Chinglish Signs Photographed By NYT & Der Spiegel Journalists

Fragrant and hot marxism.

On cn.yahoo.com, Mop, and ChinaRen:

Stupefying English signs in China photographed by the Western media

Along with China’s continuous economic development, our country’s internationalization is quickly increasing. To meet and adapt to these new changes, many places have begun to use signs in both Chinese and English. However, given that our country’s ordinary people’s English language level needs to be improved, hilarious and stupefying English signs can easily be seen all around. Just how stupefying are these stupefying translations? Let’s take a look at the photographs “New York Times” and “Der Spiegel” journalists have taken on the streets of China.

Chinglish Signs in China, bad Chinese to English translations.

Badly translated Chinese menu.

Smart Noshery Makes You Slobber.

Strange shop sign in China.

A dangerous dry cleaners.

Chinglish, bad spacing.

Mobilephone electrizing.

Chinglish signs in China.

Chinglish sign for an adult toys shop.

More bad spacing.

Chinese airline Chinglish.

Unhappy Hour.

Please don't make confused noise when chanting.

A bicycle parking sign in China.

Chinese warning sign.

Execution in progress!

Slip and fall down carefully.

Keep off the lake.

Do drunken driving.

Fragrant and hot marxism.

Please forgive to be incontinent for interior decoration.

The Jew's Ear Juice.

I am not sure if these photos were really taken by Western media.

Comments from Mop:

匿名人士78734:

Speechless.

hcuhsaaf:

A little bad, but not exactly shameful.

luputa:

What this shows us is that we are uneducated/uncultured. Very frightening.

蚂蚁的问题:

This shows us: Why have English signs, why not Pinyin signs?

7号辐射:

The entire country learns English, yet only a few are actually able to use English. Unless you specialize [in English], it is not used in normal situations.

飘着飞翔:

They’re just for our own people to look at, what do foreigners care?

缥缈风云寒:

I have never, don’t, and will never understand [English]. I am not learning and do not plan to learn the language, so I also don’t care if the language is right or wrong.

jamesbondcjl:

I hope in the future all foreigners will speak Chinglish!

迷茫爱人:

Lou zhu, you fucking foreign worshipper, so what if they are wrong? Even if they are wrong they are on Chinese soil. Foreigners can like it or not, but I refuse to change, it is my territory so I will do things my way!

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  1. Preserve Chinglish!

    (My personal favorite is a sign for the lobby of the local gong’an ju being translated as a “law and order room”. *donk donk*)

    • internet / web in 2000-2050.

      1. english… englisn now spoken in USA UK canada. australia.. worldwide.

      ABCDEFGHJIKLM- 26-letters..

      2. chinese 50,000 ancient letters..

      3. Time to Dig a big big big and bury Hanzi characters… No civilized nation uses such old, archaic. obsolete system of writing…

      4. Time to abolish Hanzi and replace it with a ABC-system of writing

  2. Slow news day?

    I never understood why nations bother with labels written in languages other than their own for products sold internally.

    • there are plenty of reasons oh well, im too lazy to explain…
      most countries are as a matter of fact bilingual or even more sign-ed ~ not of course native English speaking countries….

      @Jones: Now damn you!!! I was in Venice at 8pm! Where the hell were you?? ~you owe me jet fuel …

    • There are a couple possible reasons i can think of:
      1. being that they want to display for foreigners.
      2. characters other than your own usually seems “cool” refer to the whole fad of westerners getting hanzi character tattoos without knowing the correct definition/meaning.

      possibly more but it’s 2 a.m and i got class at 9 so i’m out.

      • Lately I’ve noticed those tattoos as well. I usually see them on the ankles for women. Once in a while I’ll see a sticker on the back cab window of a pickup truck. However, I don’t know if it’s Chinese or Japanese characters.

        • Japanese Kanji and Chinese characters are 95% the same, there would be no point in anybody getting a single-character tattoo in any of the other Japanese scripts as these are purely phonetic.

    • News? Where do you think you are, Reuters.com?

  3. “Please be well seated and always make yourself safe”

    Seems like a darn good piece of advice if I ever saw one

  4. “Keep off the lake”

    This means you….Jesus……

  5. I doubt any of those were taken by real Western journalists. But there are a few classics. NO striding!

    NO!

    • Probably 99.999% of the Chinglish pictures were taken by stoned travelers or drunk English teachers, but it’s hard to make an argument that the pig-faced western media is trying to make glorious mother China look bad when it’s worded like that.

      • pig-faced western media? don’t blame the west. the Chinese will make themselves look bad all by themselves.

      • Agreed. It’s hard to make either argument or sense of anything you wrote.

        • Oh, no! Cracked bamboo doesn’t approve of my comment. However will I sleep tonight?

          I was basically saying that some Chinese seemed mad that we as foreigners were laughing at their crappy English, then they make it look like the New York Times/Der Spiegel is running an expose on Chinglish in order to make Chinese people look dumb. They do this specifically to get the fenqing up in arms, despite the fact that the pictures weren’t taken by large western media outlets but by “stoned travelers or drunk English teachers.”

          I was using using “pig-faced” and “glorious mother China” sarcastically to tease the easily riled commenters, but I guess that didn’t translate.

      • Chill out! It’s not a personal attack against “great motherland China” it’s just funny…. where is your sense of humor?

    • Some of these pictures were indeed featured in the NYTimes photos of the day, less than a month ago. No need for tinfoil hats on this one, folks.

  6. jew‘s ear juice.. should be “Jew’s-ear”?? 最难懂的还是菜单

  7. I have mixed feelings about this…I’ve heard a thousand interpretations of why anyone would put up a sign in a foreign language and not even seem to care if it makes sense or not. Of course, I now know the fact that this idea seems so absurd to me is due to the fact that I’m not a local here, and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way- I’ve lived abroad long enough to get over these difference. But the beligerence of some of the anti-English posts reminds me of that ignorance that I didn’t leave behind in America.

  8. Chinglish fills my day with joy and should be preserved at all costs.

    Anyone ever see “Fire Cock” written on the hoses in the Pudong/Puxi tunnels? Its funny and true.

  9. dare you to cross over the “execution in progress” sign lol

  10. The “Do Drunken Drive” one made me laugh.

  11. Not sure if it qualifies as English, but my favorite store I walk by everyday is called “Dog dog world.” Dog dog. Dog dog. Such a great name.

  12. There was a hospital in SH on Caobao lu, maybe Lao Humin lu… Don’t remember, was years ago. Anyway, they had bid posters up with smiling (usually foreign, standard stock photo) faces advertising their various clinics.

    Men’s clinic. OK. Osteology clinic. Fine. Gynecological clinic. Great. Vagina palace neck clinic…. whut?

    Also, the Xinjiang place near my apartment used to offer ‘fuck a sheep’s hoof’ as a dish. Never tried it tho….

  13. My most favorite Chinglish sign yet:

    “No frolicking in the elevator”

    I think I laughed my entire way out of the hotel doors from that one, picturing sponge bob frolicking the way he does.

  14. Potentially dangerous if a foreigner is stupid enough to follow:
    “Do drunken driving”
    “Slip and fall down carefully”

    Those translated menus always crack me up.

  15. Do they still sell hei ren yao gao. Black’s Toothpaste? Had the great logo of the black guy in the top hat and brilliant smile. No Chinglish but really offensive.

    Kind of like when Chinese people get lost for words and start saying, neige, neige, neige…

    • no, no, no! it’s not offensive at all. if you wanna sell something you will put on some picture people dislike?
      black’s toothpaste is quite famous in china, always the best toothpaste in our mind and you know the reason.
      it’s a famous brand that’s why other products producers want to copy the idea, so that people can remember, you see, you take it in your mind.

      • It’s not offensive because it has a black guy on the cover, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods advertise stuff all across the world. It’s racist because it was called”Darkie” brand, and it looks like the mascot jumped straight out of a minstrel show and is about to say “Shoeshine, massa?”

        • no its not offensive because it has a black guy on the front it is offensive because of the style of art used to depict the black guy has a deep seeded history of racism. however I refer anyone who really is offended by this to the movie Ghost World

    • Brother River Crab

      It was “Darkie” toothpaste until 1985.

      In hanzi, it is and always had been “Black Person” toothpaste.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie

    • Yeah they still have it at most major supermarkets. I can’t say I ever used it though. I think the hanzi is still the same, every time I see it I have to laugh

    • great toothpaste, in fact you can even find it in specialty stores in Canada.

  16. Jews ear juice?
    What were they trying to say originally? I’m scared to find out.

    • The Chinese is 黑木耳露 “black wood ear juice”. All I know is that wood ear is that dark brown fungus used in Chinese cooking that looks a bit like seaweed. I didn’t know you could juice it….and I don’t know where they got Jews ear from.

      • 木耳 (Mu’er) is actually called Jew’s Ear in English. I guess we don’t really eat it, so no one ever bothered to give it a PC name.

    • Just searched for Jews ear on Wikipedia. It’s actually right. That one is not Chinglish. Sure, it may be using a term that’s not so politically correct, but it’s a fine translation.

  17. Confucian son do not teach likewise. We must always good good study day day up!

  18. As I remember “Smart Noshery Makes you Slobber” was written by a native speaker. English speaker, that is. Quite a clever name actually.

  19. Why bother to translate these signs into English, if do please do your homework not just Yahoo or goolge auto translation. To 迷茫爱人 you are one of the reasons why Chinese in Mainland China need longer than usual correct the wrongs.

  20. I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestion that Pinyin signs would be helpful until the Chinese sought out the proper English translation.

    I suspect the “Putonglish” translations were due work of human relying on the dumb dumb digital dictionary !

  21. As an English guy who has spent too long out here, take it from me: we’re not judging you. Well done for putting in the effort, it’s much appreciated.

    And Mandarin speakers with good English will RULE in the coming years.

    Don’t be scared. Speak it to each other. Have a laugh. Get better.

    I’ll speak Mandarin to you. Badly. With a weird Taiwanese accent. You laugh too :)

  22. I once saw this in a supermarket.

    干水果 – Fuck Fruits.

  23. chinese style is not a bad thing, expressing chinese wise and advocating chinglish, like gongfu, tofu and shifu, eh, of course, as well as tao, fa, and so on and on.

  24. At least the there are efforts to make the make something understandable to the outside, foreign, tourists.

    In America, I sometimes come across Spanish, but then again, I bet you most foreigners trying to make a chinese translation would be quite bad even worse that what is above.

    • To be fair to the biggotted, sinking ship that was my homeland, I would really be suprised if any American business were to put up Chinese signage ANYWHERE without first consulting a native speaker…

  25. It reminds me of Fan Subs for foreign films.Besides even Americans mess with English. Michigan used to have a Coffee place called Beaner’s they changed it to Biggbys because they realized some people would find it offensive.Americans mangle other languages as well.But it’s still funny.Spanglish is equally funny for all involved.

  26. I don’t really mind the argument that the English signs and t-shirts are for Chinese customers. I’m sure when businessmen go into a nice hotel they want to see English writing, and when a family goes out for pizza they want to believe there’s an Italian with a big mustache in the back. But, then they can’t be mad when we laugh at it as foreigners.

    It’s not disrespectful, it’s just funny.

    My two favorites:

    http://i46.tinypic.com/5vajrq.jpg

    http://i48.tinypic.com/23usr5c.jpg

    Although I think those are Japenglish and Korenglish, respectively.

  27. I love some of the Chinese comments. Their attitude is basically “fuck the foreigners and fuck English. Why do they care how we Chinese write OUR signs?”

    But as other people said, these signs are designed for Chinese people to think that these places are….international? worldly?…not sure exactly.

    And when so many places in China have bad Chinglish, where’s the incentive to make your sign better? Just as the service in all restaurants is atrocious–why would anyone offer good service?

    I’ve been to Smart Noshery Makes You Slobber, right on Nanquan Bei Lu in Shanghai, near Babaiban. They’ve got good food. And a brilliant name.

    On a Beijing menu there was “fried Wikipedia with pork”. Apparently, someone had asked “how do you say _____ in English?” Someone yelled back “check Wikipedia”.

    And remember Americans, some signs are just British English, not Chinglish. There really is such a thing as a cloakroom.

    • I remember once I saw a sign telling “Aliens” what to do. My Chinese ex wife thought this was hilarious, but what she couldn’t understand is that an alien is another word for a foreigner and in fact the sign was perfectly correct.

  28. Chinese failing horribly at English isn’t anything new. Leave English to Hong Kong.

  29. When I worked in travel agency, we supported our site in both Chinese and English languages. Even though the boss was aware that English tarnslation contained some mistakes, he didn’t hurry to fix them, saying: “It’s okay – foreigners will know that we are a REAL Chinese company and not fake!” :-)

    • Because tarnslation is an English word, right? ;)

      • Obviously a typo, Mr made-a-new-account-to-point-that-out. Don’t hate on Crystal just because she’s way too hot for you to ever have a chance with her.

        • Obviously a suck-up. Don’t suck up on Crystal just because she’s way too hot for you to ever have a chance with her.

          /facepalm

          • Haha, whatever. You’re the guy trying to pick on girls on the Internet.

            As for calling me a suck up, I have this to say: I recently visited Crystal’s site and have to say I found it to be an interesting read. I recommend that more of you take time out from your busy schedules to do likewise.

          • Wow! How many replies… Maybe I should use “spellchecker” for my comments in the future. :-)

            Thanks to everyone for your compliments, especially those who found time to read my blog (although its style is different from Chinasmack).

            A little question to experts here: is it really possible to hit on a girl on internet?

          • Hahaha…
            If YOU are an expert – then I really don’t need an answer to my question (since it’s pretty obvious) :-)

          • So because I point out a typo in a comment, I’m picking on someone? Especially considering that comment was lamenting the state of English in China in the first place?

            Who cares about avatars/nicks/etc etc. Take note of what people write, rather than from what position they write it from, unless you want to come off like a shallow douche.

          • Hahahaha
            CRYSTAL I WUV YOU!!!!!1111111
            Hitting on girls (and guys) on The Internet absolutely can and does work. That’s what it’s there for to most of the online human population, d’uh! How many people do you know with boyfriends or girlfriends that met and/or got to know each other through facebook, a dating website or some other social network like Webanginbeijing.com? Answer: some, plus others who haven’t admitted it to you. Plus a whole bunch of chumps and suckers that have tried.
            In fact, the Internet, along with text messages, is devastatingly effective in China for foreigners that can’t speak Chinese chasing girls who speak basic English because it gives the girl time to figure out your backstory, get a handle on some basic facts about you, and online-translate whatever words she doesn’t understand rather than just going for the usual 假装明白 and not really understanding the carefully exaggerated importance and CV-building qualities of that internship you did in Washington DC.
            So, I hope that that verbose and cynical analysis of the Internet dating scene is enough to prove I’m not hitting on anyone, much as I am tempted to call the bluffs a second time and tell Crystal that we should go out sometime on me and that I personally know some agreeable restauranteurs in my area that provide excellent service and deliver the respect and attention to her desires that a lady of her many and varied qualities undoubtedly deserves!

    • 性感的你,灿烂的笑容,你的英文名翻成中文呢?Yeah I read daily the warning in the cafeteria to “Slip Carefully” as a translation for slippery floor or something to that effect

  30. Some of these signs don’t actually look wrong, the sex-shop sign might be a bit off, but it reads to me like exactly the kind of things they stock at an “adult healthcare” shop.

    Likewise the “China Welf are Lottery” is actually exactly how I would translate the sign (just without the space in “Welfare”), even if the idea of a “welfare lottery” is somewhat backasswards.

    “Do not draw near” is actually perfectly good, if a bit awkward, and “smart noshery makes you slobber” and “go go come” are just full of win.

    My guess is that the English of some of the people at Der Spiegel is not quite as awesome as they seem to think.

  31. no bad. i no think china-style english no good. these street english signs indicate our country is marching on china-style socialism broad road. but and time all progress(oh no, i should interpret it into english as “keep pace with the times.”)

  32. As a native English speaker, I can say that (1) most of these signs are understandable, even if the English isn’t perfect, (2) at least they are trying to communicate in English, and (3) I have seen equally silly signs when English speakers attempt to write Chinese. Let’s not make fun of each other!

  33. I take similar photos here as well, just last week I bought a pillow called “Sweet Dreams Semen Cassiae Pillow”

    Id upload the photo if there was the option.

    • What, you didn’t study Latin? Semen (seed) Cassiae (of cinnamon, or Asian Cinnamon). I’m joking, I love it too, but, its actually Latin and not Chinglish, but I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.

  34. Most people in China don’t speak English, it is a second or third language for the few that can speak and read/write. Direct translation if very difficult so things that make sense in Chinese just don’t always translate well. Often, the printers of these signs don’t speak/read/write any English so they don’t even know if there is a typo or error.

    I’d like to see the average American or Brit try to make a sign in Chinese without idiomatic translation difficulties.

  35. A great tourist attraction…people can come from all over these unique signs…ahh, the Chinese sense of humour!!

  36. Interesting theory:

    Are Chinglish misspellings on t-shirts and so on becoming cool in a hip, ironic kind of way? Is it possible there’s an “I know you think I don’t know what this means, but actually I do, so, um, yeah…” thing going on?

    I put this to a Chinese friend (who speaks awesome English) the other day and she confidently shot it down, but I still need convincing. Anyone got any thoughts on this or is it misguided nonsense?

  37. That was hilarious!

  38. Come to think of it, it kinda reminds me of non-Chinese people getting retarded tacky Chinese tattoos that either mean some random crap, or translate to something like “At the end of the day, this is an ugly boy”

  39. Funny english translations!

  40. 迷茫爱人: I would never dare to write in Chinese (pin yin or hanzi) without being so sure that I am doing correctly. I will not do because I respect to China and its language. Your argument is a bad excuse and also a great nonsense. Being Chinese is not an excuse for writing English in a non right way. People should carefully check before making those signals with such great mistakes.

  41. I really like the Unhappy Hour sign. It makes perfect sense and illustrates a commanding use of English. In fact, many of the signs are perfectly intelligible.

    Are there not websites dedicated to the dumb Chinese characters that Westerners get as tattoos? There ought to be.

  42. 还他妈好意思笑中国人英语不好, 自己的汉语又学得怎么样呢? 以前听了个笑话: 有个人说我马上来, 老外听了急了, 说不能”马上”来, 太慢了, 要飞机上来.

    • I think we have the next Joe Wong in the house! Except Joe Wong’s jokes were funny… and he didn’t qualify them with an inferiority complex.

      Here’s a better joke:
      At a school in America, there are two Chinese kids. One speaks good English, one’s English is not so good. One day in class, the kid with the not-so-good English raises his hand and says “Smith teacher, please can I go to the toilet?” and the teacher replies “go ahead”.
      The kid doesn’t move so his friend whispers: “你为什么没有走?”
      And his pal says “她说过:去个头!”

    • 你他妈的笑我中文干嘛呢, 你不觉得不好意思来这里不说英语呢!我猜你就是那种种学不会英语然后骂外国人的中文水平狗日的东西。 去你妈的逼!
      那你打飞机去吧!

  43. go to engrish.com to see more stuff like misspelled english in Korea, Japan, Arab, etc

  44. What is that China Welfare Lottery? I used to see it all the time.

  45. Most of the airports in China have large signs saying

    “Toilet Drink Water”

    These signs are great – I think sign writers make them for fun and to see how far they can go before the customer figures out what is going on.

    Some day in the future there will be a National Museum of Chinglish signage” in Beijing, where people can go to remember the old days – before all the signs were changed to boring standard English.

  46. The world is changing…I have seen many Westerners writing hilarious incorrect Chinese, but I don’t hear/see reports about that. And besides…why only English??? I’ve seen Italians, Germans and Dutch people write bad Chinese. Even in “Romanized letters” they oftenly spell Chinese city names incorrect like: Shenzhgen instead of Shenzhen, and Zhenjinang instead of Zhejiang. Why does it always have to be English vs Chinese?
    http://wocview.wordpress.com is one of the few sites which emphasizes more the relationship between China and the rest of the world

  47. Dear Fauna,

    I’ll be honest with you. I read your blog almost everyday because I can’t read Chinese and you are the only provider of Chinese gossip that I know of. I think most people on the site strongly appreciate your effort and dedication in contributing to the site. Even though it is predominantly motivated by the desire to earn a living from it, for us it’s a win-win situation.

    However, every time I read the comments section, I am reminded of a specific type of Chinese person that I have been acquainted with in the past.

    The type that is afraid of being labeled as close minded; aims to be objective and fair and in the end actually believes it. I can’t imagine how a Chinese citizen can find it tolerable to provide a comments section for what predominantly appears to be a Chinese-haters group. There are far more negative comments for every fair or objective comment that is left on this site.

    I’m sure you can convince yourself that the role that you take in this site is merely clerical and you are acting as a conjugate for the purposes of providing a translation service. However, I don’t think this can be said, when you choose to actively close your eyes and not moderate the severely racist comments that are left. Especially considering the fact you do take an active role in reading the comments, as you have shown from time to time.

    This is more of a moral issue than a substantive issue since, you are more than entitled to allow a person to present free speech. What I feel is an issue, is that while you may moderate certain posts such as this, you fail to disapprove of comments which are clearly targeted towards people of YOUR ethnicity.

    Where there is a critically derogatory comment left against Chinese people, do you not feel that you are part of the targeted group? A person who fails to moderate any comments can argue the defense that he/she is a mere scribe but a person such as yourself who actively moderates and fails to removes them cannot argue the same way.

    Considering that you have the choice of translating news without leaving room for derogatory comments, I don’t see why you are not doing it. You are well aware that freedom of speech does not exist for private blogs. You and I both know the comments section is catering to a predominantly racist audience. I mean, come on…. at least ban this Jones guy. I’m not sure how racist he is but in light of his annoying avatar and how his comments predominantly relate to massaging his obviously dented ego. Allowing him to post is like allowing a twelve year old boy constantly vandalizing a wall that you have to walk past everyday.

    I urge you consider your work and that of a Japanese/Chinese translator at the time of world war and tell me whether there is any substantial differences in your mentality. Both of you translate to masses of anti-Chinese, both convince themselves that they are mere conjugates that translate rather than offer personal insight. The information translated in both instances defame the Chinese and indirectly defame you. How do you really feel? Feel free to email me if you like.

    • Ummmm . . . . how do I say this:
      ChinaSmack is not a “wall that you have to walk past everyday”. In fact, you never have to visit this site if you don’t want to, and since you don’t like it here, I suggest you piss off back to whatever brainwashed fenqing-hole you came from.

      To me this site represents a China that has a sense of humour and is capable of sharing it with non-Chinese, one which doesn’t necessarily view every instance in which foreigners might find something funny about something related to China as a grave offence or evidence of racism. Yes, some of the comments are over the top, and a few are actually racist rather than merely joking about it, but that’s the price you pay for allowing people to speak their minds.

      Anyway, like I said, you never have to come here if you don’t want to.

      • Wow, you talk like you have the entitlement to speak on behalf of the site. Is that confidence gained from living in China too long or just the anonymity from being on an internet site?

        No… that was harsh. Putting harmless mockery aside, I think you’re afraid that if Fauna stops writing, you’ll be left with no medium to procrastinate when you feel like venting out some racism.

        I come here because I like the stories and I eagerly await what trolls like Pusan write and what idiots inevitably try to do to respond. I don’t have a problem with it. I wrote To Fauna because I feel that she is slightly masochistic for not moderating with more scorn for when people indirectly insult her.

        For the record, the ‘wall that i have to walk past everyday’ does not refer to the comments section. It’s that bloody avatar of a hermaphrodite. I personally don’t care what Jones writes, so long as he removes the picture. It’s an embarrassment to him because he obviously thinks that it looks cool, when it isn’t.

        • Wow, you talk like you have the entitlement to step in whenever you sense someone is being masochistic. So that’s the point of all this? You’re stepping in because you want her to stop being masochistic? What’s wrong with email?

        • So let me get this straight, you, as an obvious raving Chinese nationalist, decide of your own volition to visit a a website critical of Chinese nationalists hosted on a server probably thousands of miles from where you live and accessible only if you chose to do so, and then have the gall to criticise Fauna for masochism?

          Hahaha… you almost seem to be offended.

          Yes, I am criticizing Fauna for being masochistic, and delusional if she thinks she is being a mere amanuensis to her predominantly racist audience.

          However, it’s got nothing to do with me being a ‘raving Chinese nationalist’ or where I’m located or whether I am free to access the site at my volition.

    • Do you want a job with the Chinese government? Sounds like you would fit in perfectly.

  48. Actual if they added the rest of the article, you would see that the reason they took these photos (mostly from Shanghai) was because all the Chinglish signs and terms were getting corrected by government dudes for the expo. This was a way to keep a record of the cultural phenomenon. They interviewed Chinese locals who commented that these terms and signs were cool and added to the character of the city in a way and also were bad in a way. Look it up. If there was humorous Chinese translations in the states I’m sure it’d be on this website overnight. And I’d laugh too. :)

  49. Hey,
    I know English is the universal language but there are probably more people in the world who speak Chinese or dialects.The Chinese are at least making an attempt at translating their signs into ‘English’-the message gets across-you shouls see some of the sigs/road signs in English painted by us here in the UK.One would think you had exported painters over here but sadly its our own ignorant people doing the work

  50. The best one I saw in a restaurant menu in Shanghai, it had a dish called “Fuck the Bean Curd”

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