Voldemort /Walmart - the connection is proved! ;)

[koalathebear]

Lawks! In my post Watching《哈利·波特与火焰杯》 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Beijing, I said:
Voldmort's name is transliterated - he is 伏地魔 Fu Di Mo. There's no 'vo' sound in Chinese and I was wondering why they didn't go for 'wo' but then I realised that Voldemort would sound too much like the Chinese word for Walmart.

At the time, muridae_x commented: "I

Comments

[muridae_x]

*cough* My amazing sleuthing skills actually only involved scrolling back far enough in your LiveJournal to find the original discussion. Lucius's shares portfolio showed up on my friends list this morning. :-)

But it tickled me to death because of the earlier discussion.

[koalathebear]

Ssssshhhhh, we have to maintain that air of Mystique you know ;) I seriously can't believe that article either given the funny similarity in transliteration. Hee hee. Who knew?

I should run through the transliterations of other Evil US Corporates as well. Starbucks is definitely sweeping the country - it's the new McDonalds/Coca Cola!! :D

[muridae_x]

Oh, Starbucks.

Ten years ago I'd never seen one or heard of them. Then I went to the US on holiday and they were everywhere, on every street corner. And then about five years ago the first ones sidled in over here and now they're everywhere here too.

Back, Starbucks! Back!

Douglas Adams did a piece about what he called the Shoe Event Horizon in the second series of Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. His major contention then was that Oxford Street in London was full of shoe shops. I maintain that half of those have closed, and now it's full of coffee shops instead.

Constant vigilance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[koalathebear]

I really don't know what dark dark deal Starbucks did with China but there are Starbucks EVERYWHERE - even in the Forbidden City in Beijing, much to the horror of many. I lost count of the number I saw in Nanjing alone

Re: Constant vigilance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[weissman]

Yes it was an interresting experinece. My wife told me that Xiamen is the National HQ for Kodak in China, hence them being just about everywhere in Xiamen.
Bob