Sunday, February 18, 2007

Help Wanted: Master's Thesis on Chinese Character Tattoos



I am a student in the





  1. Many of the later questions in that survey ask about people's interest in Chinese culture specifically, so if you're a person who got a tattoo for Japan-related reasons you might not be able to answer them all meaningfully.

  2. is asking about Chinese character tattoos, not Japanese.

  3. Well... the survey says “Chinese character (or Kanji)” at one point and of course kanji is the Japanese name for Chinese characters. So the survey is a bit vague about whether they are referring to Chinese or Japanese. Of course, most people who get such tattoos probably don’t know or don’t care whether they are Japanese or Chinese.

  4. I agree. The questionnaire is inherently flawed. I'm surprised her supervisor didn't catch the fact that Chinese characters are not only China-related. May people know that Chinese characters are used in Japan as well as China, although people are often told in tattoo shops that Chinese and Japanese characters are interchangeable. Far fewer know that they are used in Korea as well to some extent.

  5. Humanities people write theses on the dumbest things...speaking as a biologist.