I don't visit Chinese language web portals (Sohu.com, Sina.com, China.com, etc.) for two reasons: 1) the designers of these sites believe that they gain some advantage by cramming every square inch with miniscule text, flashing and blinking banners, and hideous things that float across the screen disembodied, and 2) my ability to read Chinese has suffered its own form of severe and acute degradation.

Nevertheless I ventured out to see what I could find on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) on the web in Chinese and saw quite a bit. Of course I constantly had to close a million pop-up, pop-under, and pop-over windows as I searched and read. Eventually I said the hell with it (even my valiant WebWasher seemed exhausted by the battle), let's just check what the Hongkong government is saying, in Chinese and English.

One interesting thing I noticed is that initially the disease was being called "Atypical Pneumonia," and only later did the name "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome" become popular. What's interesting about that is the fact that saying atypical pneumonia isn't very difficult, but saying Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a mouthful... that's why English speakers refer to it as SARS.

I wonder if there is an abbreviated version of "yan zhong ji xing hu xi xi tong zhong he zheng" in Chinese? I'll let you know if I find out what it is. (I learned that the Chinese simply refer to SARS as "fei dian.")

"Atypical Pneumonia"

"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome"

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