CHINESE LETTERS
SOME PUZZLING FEATURES
Some difficulty was experienced in deciphering the characters in a Chinese letter produced during a claim case in the Magistrate's Court to-day. "They are an example of Chinese shorthand," explained the interpreter. "The letters are slurred, instead of being -written clearly." Later on in the same cnso, the word "yesterday" was noticed to occur frequently in the letter.
" 'Yesterday' may mean any time in the past to Chinese," said the interpreter. "It may literally mean yesterday, or may refer to a day months back." Yet another puzzler 'was explained when the Magistrate (Mr. J. H.-Salmon, S.M.) asked in what month a letter with the.heading "31st," was written. "Any month/ said the interpreter. The Chinese generally take it for granted if they write a letter that it will reach its destination the same month."
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19270315.2.82
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 62, 15 March 1927, Page 10
Word Count
138CHINESE LETTERS Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 62, 15 March 1927, Page 10
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Evening Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.