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 | Adventures in Asian Art |  | |||||||
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| Adventures in Asian Art | | |||||||
We have a few options to create artwork with No Worries characters on a wall scroll or portrait...
(two characters)
Mandarin: wú wèi
Japanese: mui
Korean: 무외
This literally means "No Fear". But perhaps not the most natural Chinese phrase (see our other "No Fear" phrase for a more complete thought). However, this two-character version of "No Fear" seems to be a very popular way to translate this into Chinese, when we checked Chinese Google.
Note: This also means "No Fear" in Japanese and Korean, but this character pair is not often used in Japan or Korea (used somewhat by Korean Buddhists to mean fearlessness).
See Also... Never Give Up | Undaunted | Bravery | Courage
Mandarin: fàng xīn
Japanese: houshin
Korean: 방심
My Australian friends always say "No worries mate". It's caught on with me, though I drop the "mate" part since it confuses my fellow Americans.
If you would like to express the idea of "no worries" this is the best and most natural way to say it in Chinese.
The characters you see to the left can be translated as "put your mind at rest" or "to be at ease". You could literally translate "no worries" but it doesn't "flow" like this simple Chinese version.
For your info, the first character means to release, to free, to let go, to relax, or to rest. The second character means your heart or your mind.
Note that in Japanese and Korean, this holds the similar meaning of "peace of mind", but can also mean absentmindedness or carelessness depending on context.
Mandarin: yǒu bèi wú huàn
Korean: 유비무환
This really means, "When you are well-prepared, you have nothing to fear". Noting that the third character means "no" or "without" and modifies the last... The last character can mean misfortune, troubles, worries, or fears. It could even be stretched to mean sickness. Therefore you can translate this phrase a few ways. I've also seen it translated as "Preparedness forestalls calamities".
This is comparable to the English phrase, "Better safe than sorry", but does not directly/literally mean this.
Mandarin: bái tiān bù
zuò kuī xīn shì yè b� n
qiāo mén bù chī jīng
Characters shown
above are read
vertically, starting
from the right
This literally translates as: [If one does] not do bad things in the daytime, one need not be alarmed at knocks on the door in the middle of the night.
The meaning is something like, "A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder". Basically, the message is, "don't commit crimes and you won't be jumpy every time the doorbell rings (so don't do anything wrong and your life will have fewer worries and you can sleep at night)".
Wall scroll artwork shown on this page is priced as follows:
2-3 characters $39.88 each
4 characters $49.88 each
11 or more characters $69.88 each
After you select your calligraphy, our website will take you through the process of customizing your artwork.
Options for other mounting such as portraits are available for $13 less.
We also offer the services of a famous master calligrapher for a $40 fee on any scroll if you are looking for investment-quality calligraphy.
If you chose our famous master-calligrapher, you also get more choices for silk and paper colors and the option for larger artwork.
All of our calligraphy is completely done by hand in the ancient way.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to our art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Therefore, allow at least 3 weeks for delivery from the time you place your order.
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
Prices for
custom wall scrolls
shown on this page:
2-3 Characters:
USD $39.88
GBP £24.20
EUR €26.92
CAD $42.74
AUS $43.87
4 Characters:
USD $49.88
GBP £30.27
EUR €33.67
CAD $53.45
AUS $54.88
More than 10 Characters:
USD $69.88
GBP £42.41
EUR €47.17
CAD $74.88
AUS $76.88
Customizations that you select may raise or lower the price.
The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "regular size"
4-character wall scroll.
As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall.
(We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
The following table is only helpful for those studying Chinese (or Japanese), and perhaps helps search engines to find this page when someone enters Romanized Chinese or Japanese
| Title | Characters Simplified Traditional |
Japanese Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Hanyu-Pinyin (Romanized Chinese) | |||
| No Fear | 无畏 無畏 | mui | wú wèi wu wei | wu2 wei4 wuwei | ||
| No Worries | 放心 放心 | houshin hoshin | fàng xīn fang xin | fang4 xin1 fangxin | ||
| Preparation Yields No Fear or Worries | 有备无患 有備無患 | n/a | yǒu bèi wú huàn you bei wu huan | you3 bei4 wu2 huan4 youbeiwuhuan | ||
| One Who Does Not Do Bad Things, Worries Not of Knocks at His Door | 白天不做亏心事夜半敲门不吃惊 白天不做虧心事夜半敲門不吃驚 | n/a | bái tiān bù zuò kuī xīn shì yè b� n qiāo mén bù chī jīng bai tian bu zuo kui xin shi ye ban qiao men bu chi jing | bai2 tian1 bu4 zuo4 kui1 xin1 shi4 ye4 ban4 qiao1 men2 bu4 chi1 jing1 | ||
| If you have not set up your computer to display Chinese, the characters in this table probably look like empty boxes or random text garbage.
This is why we spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "No Worries" listings above. If you want your Windows computer to be able to display Chinese characters you can either head to your Regional and Language options in your Win XP control panel, select the [Languages] tab and click on [Install files for East Asian Languages]. This task will ask for your Win XP CD to complete in most cases. If you don't have your Windows XP CD, or are running Windows 98, you can also download/run the simplified Chinese font package installer from Microsoft which works independently with Win 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It's a 2.5MB download, so if you are on dial up, start the download and go make a sandwich. | ||||||
All custom calligraphy items are made-to-order in our little Beijing artwork-mounting workshop.
Normal delivery isjust over 3 weeksfor these handmade items.
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