I wrote a little bit here about Go Seigen and why June 12 is his real birthday. Thanks to John Fairbairn, who is the source of this information. Wikipedia and other sites still say May 19.
It's interesting to use the term, "real birthday". Some people prefer to celebrate their birthday based on the lunar calendar, instead of how birthdays are typically tracked in the west.
I suppose it is good to be consistent when naming dates. For example, it'd be good to use a consistent scheme in specifying dates of birth on wikipedia.
Still, I'm not sure if everyone would agree with the term "real birthday", as it depends on the date scheme which one considers to be authoritative.
If you're using the lunar calendar, his birthday falls on a different solar date every year, so it's still not May 19th like Wikipedia et al would imply.
palapiku wrote:If you're using the lunar calendar, his birthday falls on a different solar date every year, so it's still not May 19th like Wikipedia et al would imply.
The date would apply to the year he was born. And yes, of course, if you are going by the lunar calendar, the solar date that you celebrate your birthday on can be different every year.
emeraldemon, I posted my favourite game in the article with some commentary. One reader left some other good links. One to a game that's supposedly commented by Go himself.
Kirby, I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble understanding the point you're making.
While it's true that the alignment between the two calendars changes each year, Go was born on a particular date, and by the Gregorian calendar that was June 12, 1914. By the Chinese calendar it was the 19th day of the 5th moon.
When that's written in Chinese then, yes, it could be ambiguous because they use the same characters for month and day regardless of the calendar. However, May 19 as a Gregorian date, is totally unambiguous. As palapiku said, May 19 is still incorrect.
Also, I'm well aware that Go may track his birthday using the lunar calendar. I would suspect that he probably does. in that case he would regard his birthday as being next week, on June 20, this year.
As western people, if we're going to recognize his birthday at all, using a Gregorian date, then June 12 is a lot closer to reality than May 19. My use of the single word 'real' was simply to emphasize that point. So please don't read too much into it.
Instead of starting an extended semantic argument, I'd rather just get on with correcting Wikipedia and other sites.
@gogameguru: The only point I am really trying to make is that calling June 12 his "real birthday" presumes a preference toward the Gregorian date, which seems somewhat biased, in my opinion.
Instead of starting an extended semantic argument, I'd rather just get on with correcting Wikipedia and other sites.
That said, it would be just as possible on wikipedia to indicate that the given date was the lunar calendar date as it would be to show the Gregorian date. Some might feel that the date would be better "corrected" in this manner.
The fact that Wikipedia is using the word May, indicates a Gregorian date to me. In that case, it's just a mistake in translation. If we're going to write the date as Wikipedia does, then it should be June 12.
Otherwise we'd have to write 5月19日 and then specify that we're using the lunar calendar.
I anticipate that the folks at Wikipedia wouldn't like that approach.
The fact that Wikipedia is using the word May, indicates a Gregorian date to me. In that case, it's just a mistake in translation. If we're going to write the date as Wikipedia does, then it should be June 12.
Otherwise we'd have to write 5月19日 and then specify that we're using the lunar calendar.
I anticipate that the folks at Wikipedia wouldn't like that approach.
I pretty much agree - though I don't think that it's necessary to use Chinese characters - only the specification that a lunar date was being used would be necessary. Still, I agree that, when you see a date with no such specification on wikipedia, people typically assume it's Gregorian.
We were thinking it would be great if we could convince Google to feature Go Seigen on their homepage for his 100th birthday next year. It would be a great way to celebrate his birthday and to introduce more people to this fascinating game.
You can email proposals@google.com to suggest it. Go Seigen will turn 100 on June 12, 2014.
Refixed the dates on the wiki page and added a note, maybe it will stick this time. I'm also sending an email, and will send a note to a Google employee I know who plays a bit of go.
hyperpape wrote:Refixed the dates on the wiki page and added a note, maybe it will stick this time. I'm also sending an email, and will send a note to a Google employee I know who plays a bit of go.
Tell me more about these connections of yours. I would love to get my hands on flying cars, the cure for cancer and immortality-in-a-jar when Google finishes those projects.
Since it's topical, fans of Go Seigen might like to have a heads-up about the next project from the GoGoD Archives, since I just happen to have been discussing it with Anders Kierulf this week - by pure coincidence as I'd forgotten about the birthday.
Although we haven't actually sealed our moves, I have almost ready the next volume in the Go Seigen ten-game match series. This one is against Karigane Junichi. It is interesting in many ways - Go goes Body Shop with salt, top players end up in court when another top player complains of libel over his grade, and one of the games is known as a "famous games among famous games" (mainly for Karigane's brilliance, actually). Oh, and of course there is a war going on.
This is a relatively short match, but I allowed Karigane to jump the queue over Iwamoto and Hashimoto (both volumes well in hand) because I changed my style of presentation a bit to make it easier to set up the SmartGo version (which will be the only one pro tem - please, no griping, it's out of my hands). My idea was to get the new presentation right before trying it on the bigger volumes.
Doing Go-K first means putting the Meijin Inseki's "Today We Have A Splendid Feast" back a little, but John Mifsud is working on the SmartGo conversion of "Gateway To All Marvels" at the moment, so that should very soon give problem solvers something to get their teeth into for the time being.
