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AOL Moves Into China
fish writes: "BetaNews has just posted an article that details how AOL is about to announce a joint venture with China's largest PC maker. Apparently this sets the stage for AOL China. How do you say 'You've Got Mail' in Mandarin?"
I think it would be "ni3 you3 dian4zi3you2jian4 le" (where the numbers indicate tone. 3 is a fall and then a rise in pitch. 4 is just a fall. 2 is just a rise.) I'm not positive about that word for email, since it seems a bit long. It's what my dictionary said, though. I'm also not positive about "you3" since that just literally means "have" and Chinese uses that much differently than English does.
If only America Online changed their name for their international business divisions... Sweden Online has a particularly appropriate acronym, for instance ;).
Alex Bischoff
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
In the UK (and I'd guess elsewhere), AOL is known simply as AOL - they don't use the America OnLine name at all over here.
Paranoia isn't an infectious condition, it's a way of life
How do you say Americans are a bunch of brainwashed dum-dums who don't know the first thing about China or its government?
I can't believe how quickly the "eternally vigilant" readers of Slashdot have fallen for all the anti-china warmongering garbage coming out of the US state department and Hollywood.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
My girlfriend says it's actually:
ni3 you3 yi1 mei4 er3
Yes, aparently chinese for 'e-mail' is actually 'yi1-mei4er3'. (sort of like the chinese word for "coffee"... or the english word "tofu" for that matter.) And actually, she says the initial "ni3" is unnecessary; "you3 yi1 mei4 er3" would be fine.
The article didn't say so, but I have to believe that AOL will help the Chineese government restrict the flow of information to the people. They simply wouldn't be allowed to operate otherwise. It was interesting to note that the local company keeps 52% vs. AOL's 48%.
There's no way to sugar coat this. These guys are selling their enginnering muscle to China in the service of repression. They're doing something immoral because it's profitable.
As bad as that is -- and it's bad enough all by itself -- we have to deal with the fact that AOL is the preemininent member of the oligopoly that will control access to information in the US. In other words, a company that's establishing a track record of selling out civil liberties for money is in the driver's seat.
Murdoch's News Corp has pulled punches in its publishing houses and other media outlets in order to get Chineese deals. Will AOL/Time Warner follow suit? If they do, will it be any worse, or even as bad, as providing the technical infrastructure to censort the net?
Think about that when you watch CNN or read Time Magazine. If you still read or watch them, that is.
"Someone set us up the mail."
God, I kill me. But seriously, it probably ought to say, "You've got mail, and you will be allowed to read it as soon as it has been reviewed by the thought police." Which raises the question of whether American AOL employees will be collaborating with the Chinese secret police.
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Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Chinese for you've got mail would probably be
sloganized to you3you2, which sounds like the
toy. Colloquial Chinese frequently drops the
subject pronoun like Spanish. They like to construct
buzzwords selected from the most significant
syllable from each word.
"The Censor Approved Your Mail!"
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Help us build a better map!
Now they can email our EP-3 back to us!
"Downloading segment 13 of 64,842 parts...."
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
So they may become known as the "Red ISP", yet will still bear the name "America"?
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This might not fit for self-righteous EU folks, but I've seen a lot of things advertised as American in China -- i.e.
"American Taste" (on a type of bread)
"California Beef Noodles" (too bad CA doesn't export beef noodles)
"Texas/Kentucky Fried Chicken" (the non KFC stuff doesn't really look like KFC, but the name sells)
Especially with something as "American" as online access (OK, it's not American, but Silicon Valley, Cerf, Metcalf, MIT, Berkeley, etc. (even that linux guy lives here)) -- wouldn't American be an appealing brand name?
re: anti-American sentiment
I think it's pretty complex -- the difference between feelings towards America (the US of A government), US citizens, US corporations, and US culture/sports are many. EP-3 is not the sum of sino-us relations on a personal scale.
Yeah.
there is no thing
what else could you want?
Bored people in China can build a life-size Great Wall made out of AOL disks.
I think at this point in time, the initials AOL are more popularly known than the full name, America On Line, so I think the 'America' isn't that much of a concern. Sort of like IBM or KFC. Does any average person call those companies by their full names, anymore, or can even recall what they mean, off the top of their heads?
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
I'm sure they will do whatever they do in Austrailia
-no broken link
This must be a part of the new military strategy Bush is pushing forward in USA.
"Welcome! The government's got your mail!"- --------
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First time a server crashes, though, they'll hold it for questioning -- claiming it violated Chinese airspace -- and demand that AOL apologize. ;-)
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Do the poor chinese government know what they are getting into?
_O_
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
Tell me what makes you so afraid
Of all those people you say you hate
This brings us to the vision of AOL for Linux.
It also probably becomes the basis for the AOL Desktop and Office Suite for Linux, all in Chinese.
AOL could wind up being the biggest provider of systems and software on the planet.
If the Chinese do not declare war on the US over the insidious infiltration of the MS into chinese culture in the first place.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Eh, well, if anyone's interested in the actual translations of "You've got mail!", I'll give it a shot... those of you more fluent than I am, post corrections because I actually am interested in a mandarin translation that doesn't involve innuendoes of censorship. =)
1) ni3 you3 xin4 jian4. (this is for traditional postal mail)
2) ni3 you3 dian4 zi3 han2 jian4. (literal translation of email... but I've only heard my girlfriend and her family use "e-mail"...we call it Chinglish)
so... I guess another way to say it would be
3) ni3 you3 e-mail. =)
Humorless sig goes here.
Let's tell China that AOL is a giant spy machine. Maybe they'll keep it.
...and these circular discs are held up to the sun, for flashing Morse code messages to our sattelites.
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I hope everything is well in the city of [censored] square : are the [censored] still [censored] while [censored] [censored] for freedom ?
Here in the United [censored], we are deeply [censored] about those who remained back [censored].
Oh, by the way, it's your father's birthday. Don't forget to give him a call on Sunday. Our number on holiday is [censored].
Truly yours,
[censored]
----- Thanks for not having the choice to choose AOLChina -----
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I live in China, and I have just talked to AOL, which ensures me that they will not censor or monitor anything.
I have always thought the goverment was a bunch of GOOD GUYES who wants AL THE BESTH the people. I have always had the impression that they DID NOT monitor my websurfing and emails. But I guess I was RIGT.
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Looks like somebody just got a monopoly on internet censorship. =)
I cringe every time I hear that stupid hick-grammar phrase. I guess with stupid users, they need to maintain their image.
It's as bad as the Pennsylvania license plates that read "You've got a friend in Pennsylvania" At least Pennsylvania was smart enough to fix its mistake and change the licenses to read "The Keystone State." Of course, now they toss "http://www.state.pa.us/" on them. Ugh.
This raises an interesting question. Is AOL going to handle internet filtering which was mandated by the chinese government? The filtering practices in China were discussed many times here before, Here, and Here. Will AOL move to provide the filtering services or will they become a mouthpiece for progressive thought on the issue. I think we all know the answer to that one, but it'll certainly be interesting to watch it take shape.
--CTH
--
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
AOL + China is like Stupid + Evil. I really, really pity the poor guys and gals who are going to use this service. I have no doubt AOL will whore its filtering technology to help China oppress its people (the same way AOL oppresses OUR people). And it's clear China is willing to whore its anti-American stance for money. Ah, what a wonderful world.
If you were right more often I wouldn't have voted against you, Dubya. =P
-Kasreyn
P.S. That's "Chineseians". You need to study up more on the proper names for foreign peoples.
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
I hear they are considerring the following options:
1. You've got mail, which was forwarded to the nearest censors. The email, or the police, would reach you within 24 to 48 hours. Please wait.
2. You've got mail, it was censored.
3. You've got mail, traitor!
4. You've got mail, and 15 years in jail.
5. You've got mail, and will be able to read it for a small bribe.
--
Two witches watched two watches.
Which witch watched which watch?
You got special offer. Not typical offer like other one.
TODO: Something witty here...
China's government will LOVE this. Why? Because it means that if many chinese use the service, the government knows exactly what people can see, by virtue of what AOL allows its users to do, not by tracking individuals specifically. It has never been about specific people seeing anti-chinese stuff, it has always been about a lot of people having access to that stuff. And China will be able to tailor, through tax / other incentives to AOL, the online experience for the Chinese. I'm sure AOL has been blocking sites on the net for years.
If anyone has ever read "Code and other laws of Cyberspace" you'd know why AOL is perfect for keeping social dissedents out of line: it's chatrooms only allow 22 users, and they have terms of service which are malleable. No one can organize a riot or view anti-chinese sentiment on a completely crafted network.
What might bother me is that a lot of people view "online" or "internet" as being just AOL. Someone should publish a pamphlet and offer it to give a basic overview of what the internet is so that computer purchasers know the difference between an ISP and a closed network with WWW access.
Personally, I think now's the time to dump my stock in "chineseschoolgirls.com"
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
Yeah. "emailo". That was a pretty common ending I'd hear in Hong Kong. Of course that's Cantonese, but I had some friends from Singapore and Taiwan and they said the same thing in Mandarin. Then again the Singaporeans tend to like to throw a "lah" sound at the end of sentences, so maybe they'd adopt emai-lahhhhh.
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They really love those IM logs for one thing.
In the US they sniff for keywords like drugs, bombs, and other interesting flag words. I wonder what flag words the Chinese will look for -- freedom, rights, sex...