City Nightlife Characterplay

While perhaps not the cleverest characterplay, I like this treatment of the character , which means “city” (as in 城市), or sometimes “wall” (as in 长城). The phrase 不夜城 (literally, “not night city”) is similar to “the city that never sleeps.”

Untitled

The text is:

龍之梦购物公园
新食代
不夜城
千人自助餐盛宴

Note: The way that “Cloud Nine Mall” (龍之梦) is written breaks the “golden rule” that I learned in Chinese 101: Either write entirely in simplified characters or write entirely in traditional characters. Never mix the two. The simplified dragon character is written using the traditional . “食代” is a pun on 时代.

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John Pasden

John is a Shanghai-based linguist and entrepreneur, founder of AllSet Learning.

Comments

  1. Some characters looks better in traditional version. Such as 龍、馬、樂.
    They show up in ads or posters most of the time.

  2. Yan Cheng Says: April 3, 2018 at 5:54 pm

    東=>东
    車=>车
    should never have been simplified.
    The traditional versions are simple enough and have ultimate beauty of symmetry.

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