L9 Flashcards
里
LI // chinese unit of distance. About half a KM. Rice fields are divided into blocks of land, through measuring the distance.
// computer (remember that field is also brain)
量
QUANTITY // quantity is measuring time and distance. Time begins at daybreak, and measuring begins in the rice field.
埋
BURY // While a choir sings “dies irae, dies illa”, we bury our beloved, but defunct, computer. Sad.
黑
BLACK // oh no, the computer’s stuck on a huge dillema, and has sprouted animal horns. it’s almost on fire, and is now spewing black soot everywhere.
墨
BLACK INK // carpenter uses black ink to mark off the cuts on a piece of furniture, old and covered in dirt
冂
HOOD // the second stroke hooked inwards, unlike the other similar character. Wind blows out, but this is a cover to keep something in. Red riding hood.
// glass cover
// helmet
冒
RISK // in order to minimise risk of being spotted, burgalars often wear masks. See their two eyes covered with a hoody. NOTE! that the top character part doesnt meet up
同
SAME // one mouth, under a hood. Let’s imagine a monastery, where hooded mouths share the same prayer, speaking as if with one mouth, the same.
// monks
洞
CAVE // early hermit-monks often lived in caves where they prayed. But they needed water, so imagine a monk has stacked his cave high with watercooler refills.
丽
LOVELY // what could be more lovely than a happy couple? This couple used to be hell’s angels, so we’ve got their two helmets (complete with chin straps) hanging from the ceiling in a lovely little cottage.
向
ORIENTATION // off in the distance, see a helmet, then a yabbering mouth inside it… must be an alien, just arrived. better help him get orientated
响
ECHO // when we need orientation, we use our eyes. but if it’s dark, we’d need to use our mouths like a bat to create an echo.
尚
ESTEEM // a small glass dome lid displays the family heirloom; the mouth of a long-dead orator uncle, placed on a table in the lobby. he’s held in bizzare esteem!
宀
HOUSE // roof, chimney, eaves. what more do you want??
字
CHARACTER // not just chinese, but any written character whatsoever. Child in a house. A child stamps his character of the house he’s born in… perhaps literally, with glue on the walls.
守
GUARD // if you want to protect you need a guard to stick to your house like glue. buckingham palace guards aint going nowhere, are they?
完
FINISH // to start building a house we first lay foundations (that’s the beginning) and once we get to the roof, we’ve finished. crack out the champers
灾
DISASTER // “when disaster strikes…”, well, guess what, a match has been struck, and now there’s a fire in the house
宣
PROCLAIM // missionaries shout their good word from the rooftops from daybreak until… night (see the horizon creeping back from above)
// propaganda, the modern form of proclaiming from rooftops
宵
NIGHTTIME // all through the night. House with a candle in it, so someone is clearly burning a candle at both ends.
安
PEACEFUL // yep, characters are out-dated, and this one’s a woman in a house, peaceful. rocking chair, knitting, husband hard at work. peaceful.
宴
BANQUET // it takes an entire day of work for our previously-peaceful woman to prepare this banquet
寄
MAIL // your normal letterbox isn’t that strange, but this house has a letterbox indoors, requiring posties to enter first. that is a bit more strange, as houses go
富
WEALTHY // wealthy people can get by simply by being born into a house that contains wealth
贮
STORE // a family stores up clams for the winter, in the roof and under the floorboards. let’s hope the kids like chowder
