Hear in Taiwan

Puns are everywhere in Taiwan.

I went down to the Southern city Jiayi last week

There, I found these poster thingies at the city’s high speed railroad station.

The poster on the left welcomes traveler to Jiayi City, but the poster I’d like to direct your attention to is the one on the right.

You might be wondering why this lovely girl is smiling at a mathematical equation. Is it because she’s Asian? Good guess, but no. Not all Asians excel in math. I know that through painful personal experience.

52+14 equals 66. You probably have already figured that out before I did. While 66 (or really, anything that has to do with a 6, 8, or 9) is considered an auspicious number in Taiwan, the result of the equation is not why this poster is hung here.

You may have noticed that there is a line of Chinese characters underneath the numbers. Those characters, “我” “愛” “嘉” “義” “市”, translate into “I love Chiayi City,” and when you read them out loud, they sound like “Wo” “Ai” “Jia” “Yi” “Shi.”

That’s all well and good, but so what?

Well it just so happens that when you read “5” “2” “+” “1” “4” out loud, it goes like this:
“Wu” “Er” “Jia” “Yi” “Si.”

Get it?
“Wo” “Ai” “Jia” “Yi” “Shi” and
“Wu” “Er” “Jia” “Yi” “Si”!

They sound so similar! It’s a pun! Yay, fun!!!

……
…

And the party doesn’t stop there.

The most prominent words on the poster at this bus stop read “Hui Jia Zhen Hao”, which means “It’s really good to be back in Jia (yi city).” This is another pun, because the Chinese word for “family” also reads “Jia.” So even though the “Jia” on this poster is Jia for Jiayi City, when you read it out loud, it sounds as if the poster is welcoming you back home (Jia). It’s actually kind of cute, and I like this one better than I like that math fanatic girl at the at the rail station.