Stinky Mouse is Kai's favorite "lovey" and is used regularly by Kai for cuddling with, and fondling while sucking his thumb. His constant use caused the development of a very unpleasant odor, thus he was given his name, "Stinky Mouse". (Unknown to Kai, we now actually have multiple identical mice which we rotate and machine wash to keep the odor away)
When I started this website I wanted to be able to write Stinky Mouse's name in Chinese. My first attempt at the name was through online translation software. I couldn't get it to translate "stinky" so I switched to "smelly". It gave me 有臭味的鼠标. That didn't look like a name to me so I decided to consult with Alex, a friend at work who speaks Mandarin. He told me that the online translation I had meant "computer mouse that has a bad smell"! 鼠标 is "shu biao": computer mouse. :-)
At first Alex thought that "chou shu" 臭鼠, or "chou laoshu" 臭老鼠 would probably be our best bet but wanted to run it by his fiance who lives in China. Her feeling was that in Chinese, calling someone or something "chou" can mean "not nice". So really, if you say 臭老鼠, people could think of it as "unpleasant mouse" rather than "stinky mouse". She suggested that the best, most authentically Chinese way to name Stinky Mouse would be to call him 臭臭鼠 (Chou Chou Shu). Reduplicating words, especially in names, is very common in Chinese, and creates something like a diminutive, a "pet name" kind of thing. Chinese readers would know it's a name, and it's cute, affectionate, and not a disparaging term. So Stinky Mouse's official name in Chinese is: 臭臭鼠 Chou Chou Shu!
Technical Notes:
This site is built using RealMacSoftware's Rapidweaver program. Comic graphic frames are built using Plasq's ComicLife program. Photo and graphic editing is done in iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, iScrapbook, GIMP, and GraphicConverter.