Computer

Last time, I mentioned how people in China and Taiwan called a computer differently; 電子計算機 (Diàn-zǐ jì-suàn-jī) in China and 電腦 (Diàn-nǎo) in Taiwan. Let’s look at these interpretations more literately today.

The characters 電子 (Diàn-zǐ) mean ‘electronic’ and 計算機 (jì-suàn-jī) mean ‘calculator. So people in China call the computer an “electronic calculator”. 電 (Diàn) is also translated to “electricity’ but the character 腦 (nǎo) means ‘brain’. People in Taiwan refer to a computer as “electricity brain”.

With an event more nuanced look we see that people in China view the computer as an “electronic calculator”, when people in Taiwan hold in much higher admiration by describing it as a “super brain”. Why the difference in expression between two common cultures? One explanation could be simply because early on in the development of the computer Taiwanese people had a much greater exposure to science fiction, literature, and media. For example, see this work by a popular Hong-Kong author, 倪匡.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_Kuang