Living in China: Chinglish

Of course the nine pictures of my last post were not enough to please everyone, so here are a dozen more.

Chinglish can be literally found everywhere around China, and in the most unusual places (such as in the coffee bar I had a coffee today). I decided to bring my camera everywhere I go (including bars, supermarkets and public toilets) in order to capture the poetry of Chinglish.

See for yourself:

Truly huge bill-boards surrounding construction sites. They are all the same (most likely all licensed by the same company); in broken English and literal translations, they try to convince the passers by that their project will create an 'utopia', or 'paradise' and above all, a 'harmoneous society". They do this by putting these incredibly entertaining boards with English translations up all around the scaffolding.

"To bring the wealth in the untouchable way"
- "OK OK, if you insist!"

"I told them: NO STRIDING, but they wouldn't listen!"

"Vigorous Instruments Co., LTD
What on earth could those be?

SOD shampoo ~ no comments
(can be found in between Olive shampoo and Vaseline cream in most neighborhood shops)

A card that was slid under our door at night. We get one every night; and now have a pretty collection of 25+ of them. Last week we received the first one in English though. "baby service" is not the literal, as you might have guessed...
At least it is safe, private and fashion;....(see below)

This is the back of the card. Each of our stack of collected cards has a different 'lady' on them. Mind you that prostitution is strictly forbidden in China, and so these 'businesses' operate quite undercover, sliding cards under people's doors at nights.

Just a super slogan ;) ?
I just love my comfortable notebook and wouldn't have any other!

No touchy touchy! This sign was pasted on the wall of a museum

At least they state who their target group is, as clearly as can be...
If you look careful it says: "INartificial shampoo" ~ what a relief!
(this picture was taken by my good classmate from Helsinki Business Polytechnic in 2005)

...Imagine printing 1,000,000 labels before noticing the spelling mistake... ouch!~

"I'd love a bugger with chips & salad, some garilic bread and a Spenich mushroom, please"
Look carefully at the menu, under "maracont"...

by the way, be careful for the "Soya bugger" because it'll catch ya!

(I found this menu in Nepal, not China, but it fits in the 'Chinglish' chapter just the same, I guess)

BIMBO ~ what a brand name! :)

More BIMBO cookies (not donuts but donitas; so clever!

Lovely literal translation: Chinese - English (using a thick old dictionary)

Now, to be honest, this banner can be found in the '798 art district' (Google it if you don't know) of Beijing so some people must have noticed it and taken it there to exhibit it as a piece of art. It is beautiful Chinglish poetry just the same. Literal translation from Chinese to English and it sounds beautiful when read out slowly:

"Manages well the transportation hand in hand,
creates the civilized heart linked to heart"

When I can't sleep at nights, I try to unravel the meaning of these cryptic messages.
It's a bit like Indiana Jones, isn't it?

Here's another one:

"Chaoyang you and me to build a harmonious,
I share your civilization traffic"

(btw. Chaoyang is a district in Beijing)
"What is civilization traffic?" My friend asked me...

On a lighter note now, some Chinglish I encountered all around in China. Don't worry, this post won't contain any stories told by animals and won't show any photos of slaughtered protected animals. We've returned to Beijing now, and back to this century. It snowed here a few days ago (but see this: China lets it snow to end draught )

I have collected quite a selection of photos with 'Chinglish' (English translated literally from Chinese, or otherwise funny English.) I am always surprised to see huge (and expensive) bill boards or traffic signs with spelling mistakes in them. I recently saw a building with large neon letters: "Hunan Agricultural Development Bnak". Doesn't anyone notice this over the years? Probably not, or perhaps the people just don't care. It is not like anyone actually speaks English (outside the three largest cities of China) so what's the use anyway.

Brand names use the same rhetoric. I always have to laugh about the variations of the fashion brand 'Playboy'. To name a few: "Playboby", "Boy Play", "Peony Boy" and "Player Boy" (these are just cheap copies of the real brand name, but still funny without it being meant to be). There are countless more examples of funny brand names or packaging. In the supermarket I found shampoos called "Sod" and "Gays", and tea that mentions that it contains "poison".