FU Bar
Of course! Why didn't I think of it earlier??
富 (fu), you see, means 'riches', and is the character traditionally posted on the door to your house at Chinese New Year to express the hope for prosperity in the year ahead.
While, of course, in contemporary American slang, FUBAR..... er, well, it describes the current state of the world rather too aptly.
The Chinese version of the name might also work quite well, since 吧 (ba) is commonly used to represent the English 'bar' (though usually in the compound noun 酒吧 - jiu ba, an alcohol bar). Yet 吧 also serves as a modal particle added to the end of statements to transform them into polite questions or suggestions: so, in Chinese characters it would indicate a phrase like "Rich, yes?" or "How about some wealth?"
And there might be opportunity for some further punnery here, since 八 - meaning the number 8, traditionally viewed as the luckiest in Chinese numerology - has the same sound, ba.
So, if the logo says (in lucky red, of course)
富8
our Chinese friends will think it is an incredibly propitious place to drink in.... while we worldweary and cynical laowai will be put in quite a different sort of mood, but one no less conducive to drinking.
Erratum: Perhaps that should be
福8
I pulled the wrong fu from my online Chinese dictionary there. I don't read much Chinese, but I had a nagging feeling this character didn't look quite right. When I compared it to the 福 on my front door, I realised my mistake (although it's a little tricky to recognise this fu the right way up, as the traditional New Year's door decorations are always hung upside down; it's another one of those Chinese puns - apparently the words for 'down' and 'come' sound alike, so this is a way of saying "fu is here!"). 福 means 'happiness' or 'good fortune'; I think in fact I prefer the more blatantly materialistic 富, 'rich' - but maybe this is used only as an adjective. You can see that 福 is derived from it. Yes, 福 is probably the fu we should go for.
I really should add this to my Great Bar Names thread.
2 comments:
I'm afraid it's been done before -- a foreign-operated bar in Urumqi (or maybe Kunming? Or possibly both?) beat you to it. Not that that makes it a bad idea.
I'll see your 'Fubar' and raise you a scatological pun: a gay bar called "G Bar." It works on two levels: "G" for, you know, gay, plus a rough homophone for 鸡巴 "jība," "cock."
There was no bar of that name mentioned in the guides when I visited Kunming a year or so ago. Maybe in Urumqi... but that's a different country. At least we could be FIRST in Beijing.
I have no interest in opening a gay bar, but thank you for teaching the word for 'cock'. Is it used as a general insult? I got a taxi driver last night I would have been tempted to call a cock.
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