Acid Dumplings [37]

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4 Responses to “Acid Dumplings [37]”

1. Otto Mattick

   November 22nd, 2012 6:02am

   Not a comment, but a question:

   What is the significance of the “Four-of-Clubs” card in the hand of the clearly nervous geezer standing on the ladder propped against the Great Hall of the People? I regret I do not have the knowledge of Mandarin to see what must be a homophone or other coded reference.

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   • Pyrrhic Victor

     December 6th, 2012 11:45am

     Well, “four” in Chinese is “Si”. Chinese tend to have a superstition about it because it is a homophone for “Death”. Maybe it’s something to do with that. Does the “club” symbol stand for anything?

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     • Otto Mattick

       December 6th, 2012 12:12pm

       I do not know if this is a sensible serendipity, but my wife, who is Japanese, just asked me what it was all about and, as with many Japanese, she substituted an “r” for the “l” in “club,” which yielded a sound not unlike the word “crab.” Of course this could easily be taken as shorthand for “river crab,” and thus the Party of the Harmonizers, as it were, which in this context, makes perfect sense.

       I realize this is all a bit off the wall, but it does work, for all of that.

       Reply