Dragon struggle tiger battle
My brother-in-law, Mike Osborne, took some amazing photos in 北京 [bei3 jing1 = north capital = Beijing]. He calls the collection "Enter the Dragon". In his interview with the New Yorker, he explains the title:
"The work’s admittedly absurd title, “Enter the Dragon,” is borrowed from a classic Bruce Lee film of the early nineteen-seventies. The movie itself has no special significance for me, but I liked the idea that by using this title I could conflate two very different worlds: the movie’s ludicrous martial arts fantasy and my take on extreme urban renewal and architectural spectacle. It’s a way of acknowledging the understated humor and absurdity that runs through the work. I also liked that “Enter the Dragon” sounds like stage directions—like Philip Roth’s title “Exit Ghost,” which I think he took from Hamlet. I don’t engage in the kind of staging that a lot of contemporary photographers employ, but my intense color palette and proscenium-like framing give the pictures a certain theatricality."
According to Wang Meng, in Mandarin the movie "Enter the Dragon" is translated as 猛龙过江:
- 猛 = meng3 = ferocious/suddenly/fierce/violent/abrupt/
- 龙 = long2 = dragon
- 过 = guo4 = (past tense marker)/to cross/to go over/to pass (time)/to live/to get along
- 江 = jiang1 = river
So 猛龙过江 feels more like "ferocious dragon crosses the river" than "enter the dragon" in Chinese.
But wait!!! Wikipedia offers a more literal translation: 龙争虎斗. The characters here are:
- 龙 = long2 = dragon
- 争 = zheng1 = struggle/fight
- 虎 = hu3 = tiger
- 斗 = dou4 = fight/battle/struggle
Dragon struggle tiger battle? That reminds me of the Tweetle Beetle part of "The Fox in Socks"...
"...When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle... they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle..."
In any case, check out Enter the Dragon. The photos are awesome.