Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”
On February 24, 2022, a few days before the date of this post, Russia sent significant military forces into Ukraine, resulting in the largest scale open warfare in Europe since World War II. So, this week’s MEotW is “Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭)”, the Mandarin word for “Ukraine”. Knowing this will help us in the Mandarin field as we hear about, talk about, and pray about Ukraine in the time ahead.
Note that it is apparent that “Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭)” was chosen to represent “Ukraine” in Mandarin because of what it sounds like, not because of the meanings of the supposedly ideographic (representing meaning directly through visible symbols, bypassing speech) Chinese characters used to write it out (“Crow Overcomes Orchid”??? 🤷🏻).
Some Related Mandarin Expressions
Here are some other Mandarin expressions that should be useful to know regarding this situation:
- Éluósī (Russia 俄罗斯 俄羅斯)
- Sūlián (Sū·lián Soviet · {Uniting → [Union]} 苏联 蘇聯) – Make sure you don’t use this expression to refer to present-day Russia, since the Soviet Union no longer exists. Some say that a desire to restore the power and influence of the old Soviet Union is one of Russian president Putin’s main motivations for waging war on Ukraine.
- Bái Éluósī ((Bái White 白) (Éluósī Russia 俄罗斯 俄羅斯) → [Belarus])
- zhànzhēng (zhàn·zhēng war · contending → [war; warfare] 战争 戰爭)
- hépíng (peace | {[is] peaceful} (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 says this term mainly refers to the absence of war or conflict) 和平)
Neutrality
As pointed out in the article “Russia Invades Ukraine” on jw.org:
There are more than 129,000 of Jehovah’s Witnesses living in Ukraine. Like the Witnesses in every other country, they imitate Jesus by remaining politically neutral and refusing to take part in war. (John 18:36)
There are also thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, who are being persecuted for their faith. We can be sure that like their Ukranian brothers and sisters, they are also remaining politically neutral and refusing to take part in war, such that none of the Russian military personnel currently attacking their neighbours (and maybe in some cases, friends and relatives) in Ukraine are Jehovah’s Witnesses.
May we keep our brothers and sisters in the affected areas in our prayers to Jehovah, the only true God and the “God of all comfort”—John 17:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3.