WALKING ANGBAO

A while ago (before Chinese New Year), my friend sought my opinion on a bag she was thinking of buying and I started browsing through other bags that were on the site.

I then came across someone selling a red Chanel bag and her description of the bag was “Chanel Cruise 2010 GST in Red – Perfect for CNY!” and I started laughing and told my friend that she should never buy that bag if it was one of the many she was considering!

The description of the bag reminded me of Prof. Ooi’s “chime” example because my priming tells me that when CNY red is used to describe something, it does not mean a rich deep mahogany red but a tacky angbao (red packet) red. I'm sure many of you have made fun of other people saying that they look like a walking angbao when they wear too much red! So I imagined someone carrying a bright obiang (gaudy, outdated) red bag on CNY. No wonder some people say Chanel is an auntie’s bag. :p

A NEW REVEAL

I’m sure many of you would have seen this along Orchard Road. When I first walked past that place, I first saw “where luxury unfolds” before “where style unravels” and the latter sounded really odd to me. Does it strike you odd too?

To me “unravel” is usually used with unraveling a mystery, grand master plan or magic trick where there’s a sense of secrecy. As for unraveling style…. it sounds weird. I must admit sometimes when I come across words used funnily, I question myself so I did a quick dictionary check online and the Merriam Webster, dictionary.com and longman all have unravel as:

–verb (used with object)

1. to separate or disentangle the threads of (a woven or knitted fabric, a rope, etc.).

2. to free from complication or difficulty; make plain or clear; solve: to unravel a situation; to unravel a mystery.

3. Informal. to take apart; undo; destroy (a plan, agreement, or arrangement).

–verb (used without object)

4. to become unraveled.


And as for unfold:

–verb (used with object)

1. to bring out of a folded state; spread or open out: Unfold your arms.

2. to spread out or lay open to view.

3. to reveal or display.

4. to reveal or disclose in words, esp. by careful or systematic exposition; set forth; explain.

–verb (used without object)

5. to become unfolded; open.

6. to develop.

7. to become clear, apparent, or known: The protagonist's character unfolds as the story reaches its climax.

I guess that the people who came up with that caption were trying to find a synonym for ‘unfolds’ to make it sound more complete and catchy, but they don’t realize that no 2 words are complete synonyms. Though both unravel and unfold have a sense of revealing something, they cannot be used interchangeably. After this incident I’m starting to realize that the level of synonymity between two words are affected by their different individual collocations.

Edited 22nd March: After reading Heon's comments and walking past this place again during the weekend, I stopped to take another look and apparently what is being built is not a shopping centre but a hotel of some sorts. Park Royal Grand or Royal Grand Park (sorry, can't remember) so i guess 'where style unravels' is indeed weird.

THE LOUVRE

I saw this flier peeking out of someone’s letterbox and wondered what “Louvres Fences” are. I had never heard or seen them. I thought they were pretending to be atas (high-class) because what came to mind was the Louvre in France and anything in France is usually associated with being classy and chic etc. So my priming was that that were the qualities the company wanted to associate their fences with because the Chinese equivalent 栏杆 was of no help either – it just means fence in English. Double reinforcement!

It was only after getting home and googling “Louvres Fences” did I get a result for Louvered fences. Alas, it’s a case of spelling gone wrong. But I did learn something new that day! Now I know what Louvered fences are. And it also made me realise that when we don’t know or are not sure of a word, our mental lexicon will search for possible explanations for that word based on our experiences.