Beijing pedants order murder of the Orient expression
December 19 2002
An amusing version of English is causing concern for authorities as Beijing
prepares for the 2008 Olympics. Damien McElroy reports.
Beijing has launched a campaign to wipe out "Chinglish", a version of
English that results in weird and wonderful - but largely incomprehensible
- phrases that amuse tourists but alarm the authorities.
The "language mandarins" of Beijing have decided that Chinglish is a blight
on China's modernising pretensions and must be obliterated before the city
hosts the Olympic Games in 2008.
The targets of the campaign range from the nonsensical to the charming. A
road sign on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, for instance, advised: "To take
notice of safe; the slippery are very crafty", a warning that the pavement
was slippery. A sign in a Beijing park reads: "Little grass is smiling
slightly, please walk on pavement." At a Chinese eatery near the British
embassy, diners can choose "bean curd with feeling" or "special fumed fish".
There are times when Chinglish communicates a message well, if a little
quaintly. Signs at railway stations, for example, often state: "Take very
good caution over pocket pickers." The reason for the abundance of such
phrases is that Chinese is a difficult language to translate into English,
or vice versa.
There are many traps for Chinese and foreigners. Coca-Cola first tried to
market its drink with the Chinese characters "Ke-Kou-Ke-La", which
translated as "Bite the wax tadpole". Corporate chiefs in Atlanta ordered
an emergency rebranding and the Chinese now drink "Ke-Kou-Ke-Le", meaning
"Happy mouth, happiness". If the Mandarin speakers succeed in eliminating
Chinglish, some wonderfully obscure linguistic contortions will be lost
forever.
One hotel, in a link to the days when the Maoist government took a dim view
of sexual relations between unmarried couples, has confused visitors for
decades with a piece of paper on their beds saying: "Decadent songs and
actions that go against decency are not allowed here."
The campaign is less than a week old but has received an enthusiastic
response. The Beijing Tourism Bureau has established a hotline for
reporting signs and other public messages that do not read correctly. Li
Honghai, the city official in charge of the campaign, said: "Linguistic
perfection is becoming increasingly important with the rise in the number
of foreigners flowing into the city."
Not everyone shares the disdain of the Beijing authorities. "The choice of
words is pretty infinite. One can either substitute the verbs, adverbs,
nouns or what ever one delights," explained a Hong Kong aficionado. "There
is almost no wrongdoing as long as you don't over-capacitate your audience.
If used rightly, your Honkie friends will love to communicate with you the
whole night long," he said.
- Telegraph
http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/18/1040174295057.html
