During the talk Dana mentions: Tilki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo.
There is a Wikipedia page that tells all the details about this children's story, but here is a Cliff Notes version:
Chinese parents used to name thier first born very long names, but give an unimportant short name to the second born. So there was a boy named Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. He and his younger brother Chang are playing when Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo falls into a well.
Chang has trouble getting help because of the amount of time it takes to say his brother's name. The message of the story is that Chinese people now have short names in case they get stuck in a well.
There are a bunch of videos on Youtube. Some of the school plays with caucasian kids doing really non-PC accents are awkwardly funny. Still, this is one of the better videos if you really need to hear the whole story:
No comments:
Post a Comment