A tourist prepares for Chinese Lunar New Year in Sichuan province. [Photo by ZOUHONG CHINA DAILY]
Debate over animal ambiguity has been triggered in the West over the forthcoming Chinese Lunar New Year.
The zodiac animal for the next 12 months is causing great confusion in the English-language world Nike Air Jordan Retro Shoes For Sale , as its translation results in at least two candidates — sheep or goat.
The Year of the Ram is also in widespread use.
Chinese folklorists say the animal symbol can be either a sheep or goat but is more likely to be a goat, given the latter's popularity as a farm animal among Han Chinese.
The Chinese lunar calendar assigns an animal symbol to each year in every 12-year cycle. But the Chinese character for the eighth zodiac animal is yang, which can refer to either a sheep or goat when used without attributes.
There is no such confusion when Chinese is used, as the word yang forms part of the name of sheep, goat and ram.
Huang Yang, who researches the role of sheep and goats in Chinese culture Nike Air Jordan Retro For Sale , said tracing the origin of the zodiacal yang could be difficult.
This is because the Chinese zodiac first appeared after the Shang Dynasty (around 1600-1046 BC), when Chinese did not differentiate between sheep and goats in language or in sacrificial offerings.
Both species have a long history of domestication in China and have appeared on oracle bone scripts and other artifacts since prehistoric times, Huang said.
"But if we judge from the fact that the Chinese zodiac is a Han tradition, yang are more likely goats, which are more common livestock for the Han Chinese," Huang said.
Bearded goats often appear as images on China's zodiac stamps and paper cuttings.
Fang Binggui NIke Air Jordan Shoes For Sale , a folklorist in Fuzhou, Fujian province, said the image of yang is open to regional interpretation. "People depict the zodiac animal based on the yang most common in their region. So it's often sheep in the north and goats in the south."
China Daily is inviting readers to take part in an online survey to help us determine the best English-language translation for the zodiac animal in the forthcoming Lunar New Year.
Photo: Internet
By Xinhua Writer Jiang Xufeng
HEFEI, Anhui Province, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- When he enrolled at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1990, Liu Qingfeng's only expectation was to learn how to repair TVs. He certainly did not expect to become a billionaire executive of a listed company: China's very own Steve Jobs.
TOP VOICE TECH FIRM IN ASIA
Liu's company iFLYTEK Nike Air Jordan For Sale , China's equivalent of the voice technology company Nuance, is known for its voice technology products, including Voice Touch, a competitor of Apple's Siri system.
The app translates Chinese spoken words into text, allowing users to send messages, call friends and post on social media platforms.
Liu's company holds about a 70 percent market share in China and is used by Chinese messaging services including Tencent QQ and Sina Weibo Nike Jordan Retero Shoes For Sale , as well having a firm footing in the overseas markets.
"Apple outperforms its peers with touch screen experience. We can be the best in voice technology," Liu said.
The company' s combined valuation surpassed 21 billion yuan (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) as of Monday, with Liu holding a 8.72 percent stake in the firm, trailing its largest shareholder China Mobile, the country' s top telecommunications operator.
With more than 3,000 employees Nike Jordan Retro For Sale , the company saw business revenue surpass 1.25 billion yuan and net profit top 279 million yuan in 2013.
Liu's company has been in the speech technology field for more than a decade. The company released the industry's first spoken language interpretation system, which aimed to help more people understand China by breaking through the language barrier.
The multilingual intelligent oral language evaluation system developed by the company has been used in the National Putonghua (Mandarin) Proficiency Test and the oral English tests at some Chinese universities.
Liu plays down the fact he shares his birthday with the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, but stressed that he too wanted to play an integral role in the next wave of market demand and innovation.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
However, iFLYTEK road to success was beset with twists and turns.
In 1999 when Liu was in his second year of a doctorate degree at USTC, he founded Anhui USTC iFLYTEK Co. LTD. with five other students and a dozen young men, all of whom were under 30 years old.
The R&D Nike Jordan Shoes For Sale , marketing and other departments squeezed in an old three-room apartment that measured less than 100 square meters. But even from these humble beginnings, they dreamed of establishing a company to rival Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs.
"We put so much effort into our startup, usually working till 3 or 4 a.m., and then having to head to class at 8 a.m. We were sleep deprived but we were never tired. We could not have achieved anything without the support of our university for students wanting to set up businesses," Liu said in a recent exclusive interview.
"When we first started the company, we did not leave the apartment for a whole week because we were battling a technical problem that needed solving before the deadline. We worked Nike Jordan For Sale , ate fast food and slept on the floor for the whole week," recalled Wu Xiaoru, a founding member of the company and iFLYTEK senior vice president.
The year 1999 was difficult for iFLYTEK, as the company was running out of operational budget and had to borrow money just to cover its employees' salaries.
"By the end of 1999, before we secured our first round of about 30 million yuan in domestic venture capital investment, we were really struggling. The only thing that kept us going was our own confidence in our products Air Jordan Retro Shoes For Sale ," Liu recalled.
The year 2000 witnessed a change of fortune.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- .