Atom bombs and discounts: Shop signs in Bird and Flower Market
From a shop in Little Dragon Jewelry Bird and Flower Market 1 in Kunming (take bus 69, it’s right across from Kunming University of Science and Technology 2 ). Click on the image below to see a larger version.
Signs in Kunming Bird and Flower Market
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- Little Dragon Jewelry Bird and Flower Market in Kunming 小龙珠宝花鸟市场 xiao3 long2 zhu1 bao3 hua1 niao3 shi4 chang3 It’s a new Bird and Flower market – not the one on Jinxing street – and has much more tat.
- Kunming University of Science and Technology 昆明理工大学 kun1 ming2 li4 gong1 da4 xue2 University website [in English].
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References for Chinese language geeks:
“Goodbye again…”
is a reference to Xu Zhimo’s poem “Goodbye Again Cambridge”. The original runs:
I leave quietly
As I came quietly.
I am leaving
Without taking so much
As a piece of cloud.
[悄悄的我走了，/ 正如我悄悄的来; / 我挥一挥衣袖，/ 不带走一片云彩。]
Xu Zhimo English-language references at Answers.com and there are a few pages dedicated to him called Reminiscences of Xu Zhimo.“Mao Zedong said…”
There are quite a few references to Mao saying nuclear weapons weren’t anything to be scared of. The English versions don’t seem to match the Chinese ones, but here’s one from a Chinese source:
“The atom bomb is a paper tiger used by American reactionaries to scare people; though it looks frightening, it’s really nothing to be scared of.”
[“原子弹是美国反动派用来吓人的一只纸老虎，看样子可怕，实际上并不可怕。”]“I swear…”
Literally “对灯发誓” means “I swear to the lamp”, which you never say in Chinese – usually it’s 对天发誓 “I swear to heaven”, but seeing as the bloke is stuck in his shop all day, his flourescent lamps could be a compromise for gazing skyward. He adds “I swear to Chairman Mao” at the end for good measure.
