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Working Together
工合 is one of those Asian words that is used more in English than in the original Chinese.
Gung Ho was originally used to speak of Carlson's Raiders, a group of “Gung Ho” U.S. Marines who went on an island-hopping campaign of death during WWII.
A movie called Gung Ho came out in the mid-1940s and was later re-released in the 1950s depicting the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, and brought this word to the mainstream.
It is still sometimes used today within the U.S. Marine Corps brotherhood to refer to a unit or group that works well together or is otherwise efficient and motivated (has good morals).
In 1986, there was a movie called Gung Ho about a Japanese company taking over an American automotive factory. They completely ignored the fact that this was a Chinese title.
It should be noted that this title actually means a condition, state, manner, or the health of something in Japanese.
Language and pronunciation notes:
Like many Asian words absorbed into common use in English, this one is drastically mispronounced. The official Romanization is “gong he” but that doesn't tell you enough. The vowel sound on the first character is like the English word “own,” now just add the g-sounds to the beginning and end. The second character is misleading, as you might think it is like the English word “he.” In reality, the vowel sound is more like the “u” in “up.”
It should also be noted that the current generation in China no longer uses or recognizes this as a common word or slogan.
Note: This can be pronounced and is a word in Japanese, though seldom used. Japanese will use a variation of "具合" instead. But still, not common.
功夫散手 is a martial arts title.
Oddly, there are multiple ways two spell/romanize this in English, but in Chinese, it's written exactly the same.
Technically, the Mandarin romanizes as “gong fu san shou,” for which you'll sometimes see it written “kung fu san shou” (k'ung is an old romanization for a word that sounds like gong with a vowel sound like “oh”).
There is another martial arts style that spells this “Kung Fu San Soo.” I guess this was supposed to approximate Cantonese pronunciation for which the scholarly romanization is generally agreed to be “gung fu saan sau.”
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your gung search...
Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
カンボー see styles |
ganhoo ガンホー |
gung-ho; (personal name) Cambo |
墨竹工卡 see styles |
mò zhú gōng kǎ mo4 zhu2 gong1 ka3 mo chu kung k`a mo chu kung ka |
Maizhokunggar county, Tibetan: Mal gro gung dkar rdzong in Lhasa 拉薩|拉萨[La1 sa4], Tibet |
猛烈社員 see styles |
mouretsushain / moretsushain もうれつしゃいん |
(yoji) gung-ho organization (corporate) man (woman); go-getter worker; hard-driving worker; workaholic employee |
墨竹工卡縣 墨竹工卡县 see styles |
mò zhú gōng kǎ xiàn mo4 zhu2 gong1 ka3 xian4 mo chu kung k`a hsien mo chu kung ka hsien |
Maizhokunggar county, Tibetan: Mal gro gung dkar rdzong in Lhasa 拉薩|拉萨[La1 sa4], Tibet |
モーレツ社員 see styles |
mooretsushain モーレツしゃいん |
(yoji) gung-ho organization (corporate) man (woman); go-getter worker; hard-driving worker; workaholic employee |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Gung Ho | 工合 | guai | gōng hé / gong1 he2 / gong he / gonghe | kung ho / kungho |
Si Gung | 師公 师公 | shi kou / shikou / shi ko | shī gōng / shi1 gong1 / shi gong / shigong | shih kung / shihkung |
Lau Gar Kung Fu | 劉家功夫 刘家功夫 | liú jiā gōng fu liu2 jia1 gong1 fu liu jia gong fu liujiagongfu | liu chia kung fu liuchiakungfu |
|
Tai Chi Wing Chun Kung Fu | 太極詠春功夫 太极咏春功夫 | tài jí yǒng chūn gōng fu tai4 ji2 yong3 chun1 gong1 fu tai ji yong chun gong fu taijiyongchungongfu | t`ai chi yung ch`un kung fu taichiyungchunkungfu tai chi yung chun kung fu |
|
Kung Fu San Soo San Shou | 功夫散手 | gōng fu sǎn shǒu gong1 fu san3 shou3 gong fu san shou gongfusanshou | kung fu san shou kungfusanshou |
|
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. |
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All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my 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.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
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.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Gung Kanji, Gung Characters, Gung in Mandarin Chinese, Gung Characters, Gung in Chinese Writing, Gung in Japanese Writing, Gung in Asian Writing, Gung Ideograms, Chinese Gung symbols, Gung Hieroglyphics, Gung Glyphs, Gung in Chinese Letters, Gung Hanzi, Gung in Japanese Kanji, Gung Pictograms, Gung in the Chinese Written-Language, or Gung in the Japanese Written-Language.