Horoscope (English and Chinese)
editI chose to look at horoscopes in English and Chinese. The origins of horoscopes are Chinese, so I thought there may be a more in depth history of horoscopes on the Chinese page and possibly more detailed explanations of their meanings. I thought the English page would focus more on how they’re used in English speaking countries (sometimes in more trivial things like magazines). I thought it would be interesting to look at these differences, and I chose China because I wanted to keep the same two countries for all of my comparisons.
Both articles have similar introductions. The majority of the opening paragraphs are about the astrology and science behind horoscopes. They both talk about the sun, the moon, and the planets and what exactly a horoscope means. Both provide charts that further explain the categories of horoscopes and their scientific meaning.
The English article has two sections with multiple subsections about “western astrology.” It only has one small section at the end about the Chinese horoscope. In this section, it discusses how in China the horoscopes aren’t taken seriously as true predictors and how they are featured in newspapers and magazines. Also interesting is that it says western horoscopes are also featured in Chinese print. The Chinese article doesn’t have anything about western horoscopes and has very little on interpretation of horoscopes at all.
In general, both articles put a huge focus on the astrology and science of horoscopes and very little on interpretation. I was completely wrong about the uses in the different countries (how they are more trivial in China than the United States). I was correct that the Chinese page had more on the history and more detailed explanations of the horoscopes, but I definitely thought the articles would be more different than they were. The majority of the articles were very similar and didn’t focus on the meanings, just the science.