Toys "Я" Us in Chinese

I remember not long ago I was wondering how Toys “Я” Us would write their name in Chinese. I recently got my answer in an ad at People’s Square subway station:

So the obvious parallel is instead of the “R” being represented as the cutesy “Я”, the character 反 is written upside down. This makes sense because 反 means “to turn over.”

What was not so clear to me was the meaning of 反斗. The Chinese name for Toys “Я” Us is 玩具反斗城, which partially translates to “Toy 反斗 City.” What is this 反斗, which doesn’t turn up in any of my dictionaries? I Googled it, and I got a rather lengthy explanation of the term in Chinese:

> 「反斗」一詞源自「反斗星」一詞，而「反斗星」又是從「魁星」中演化而來的。魁星，本來是指北斗七星中的前四星，即天樞、天璇、天機、天權的總稱。因此四星排列成梯形，狀似「斗」，而古代稱「羹斗」爲「魁」，故名。

> 不過，由於「魁」與「奎」同音，故又被後人錯認爲是白虎七宿的第一宿「奎星」，奎星主管文章（漢朝緯書《孝經授神契》：「奎主文章」），則俗稱的「文曲星」。顧炎武的《日知錄·魁》寫道：「奎爲文章府，故立廟祀之。乃不能像奎，而改奎爲魁，又不能像魁，而取之字形，爲鬼舉足而起其斗。」

> 所以，民間流傳的「魁星」形像就是一個用腳踢斗的鬼！則所謂的「魁星踢斗」。故廣東人又稱之爲「反斗星」。

> 所以，「反斗星」包含兩層意味，

> 一、它是「文曲星」，主管天下文章，自然是「聰明絕頂」；

> 二、外形是一個用腳踢斗的鬼，難免給人一種「頑皮不羈」的印象。故粵語的「反斗星」指的就是那些聰明而又頑皮的小鬼。

> 「反斗星」又可稱之爲「星君」。周星馳主演的《百變星君》，其片名就有一語雙關之意，這「星君」既可指「周星馳」，又可指「反斗星」，的確是個絕妙之至的片名。

So basically, 反斗 has connotations of “clever” and “a little naughty.” Like a kid who writes “are” as “Я”? I guess.

According to Wenlin, 斗城 also means “a very small city.” I wonder if that factors in too?