Ive had it for over 10 years kinda forget. I think it means daughter and inner strenth?
Its kanji if that helps.
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if it were kanji and you knew it was kanji why would you ask on a Chinese forum rather than a Japanese one? The characters are 媳(daughter-in-law)自強(strive for self improvement).– 小奥利奥Oct 2, 2021 at 7:17
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Just a little casual diversion. You would notice that 媳, (or 媳 妇 in full), a word meaning daughter-in-law has these three elements --- 女, 自, 心, respectively meaning, "girl", "own", "heart", which in English translates nicely into "A girl after my own heart", which was how the husband's parents consider their daughters-in-law, at least in the old days.– Wayne CheahOct 3, 2021 at 5:28
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(Please keep comments/answers about the meaning of the tattoo.)– Becky 李蓓 ♦Oct 4, 2021 at 0:22
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I guess you tried to mean "strong independent woman" but 媳 is kind of a strange choice of word here because it means wife from the husband's family's viewpoint. If you change it to 女, it would be much better. 女 means female or daughter. BTW, most Japanese kanji (including those in this question) have the same meaning as their Chinese counterparts.– BettyOct 6, 2021 at 2:11
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3 Answers
媳妇 = wife, but 媳 could generically mean woman in a historical / poetic use of Chinese (given pretty much all women were married back then)
自 = self 强 = strong 自强 = strong self / capable of being independent. Would say the self improvement interpretation is more likely to be expressed as 自进
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So how do you understand the meaning of the whole tattoo? Something like "strong independent woman"? Oct 3, 2021 at 10:28
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I'd get an impression in that vein yea. Although of course it's not a direct translation to those words. It could also be interpreted in the context of a tattoo as a mantra that women should be strong in themselves. Oct 11, 2021 at 16:42
It doesn't really make sense in Chinese actually. 媳/媳婦means wife of one's son (or, wife of one's family) in Taiwan, and means wife of oneself in China. If we are to make sense out of this tattoo it'll be "the wife should be independent".
The font of 強 is Traditional Chinese (Simplified Chinese would look like 强, notice the difference on the top-right corner), so I would interpret this tattoo in Traditional Chinese/Taiwan. In that sense this tattoo would be "the wife who married into another family should be independent (presumably from her husband or her husband's family)".
Tracking the meaning of the word "媳" in Japanese.
"The Bite"?:) Another site relates it to the name (異名) of a poison snake. :) I suggest asking this question on the Japanese Language Forum to get the correct meaning. More often than not, you can't take (Japanese) Kanji as the Chinese equal (in meaning).
