Bringing Chinese Words to Life

Shanghai-based illustrator Frankie Huang (right) is bringing Chinese words to life. Literally. 

Her Putong Animals series, re-imagines animals according to what they're called in Mandarin Chinese – or Putonghua – China’s official language. 

Huang says she came up with the idea for the series after seeing people on Twitter discussing how some animals had "really funny names when you translate them literally".

She recalls: "The turkey – or fire chicken – was the first one I drew. It was just a bunch of chickens on fire and a guy in a hazmat suit feeding them".

One of Huang's favourite illustrations is the "dragon prawn" – or lobster. "I wanted to make it look really majestic and godlike", she says. "Someone commented that it's a celestial crustacean, I thought that was such a nice name for it". 

Also, a snail cow. 

The tiny gecko has earned the imposing name of "Wall Tiger". 

The zebra is referred to literally as a "patterned horse" in Mandarin. 

The Giant salamander is ironically referred to as a "baby fish" in China. 

It takes Huang about three hours to produce one illustration, from conceptualization to sketching it out and eventually coloring it in. 

On Sunday, Liverpool struggled with their EPL game against mediocre Manchester United – in fact, they were lucky to have drawn 1-1 and therefore, earned a point. 

A crappy game from the Reds. Displeasing. Disappointing. 

Our goalscorer, Adam Lallana was damn right when he told Sky Sports after the game: “We’re not going to need just 11, we’re going to need a squad”.