Strange Mail
 

Along with the usual junk mail and lies from/about the politicians, I got this postcard.
I think the picture is a Chinese soldier... or Billy, maybe Ibram, but not breakingnews..... with antennae, a rocket and a shoulder strap that must be hand held.
Don't know what it says....probably, we love walmart.
On the other side it was hand addressed, PA postmark, a regular postcard stamp(not postage machine) and an upside down, glued on, advertisement/announcement.
Peeling off the glued on ad reveals Chinese writing.

The ad is for a Wollemi pine tree, thought to be extinct for 2 million years, but discovered in 1994 in Australia.
It says they'll be for sale through National Geographic, giving the phone number and website for NG.

It looks like someone in China got some of the pine seeds and has been propagating them. Then they cut a deal to have national geographic to market them here in the states, if they advertised with NG's mailing list.
I'd guess the postcards were acquired from the Chinese government or a printers overrun, made up in China and sent bulk freight to the US and mailed locally by the tree seller. NG would have used a postage meter and non-profit organization rates.

I am curious about the wisdom of marketing here, with Chinese nationalistic/militaristic postcards. :confused:

Is that a chick, or is lipstick part of the Red Army uniform?

Wow! That's almost spooky! And they wrote your address by hand, too. No printed mailing lists for this outfit! I'd notify Homeland Security and then go into hiding if I were you. :worried:

hee hee, you said back side.

Very insightful, there, Wolf. I believe that's how the Red Army got its name. They almost went with a different color, but decided that "Frosty Orange Creme Army" sounded too frivolous.

Wish I knew what is says. Where's our chinese translators? :cool:

That is damn weird. Did they OK the marketing material with National Geographic before they started mailing them out? If I were on NG's mailing list I'd be a little tempted to cancel my subscription due to careless handling of my personal details.

Cool postcard though.

But I reckon $100 is a bit too expensive for a Wollemi Pine seedling - you can get them here for $10 or so.

I'm holding off to see what else shows up.
As far as personal details, I'm on more mailing lists than Carter's got Little liver Pills.
The past two years have lightened up, but for many years before that, between Labor Day and Christmas, I'd get over 100 pounds of catalogs in the mail. I'm talking a 5 foot stack of catalogs, many of which were repeats.... not duplicates, but repeats.
Smithsonian would send the same catalog, with a different cover, every couple weeks. :rolleyes:

10 bucks, huh?........Hmmm

Actually, the solider in the photo is in fact a chick. The writing below her says, "Zhong Guo Nu Bing," or "Chinese Female Solider." I didn't think China allowed women in its Army, but apparently it does.

The writing is the lyrics to a song by Phil Chang (Zhang Yu) called "Given Some Thought." ("Yong Xin Liang Ku" is a common Chinese saying which literally means putting a lot of effort or thought into something painful or sad.) The curious part about this is that Chang is Taiwanese (I think), yet the lyrics are written in simplified Chinese, which is only used in China.

Here's a midi file of the song. Look for an mp3 if you want.

Anyway, the song goes something like ... "Your face is lovely, I see tears in your eyes, your lips are beautiful ... I stay up all night thinking about who loves who more ... I watch you in your deep sleep, but when you wake up you don't love me ... don't lie if our love is fucked." Rough translation - there are some words I don't understand.

And for what it's worth, the article about the trees ... that is the exact font and layout used by USA Today. Looks professional ... most designers usually aren't careful about runaround on headshots (small photos).

Um...

"Your face is pale, I see tears in your eyes, in the midst of your beautiful lips I see fatique, I stay up all night thinking about who loves who more, I'd rather watch you in your deep sleep, but when you wake up you say you want to run away, it's just an unrequited love..."

Interesting card Bruce. You get all the cool stuff.

Interesting translation Bn

Don't lie if our fucking is no longer loved :)

Hahaha, got that all wrong, huh.

Suppose I could have just searched for the lyrics, but what fun would that be?

very cool card bruce

Thanks for the translations, bn & Ashke. :notworthy
Once again, the inscrutable Chinese baffle me. The marketing strategy, using this picture, with a love song (unrequited love song?), seems innocuous enough. But I don't think they understand the impression it gives without the translation.

Then again, maybe they do. Maybe it's a gotcha. They got my attention at a time when I'm being flooded with shiny 4-color ads and campaign literature.

I think ASHKE's translation is very nice. It is a famouse Chinese romantic song by a Taiwan singer, Zhang Yu.

The front side is a Chinese female soldier. It was a regular picutre in the past years. The advertisement is nothing with Chinese. They happened to post the advertisment by a Chinese card.