chinese symbols. how do i know what they really mean?

Question

i want to get a tattoo of the chinese symbol for strength. but when i look online i have found 2 different ones. i dont want to get something permanent on me that i have no idea what it means. so does someone know a reliable website with the correct meanings. or somebody who knows how to write chinese, can you put a picture up of the correct symbol? this would be a great help. thank you!

Answer 1

I would say do it in a few different languages and see which one come up the most. I better explain what I just said, I am about to get a tattoo for the Chinese symbol "karma", and there were also two. I googled the symbol for karma in Korean, Asian, and Japanese and only one of the two symbols for karma showed up in all four languages so I am going to go with that one out of the two because it's the same throughout other languages. Try that and see what happens. Good luck!

Answer 2

I actually have a tattoo of the chinese symbol for strength on my wrist, and I know it means that because not only did I have a chinese guy tatoo it for me, but I have also had a couple asian people come up to me and say "oh you very strong?" the link I provided below has the same one as mine, it says strong below the symbol, but I have been told that it really means strength.

Answer 3

There are different kinds of Chinese symbols.



Some are different, but mean the same thing.

Answer 4

In chinese there are many words for strength, so both are probably right, but with slightly different meanings. Like maybe 1 might be inner strength while the other one physical.

Here's a site, though, with a bunch of calligraphy and the meanings. http://www.orientaloutpost.com/shufa.php?q=strength

Answer 5

The chinese symbol for strength (as in the actual physical force) is '力' pronounced 'li' or 'lick'

if you want to get a tattoo, it will look abit plain with that one, so you should use '強' meaning 'strong'

Answer 6

Be very careful with this one Marissa

I had incident some six years ago -- where I was in a restaurant when two Chinese dudes were "hitting" on

a guy with a large tatoo on his bicep -- the guy was very

uncomfortable with the attention he was getting and told

the two to "bug off" --at which point one of the Chinese "gays" pointed to the tatoo and said -- but , why, you advertise ??

Seems, while in prison, the guy had a tatoo done that he thought meant "rebel" ---- turns out it was the symbol for "Queer" !!! Be very careful "labeling" yourself until you're DAMN sure of what you're labeling yourself !!!

Answer 7

strength = 力量



For Chinese Brush Calligraphy form see here http://www.wavedancing.net/gallery/product.jsp?itemnum=57

Answer 8

find a Chinese emigre and ask them

Answer 9

http://zidian.cn.yahoo.com/result_en2cn.html

Input 'strength' and click the right button.

http://tw.dictionary.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&p=strength

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=strength&stype=0&dtype=1