or two weeks ago. i know that cuz i live on Weihai Road and i walk past those words every morning i go to work.