I should sell actual stickers of these. I’d make bank. Oh wait, Asian parents would just print bootleg ones at home.
And now the beautiful gai mou sou blown up for your viewing pleasure.
chinese
Kwan girls flashback: the Roach
Apparently this happened when I was a toddler. Then my sisters ran to my mom because they thought I’d eaten the roach, and my mom laughed in their faces and said, “That’s just a black crayon!”
School’s out for a couple of weeks, and I’m home in Austin, visiting my family (my nephew!! ❤ ), prepping for my first sprint triathlon, eating barbeque, working on violins, and getting up in the middle of every night to smash our resident roaches.
First Taste (guest feature!)
My sister’s first 3D animation is just wonderful in so many ways.
first taste from mkwan4 on Vimeo.
This is a one minute short story about discovery and clumsiness!
This is also my first taste in 3d computer animating
Produced at the New York Film Academy’s 4 week 3d animation workshop (2014)
The music is by me, recorded one year ago, but actually credit should go to my mom for all the lyrics. If you want to learn Cantonese and/or sing along, here are the words and a rough translation:
malachi m-m-m-
malachi m-m-m-
malachi m-mala
kai kai doi! ( = naughty child)malachi kai kai kai
malachi kai kai kai
malachi kai kai kai
kai kai doi!yi hoi pang nga siu mat yeh? (what’s that big grin for?)
ong hei ge meen seung dim yeung? (why are you scrunching up your face?)
ho chi seung gong ye dan (seems like you want to say something)
jau dak ah ah seung (but all that comes out is “ah ah” sounds)
mak dai ga hau dak ga long (open your mouth wide, it’s just a big hole)mak dai ga hau dak ga long!
mak dai ga hau dak ga long!
ho chi seung gong ye dan
jau hiu mm mm seung
mak dai ga hau dak ga long!malachi kai kai kai
malachi kai kai kai
malachi kai kai kai
kai kai doi!
Sports bra
Hmm, I guess this is part two of a series on spandex/tight clothing. I should really just do away with sports bras. Not like there’s anything to strap down anyway. Mom describes us as “机场,” literally meaning “airport,” as in we are flat as runways. I prefer to think of our physique as… practical.
By the way, I think this was the most challenging posing / anatomy I have ever drawn without directly copying a reference. I mean, occasionally I kind of waved my arms around in the mirror, but that doesn’t really count. And I gave up on all the hands.
More words that lacked English counterparts in my childhood
My sister thought of a couple more and drew some nice pictures to go with them! She says:
chinese handwriting credit goes to mom, who saw my awful attempts and redid all of them.
Thanks for contributing, Mimi & Mom!
I’ve also thought of one more!
I know the bloggy trend nowadays is to give a trigger warning for corporeal punishment, even if it’s just by feather duster and/or knuckle, but I’m with Russell Peters on this topic.
Ahh, the ol’ knuckle to the head. The hands of my father could contort into a talon of justice! I have tried but it doesn’t look as menacing. I think it’s a perspective issue. Once I think it’s all in position, I turn my hand in to check, but then it just look like I’m tightly gripping a subway pole. Not very menacing.
If you don’t get this is all about, I’m trying to figure out which Chinese word it actually is. Below is my very credible analysis.
Yeah, I have no idea. I start to wonder if my parents made it up… any other Cantonese kids gotten the joy joy? Any idea what word it is? Leave me a comment!
Meanwhile, I’ve just looked up “talon of justice” to see if I made it up, but apparently World of Warcraft beat me to it. It’s a stun spell! Weirdly appropriate, I must say. Not so for the English word of the same pronunciation…
fix it with shading 