TFv01 CH 04 zhong (annotated)

Annotations for zhong, the fourth chapter of One Rainy Day In May.

## Page 100

**quote**

from Bad Romance.

## Page 101

**saysay**

 In singlish, reduplication is used for intensification

**jingjing**

 in
traditional Chinese medicine Jing means “essence”. It can also mean spirit.

**lah**

 particle used to strengthen a
suggestion, persuasion, or objection, or to soften a negative reaction thus
marking solidarity. It's very common and of general meaning. (Also in the
variant ah)

**Polong**

Malay for a
spirit enslaved by a man (most of the time) for personal use. Like the Hantu
Raya and Toyol, it has a master. It is an unseen ghost that can be used by a
black magic practitioner to harm someone. It is particularly meant to harm
other people, especially when the owner has wicked intentions towards these
people (Wikipedia)

**siaosiao**

 very crazy

**void deck**

an open space typically found under apartment blocks in Singapore. The void deck occupies
the ground level, while apartments are usually on the second floor onwards.
Void decks are a space for community mingling and functions are often attended
by neighbours across the ethnic spectrum (Wikipedia)

**cat**

 first mention of cat in the book

**meenite**

 midnight

## Page 102

**mah**

usually at the end of a sentence to argue a
point: e.g. *crowd the void deck like it their own mah* (102) ("they
occupy the empty deck like it's their own, you see?!")

**seow**

 crazy

**langsuir**

 a woman who has died in childbirth and turned
into a vampire and now feeds on the blood of infants

**lai dat**

like that

**tua tao**

gang leader

**mebbe**

maybe

**changi**

area
at the eastern end of Singapore. It is now the site of Singapore Changi
Airport/Changi Air Base, Changi Naval Base and is also home to Changi Prison,
site of the former Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II which held
Allied prisoners captured in Singapore. James Clavell based his novel King Rat
on his experiences as a World War 2 Allied prisoner of war at Changi Prison (Wikipedia)

**macam**

like

**tiam**

shut up

## Page 103

**tua kang**

tall tale - a story with unbelievable elements,
related as if it were true and factual + literary „big hole“ – echoing "rain is
just water with holes in it. Adding up to one big hole" (67)

**kiasi**

afraid of dying

**auntie**

A general term for older woman

**Tian Li**

 from Confucianism - it
means natural ordering or pattern. With the connotation that the ordering comes
from the heavens and is put in Nature/universe

## Page 104

**niu che Shui**

Chinatown

**seri**

? The Seris are an
indigenous group of the Mexican state of Sonora

**Serangoon**

town situated in
the central-eastern part of the city-state of Singapore

**Smith Street**

a small
street running through the heart of the Chinatown district in Singapore. A local
joke has it that the road got its English name when the British asked Chinese
locals the name of the road, they given clueless answers "See mee?"
(Hokkien for What?) as they could not understand English. Thus they duly
recorded the name as "Smith" instead

**sei yang gai**

*street of the dead* - Sago Street - a
street located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area of Singapore. The
funeral parlours are located on nearby Sago Lane and not Sago Street. However,
Sago Street is always referred as sei yang gai or "street of the
dead" in Cantonese. There are many cemeteries there

**tua**

age

**tan ku ku**

forget it!

**talk cock**

talk nonsense

**pang chui lao**

Forget about it!

**吾餐之肉足矣**

(Cantonese chinese is very hard to translate, so these are just approximations. Credit goes to TBHalo & ****tonywang****) *If in this meal I eat enough*
meat, then I will (feel) satisfied. / My meal of meat is enough./I've got enough meat in my meal

**吾岁饱吾**

I was full / For my age I am
full.

**波女の多様な説明は, 逆に反比例して少しのことしか説明できない**

As for the woman, I can only say
so much OR She, on the other hand, I can't tell you much about.

**как будто у него не хватило бы духу**

as if he did not have enough spirit

## Page 105

**一系讲一些荒谬事干,比如:**

A
series about some ridiculous things dry, such as:

**"若如田需, 心然乃仅为人之习性"**

"If, as the field
required, then the heart is the only person of habit." /“If needed, heart
is only for the people of the habit“;

**toa payoh**

district located
in the Central Region of Singapore

**pearl's hill**

a city park in Singapore

**绿, xanh lục, हरा, 綠色, зеленый, 緑**

The word 'green' in Chinese (simplified), Vietnamese, Hindi, Chinese (Traditional), Russian, and Japanese.

**sentosa**

popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some twenty million people a year

**以树之道与树语.**

"When you talk to trees you
must use the language of the trees" (trying to say like, you have to
communicate with people in language that they understand, or, cater to your
audience)

## Page 106

**monkey**

„tian li swinging her arms
around like repelling monkey“ – probably tai-chi

**mata**

police

**oreddy**

already

**heng**

lucky

**poh geok ek**

former Director of.
Singapore Prison Service

**quek bin hwee**

Bin Hwee is Vice
Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, (PwC) Singapore and a member of the firm’s
Leadership Team. She is also a member of the PwC Global Strategy Council Market
Leaders and a member of PwC Asia Pacific Board

**yaacob ibrahim**

a
Singaporean politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP),
he is the country's Minister for Communications and Information, and
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs

**harun abdul ghani**

Former Singapore
MP (People's Action Party), died in 2005

**bodoh**

dumb

**kena rotan**

corporal punishment. See also Caning in Singapore

**kin kah kin chew**

fast hand, fast
leg

**kena**

fall

**sana staff**

Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association

## Page 107

**命中所困符为汝之愉**

"you won't be caged by the tragedy of pleasure".

**芳之所获符繁茂,汝符知汝知此女台终**

"captured in the
fragrance of a place is the abundance of it's blooming signs, if thou knowest these signs thou knowest this woman's end"

OR If you have a problem in your life,
that makes you happy.

**黑暗止于勇者**

Chinese phrase "darkness braved ceases to be darkness". It also appears in English in Xanther's
text in TF4.313

OR

"There is darkness until
somebody brave arrives."
But this phrase has two parts in real life, the second part is 謠言止于智者
- "There are rumors until somebody wise arrives"

**sabo**

sabotage

**hdb**

Housing & Development Board is the statutory board of the Ministry of National Development responsible for public housing in Singapore. It is generally credited with clearing the squatters and slums of the 1960s and resettling residents into low-cost state-built housing (Wikipedia)

**kai kai**

walk walk

## Page 108

**不用普通话**

*Not in Mandarin*

**唔系粤语**

*Not, you see, in Cantonese*

**Не по русски**

*Not in Russian*

**日本語ではない**

*Not in Japanese*

**lao cheow**

old bird

**chiak buay liao**

cannot finish
eating

## Page 109

**Johor Bahru**

capital city
of Johor in southern Malaysia (Wikipedia)

**ku dé ta**

14,500 square feet
of luxurious space that spans a restaurant, a club lounge and a poolside
terrace (in Singapure)

**cabut**

flee, escape quickly

**tony tan**

President of
Singapore (Wikipedia)

**gahmen**

government

## Page 110

**pang chui lao**

forget about it

**forbidden hill**

In older times, the native Malays
called the fort canning hill Bukit Larangan or Forbidden Hill

**fort**
canning

small hill slightly more than 60 metres high in the southeast
portion of the island city-state of Singapore (Wikipedia) According to Clip 4, a graffiti inspired by Darc's Zoo appeared here (C4 171)

**suaysuay**

catastrophe

## Page 111

**wah lao**

wow!

**chin kim tang tang**

dripping with
gold, dressed richly

**This some**

echoing Luther lingo

**alamak, heng us**

Mother of God!
Lucky us!

**Raffles Place**

a
geographical location in Singapore, it features some of the tallest buildings
and landmarks of the country (Wikipedia)

**battery**
road

a high-rise skyscraper located in the central business district of Singapore (Wikipedia)

**collyer quay**

16
Collyer Quay, formerly Hitachi Tower is a 37-storey, 166 m (545 ft), skyscraper in the
central business district of Singapore (Wikipedia)

**tua kee**

big shot

**siao liao**

already gone crazy

**吾仅一事末了.**

My only issue the end*. /* Just one thing – the finality. / I got only one thing left unsolved

## Page 112

**他说他会付钱绐你,井绐我们茶**

"He said he’d pay you, and give us tea"

**boh chup**

nonchalant

## Page 113

**他可干吾衣**

"Can he dry my
clothes?"

**他不是只有一件,而是整个衣柜的干净衣服**

"He doesn’t just have one piece of clothing, he
has an entire wardrobe of it."