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Chinese Demon Hunters?

Started by Ghost Whistler, March 06, 2010, 05:52:13 AM

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Ghost Whistler

March 06, 2010, 05:52:13 AM
What would they call themselves properly. In Qin the term Fangshi (which is rather generic iirc) is the term for magicians in the game. But what about those who specifically hunt or deal with demons. Is there a specific term?
"Ghost Whistler" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Parental death, alien battles and annihilated worlds.

Narf the Mouse

#1
March 06, 2010, 06:57:33 PM
Babelfish spits out this for Chinese-Simplified and translates it directly back to "Demon Hunter": 邪魔猎人 And this for Chinese-Traditional: 邪魔獵人

You may need a special font to read them.
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Kellri

#2
March 06, 2010, 07:38:27 PM
Quote from: Ghost WhistlerWhat would they call themselves properly. In Qin the term Fangshi (which is rather generic iirc) is the term for magicians in the game. But what about those who specifically hunt or deal with demons. Is there a specific term?

The Taiwanese/Hokkien word is 'dang-ki', which is a spirit medium or exorcist.
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You can also come up with something that is not only original and creative and artistic, but also maybe even decent, or moral if I can use words like that, or something that\'s like basically good -Lester Bangs

arminius

#3
March 06, 2010, 07:41:02 PM Last Edit: March 06, 2010, 07:44:02 PM by Arminius
Possibly the same word as exorcist: qū mó in pinyin.

Edit: I defer to Kellri since he knows Chinese. Buy there might be different words depending on region or dialect. I assume you want the word that would be used in a movie like Chinese Ghost Story or Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain.

Ghost Whistler

#4
March 07, 2010, 08:09:14 AM
I'[m not sure what i'm after; some kind of pidgin english/anglicised term. I'm not trying to write something realistic or rooted in reality (like say Qin). So using a proper translation of the term demon hunter is just too obscure, but a wuxia word for 'exorcist' would do fine I think. Besides Demon Hunter just sounds like anime and anime confuses and befuddles me.
"Ghost Whistler" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Parental death, alien battles and annihilated worlds.

arminius

#5
March 07, 2010, 03:59:21 PM
Well, if I search on the word I suggested, I find links to the movies qū mo jing cha and qū mo tong, both of which feature demon hunters. That's are apparently the Mandarin; Cantonese is kui moh. Searching on that turns up another exorcist/demon hunter movie.

Kellri

#6
March 07, 2010, 06:26:33 PM
Erm...I think the term you're looking at Elliot is 'mo kui', which just means demon or ghost. As such, this term can be found in a lot of movie & comic titles. 'Mo kui' is often found in the titles of translated Hollywood action films (esp. Schwarzenegger) where it is the equivalent of the word 'badass'.

For some real Chinese swords & sorcery in translation, grab some Jin Yong (Louis Cha) novels. Those would be the gold standard for translating these kinds of terms into an English rpg.

http://www.yellowbridge.com/literature/wuxia.php
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You can also come up with something that is not only original and creative and artistic, but also maybe even decent, or moral if I can use words like that, or something that\'s like basically good -Lester Bangs

Hairfoot

#7
March 07, 2010, 10:31:37 PM
My wife suggests "mo gui juan jia", which means a "demon expert".

Cranewings

#8
March 08, 2010, 12:20:10 AM
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;365113Possibly the same word as exorcist: qū mó in pinyin.

I had named my old Exalted character Airam Pinyin. Airam just mean Air. Pinyin means Dragon, according to the website I read. Kinda interesting. I wonder what dialects they are.

arminius

#9
March 08, 2010, 01:22:15 AM Last Edit: March 08, 2010, 01:31:58 AM by Arminius
The pinyin I'm referring to is just a standard way of writing Mandarin Chinese phonetically using a Latin script.

Anyway, I'm out of ideas but I'll reiterate that the words I put up above were (supposed to be) the google translation of exorcist rendered into pinyin. Here it is in Chinese characters:驱魔

Also I found the title of the movie, The Exorcist, rendered as 驱魔人, where if I'm not mistaken the last character means man or person. But I have no idea if the pinyin I typed above is right.

Kellri

#10
March 08, 2010, 05:22:01 AM
Quote from: HairfootMy wife suggests "mo gui juan jia", which means a "demon expert".

This sounds like the best one to me.

Quote from: Elliot WilenAlso I found the title of the movie, The Exorcist, rendered as 驱魔人

That just means 'horrible/demonic person' and certainly refers to the demon possessed girl and not the exorcist.

On a somewhat related note...I spent most of my winter vacation sequestered in Cambodia doing a years' worth of rpg writing for OSRIC, et. al. While there, I got a chance to watch a number of Khmer horror flicks, most of which feature the 'Arb' (AKA the Penangalan of Fiend Folio fame) and/or the Spirit Naga. I'll just say this...countries that have undergone a near genocide in the last 50 years ALWAYS make the best horror films - because they know what the fuck they're talking about.
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You can also come up with something that is not only original and creative and artistic, but also maybe even decent, or moral if I can use words like that, or something that\'s like basically good -Lester Bangs
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