March 19th, 2008, 18:47
Signs of panic over 'Chinglish' in Beijing
For years, badly translated signs have had the Englishman abroad in stitches. But for
tourism officials in Beijing, a city preparing for the arrival of millions of visitors
for the Olympic Games in August, the problem is far from funny.
The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau has hired English linguists to eradicate "Chinglish"
from signs and shop fronts. It has also instructed the city's 4,000 unrated hotels to
translate their names, service hours, room rates, menus and notices into accurate English.
Restaurateurs have been given a list of the proper English names for the most commonly
mistranslated items, including "virgin chicken" for a young chicken dish, "steamed crap"
instead of crab, and "burnt lion's head" describing Chinese pork meatballs.
"These translations either scare or embarrass foreign customers and may cause misunderstanding
on China's diet habits," the state news agency said.
Some of the signs have been celebrated on websites and books, including one sign that greets
Western visitors to a caf├й with the words: "Welcome big nose friends" and another for the
Tibetan "Reception Centre for the Unorganised Tourists".
English speakers in Beijing have been invited to visit "Racist Park" - more accurately
translated as the Park of Ethnic Minorities - and warned to take care on wet roads as
"the slippery are very crafty".
Doug Lansky, an American travel writer, said part of the charm of the direct translations -
such as signs on lawns pleading "don't walk on me" - was that they revealed the Chinese
way of viewing the world. "On one hand I can understand why they are doing it - they don't
want people making fun of their language skills or culture, but on the other hand,
it's a real shame," he said.
"The travelling experience should be a little bit quirky, and throw people off balance a bit."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ish119.xml (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/wchinglish119.xml)
See also the link to the slide show of other examples!
For years, badly translated signs have had the Englishman abroad in stitches. But for
tourism officials in Beijing, a city preparing for the arrival of millions of visitors
for the Olympic Games in August, the problem is far from funny.
The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau has hired English linguists to eradicate "Chinglish"
from signs and shop fronts. It has also instructed the city's 4,000 unrated hotels to
translate their names, service hours, room rates, menus and notices into accurate English.
Restaurateurs have been given a list of the proper English names for the most commonly
mistranslated items, including "virgin chicken" for a young chicken dish, "steamed crap"
instead of crab, and "burnt lion's head" describing Chinese pork meatballs.
"These translations either scare or embarrass foreign customers and may cause misunderstanding
on China's diet habits," the state news agency said.
Some of the signs have been celebrated on websites and books, including one sign that greets
Western visitors to a caf├й with the words: "Welcome big nose friends" and another for the
Tibetan "Reception Centre for the Unorganised Tourists".
English speakers in Beijing have been invited to visit "Racist Park" - more accurately
translated as the Park of Ethnic Minorities - and warned to take care on wet roads as
"the slippery are very crafty".
Doug Lansky, an American travel writer, said part of the charm of the direct translations -
such as signs on lawns pleading "don't walk on me" - was that they revealed the Chinese
way of viewing the world. "On one hand I can understand why they are doing it - they don't
want people making fun of their language skills or culture, but on the other hand,
it's a real shame," he said.
"The travelling experience should be a little bit quirky, and throw people off balance a bit."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ish119.xml (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/wchinglish119.xml)
See also the link to the slide show of other examples!