Meau Guaw

Tuesday 20 May 2014






These make me laugh. If you say these out loud phonetically, in Chinese "meau" is cat and "guau" is dog.

It's nice to know the design bods have a sense of humour at Zara. It also reminds me of teeshirts with "pig" in Chinese characters which I saw in C&A in the eighties and people bought them and didn't realise what they said :o)  

That is a true fact.











17 comments

  1. That is hilarious! Guau is actually the equivalent of woof in spanish, it's what dogs say, according to spanish humans. But cats say miau, not meau, so I wonder if it is a nod to the chinese words? So funny.

    www.nomadicd.com

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    1. There is very little in it actually - I think all languages have something which represents the sounds that animals make. In Chinese (depending on whether Mandarin or Cantonese), the adults (talking to small children) refer to dogs as "whoa whoas" which is the sound that dogs make. My hubs didn't get this for a while and said why do they call the dogs "whoa whoa"? And then heard a whole load of dogs in the background going "Whoa whoa whoa whoa!". If you listen carefully - you'll hear what I mean :o)

      And I'm more likely to say "mowh" for cat in Chinese. It all means the same! But Chinese phrasebooks always look something like the above.

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  2. Hah these are cute - I hate to admit it but I got a Chinese symbol tattoo in the 1990's and am terrified it means something completely different to what it was supposed to mean. My husband in law and his wife speak some Cantonese and Mandarin and I always hide it from them :-) !

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    1. Was it from C&A? :o)

      Yes whatever you do - don't show them.

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  3. Aw, that "guau" tee is adorable, will so look for it the next time I'm near a Zara!

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    1. They're cute but I'm not sure I can carry one off. But at least we know they're not offensive!

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  4. mhh...I wonder whether the C&A knew themselves what was written on the tee-shirts. Revenge from the Chinese, no doubt:)

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    1. I think they probably hacked a Chinese designer off or something and it was payback!

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  5. I've just sat here for the past few minutes trying out the words. Had someone called they would have locked me up and thrown away the key. Thanks for the chuckle x

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    1. Thank you for the chuckle - I was trying to imagine you sounding out the words :o)

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  6. Cute - I actually love the dog one!! Don't need anymore tees darn it....xx

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    1. Now you really don't need any more tees! That I am sure of.

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  7. Very clever, I would never have known, thanks Susie! xx

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    1. I don't think people would have worked out the dog one in particular but it jumped out at me. Made me chuckle.

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  8. I would have guessed the cat but not the dog. Oh dear. Very funny. H xx

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  9. Someone was definitely having some fun there weren't they?

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  10. this is hilarious! i actually saw the dog one and didn't make the connection... doh.

    steph / absolutely-fuzzy.com

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Susie So So