It is the letter 尔 er.  It is everywhere.  What does this letter mean, anyhow?

I was looking through the Sunday paper today.  The Fred Meyer stores are now selling appliances made by Haier.  While to English speakers the brand looks like a misspelled version of “higher”, it is a Chinese company, Haier Group, Ltd. 海尔集团.  

In classical Chinese, the letter “er” (or “ehr” in Wade-Giles) was used in a number of ways, meaning “you”, “yes”, “this”, “that”, and even “henceforth”.  Today they are mostly archaic usage and the letter itself is largely used to transliterate borrowed foreign sounds to denote either an L or R sound.  Hence Mr. Bill (as in Clinton or Gates) is Bi-Er 比尔, golf is gao-er-fu 高尔夫, hormone is he-er-meng 荷尔蒙.

Incidentally, those who have lived in Taiwan for some time may be familiar with this classical usage of the letter er in the national anthem of the Republic of China 中华民国国歌, “San Min Chu I” 三民主义 In this context “eh” means “you.”

三民主義，吾黨所宗，
以建民國，以進大同。
咨爾多士，為民前鋒；
夙夜匪懈，主義是從。
矢勤矢勇，必信必忠；
一心一德，貫徹始終。