MoonRiver

若非亲眼所见亲手拍照，实在难以相信以严谨著称的德国人会在《马普研究院期刊》(MaxPlanckForschung)封面上搞这么大一出笑话...

杂志社后来的致歉信上说：
" The cover of the most recent German-language edition of MaxPlanckForschung (3/2008)
depicts a Chinese text which had been chosen by our editorial office in order to
symbolically illustrate the magazine's focus on "China". Unfortunately, it has now
transpired that this text contains inappropriate content of a suggestive nature.
Prior to publication, the editorial office had consulted a German sinologist for a
translation of the relevant text. The sinologist concluded that the text in question
depicted classical Chinese characters in an non-controversial context. To our
sincere regret, however, it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of
meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker.

By publishing this text we did in no way intend to cause any offence or
embarrassment to our Chinese readers. The editors of MaxPlanckResearch sincerely
regret this unfortunate error and would like to offer an unreserved apology to all
of their Chinese readers for any upset or distress they may have caused.

The cover title has already been substituted in the online edition, and the English
version of MaxPlanckForschung (MaxPlanckResearch, 4/2008) will be published with a
different title.

We would ask you to forward this information to all Chinese scientists at your
Institute. Please find attached the new version of the title. Perhaps you can
distribute this print-out within your institute."

我真无语了...

PS:今天是南京大屠杀71周年，默哀。