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Message:: [QUOTE="JayBee, post: 495197, member: 9259"]Yes, a Chinese seal carved for a foreigner... He chose the snake probably because it's his Chinese zodiac sign. As for the name, "Laiao" could be "Leo" (I agree with Ipan9's guess on that) and for the other two characters, could also be read "baite" (following the same direction of reading of Laiao)... and could stand for "Boyd."  But knowing how these phonetic transcriptions are done, this is nothing but guess work and it could be completely different.Now, here's another guess: Aolai Te Bai could mean something totally different... "Aolai" is the Chinese name for a huge shopping mall called Outlet in Beijing (there was one just a 2 minute walk from where I lived.) "Tebai" can also mean "salute" or "bow to" (as in paying a compliment.) The Chinese over Chinese New Year join their hands and shake them slightly back and forth and greet each other in that way. Could this be a seal carved by some shop owner, for the Chinese New Year, to stamp little cards or receipts for the clients, meaning something like "Outlet Greets You!" The snake could be that the it was for the Year of the Snake, the last two were 2001 and 2013...... but again, this is just a fun exercise in guessing something that's possibly nothing like whatever we can come up with.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/rolleyes.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]