Chinglish

We saw bizarre examples of Chinglish everywhere we went. On the way home, in the Shanghai airport, one had the opportunity to purchase an access card from a machine labeled IC Card Automatically Sell. In Xian, one had several opportunities to stop at a the Mung Tien Coffee Language. This looked like a coffee shop, and our guide said that Language in this case meant Talk. So I interpreted this as meaning a coffee shop where one might like to gather with friends and talk. We might, after all, in the states see a coffee shop named Coffee Talk.

When we were leaving the Great Wall, we were, I suppose, asked to come back again, by means of the a gigantic banner overhanging the entrance to the market area: Welcome to the mutianyu Great wall next time.

During our day trip to Suzhou, we visited Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory Co, Ltd. and observed a sign reading this way:
The silk reeling is a production procedure to change the cocoon into silk. The multi-ends silk reeling is to cohere a number of cocoon silks together from several cocoons in light of the thickness specification requirement of the raw silk after the cooked cocoons have been manually brushed and picked into correct end cocoons with one end from one cocoon. When end dropping arises during silk reeling, it's necessary to add in the picked correct cocoons in good time to always maintain the fixed number of cocoons, so as to ensure the specifications and quality of the raw silk.


On the road on the way home, we passed an industrial park where a huge billboard announced Vocational and Technical College of Silicon Lake Cradle of Grey Collar Talents Developed. In the shopping mall which we were able to walk to from our room in the Shanghai Hilton, we entered a young teens department called YOUNG EXCITING STREET.

Here we found numerous really amazing t-shirts. I was tempted to buy one, but even the large was not quite my size. I am kicking myself now for not taking photos of these shirts. They were so nonsensical as to be impossible to remember. One featured a poem about love, and another described in detail the sands blowing across a beach highway. I really had no idea whatsoever as to what concept was trying to be expressed in either shirt. Our tourguide had told us that Chinese is a very poetic language and that many times it just does not translate, which is why so many attempts of translation sound so laughable. The poetic nature of Chinese is evident in names of many of the buildings in the Summer Palace at Beijing:
Site of the Garden of Full Spring
Pavilion of the Mountain Scene and the Water Brilliance
Pavilion of Blessed Shade
Purple Cloud Gate Tower
Garden of Virtue and Harmony
Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha
Chamber of Distant Gazing
In the same location where I saw the parasol girl posing, I snapped a photo of a restaurant announcing Entry in Yuyuan Eating the WorldWide Delicious Food Here we have Chinese Cakes preparing for foreigners Foreign Cakes providing for Chinese People And Shanghainese can taste Nationwide Cakes
and a sign on the road advised this way: FRIENDSHIP TIPS Welcome to the YuYuan Tourist Mart! To create a more beautiful travelling and shopping environment, the buildings are now at the construction stage. As for your inconvenience, we depress deep regret! Hope you kindly understanding! Please note security!We will always provide you high quality for the goods and services!
The funny thing here, was that the word DEPRESS was pasted over another word as a correction. I wonder what the original word was and whether "depress deep regret" was actually an improvement.


In the Forbidden City in Beijing, we were admonished by this sign, not to touch and thereby ruin ancient treasures. This was posted near the a massive gilded cauldron which at one time held water, kept on hand for fire protection.

Even the wold renowned Terra Cotta soldiers museum had problems. While all the signs were in very good understandable English, the movie shown in the 360 theatre had been produced years ago, without benefit of editing by a native speaker of English. I mentioned at one point to one of my friends on the tour, that it was amazing that the Chinese did not hire native speakers of English to make sure that all these signs and movies and placards were done "right". She said "I hope they never do". And she was right. The lyrical merriment in the whimsical signs is truly a highpoint of any trip to China.

Fun!

Middle School

We spent an afternoon at what I believe to be called the Shai Xinglong Middle School in Shanghai. (I took a photo of the name chiseled in marble at the entrance which was guarded by a manned gatehouse, but may have cut off a letter or two without meaning to). The sign was both in English and in Chinese characters. Upon arrival we were met with a variable message sign reading "Welcome our American friends!" The pride taken in this four story school building was strongly evident. The grounds were beautifully landscaped with verdant bushes, grass and other lush plantings and included brick planter boxes as well as a beautiful vine covered brick arbor which provided some shade. The walks were tiled and landings were fashioned of attractive stone patterns. There was a nice large basketball court placed inside of running track, and several pieces of shiny jungle gym type equipment. A large white placard featuring read characters adorned the school yard. I am not sure whether this was the typical type of propaganda sign we had been shown in other locations. The school yard was surrounded by high rise buildings. Outside what appeared to be a cafeteria room there was a 20 foot long cement sink in the open air, under an overhang. A pipe ran along the top of the sink, with a number of water outlets. I am guessing that a large number of children would be able to wash up all at the same time at this location after playing outside and before going in for lunch?Scattered around the school were a number of chalkboards with very elaborate lettering and drawings which seemed to be announcing various information about the arts and the music programs. There were also many charts depicting I am not sure what.......and an attractive sign reading "pu tong hua shi xiao yuan yu yan" in red above a series of characters in green.The design of the interior was made to bring in sunlight, with some rooms having interior walls which were windows at the upper half, allowing one to see out through the hall and through the next classroom to the sunny outdoors. The classrooms had single desks arranged in columns and rows, with no two desks touching.


Chairs had been neatly overturned and placed atop the desk for the summer. The front hall displayed a series of Chinese flags and posters of great individuals, such as one who lived from 1889 to 1927. I was unable to read any of the Chinese characters on this particular sign, so I cannot say who was depicted.Walking around the school we captured photos of a few interesting things. A bright blue sign predominantly in English proclaimed that THE HABIT OF READING IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MANKIND RESOURCES. The Chinese translation was written below this and the quote was attributed to a Willi M. Phelps. Another listed a poem in English to tell the days of the week. Mama used to sayWash on MondayIron on TuesdayMend of WednesdayChurn on ThursdayClean on FridayBake on SaturdayRest on SundayProper work at each dayDo it on that day.In the glass display cases where American schools would display sports trophies for the various championships a school team might have won, or the sports jerseys of honored school athletes, this school chose instead to display books. Five separate series of books were splayed in an attractive pattern on shelving behind crystal clean glass.What we were told were the brightest children at this school, had come into school specially to meet our Talented Youth, though their school had closed a few days prior for the summer. There were about 20 or so, with the girls dressed in long pants or capris, and t-shirts. Some of the boys were wearing what appeared to be uniforms of white short sleeve shirts with a white and black striped at the collar and running down the sides of the sleeves and the leg. They led us upstairs to the library which you can see pictured here. The room had no computers, but room for about 48 kids to sit, six at each table in neatly numbered chairs. The wooden tables displayed various kinds of information under a glass top and the front of the room was lined by a magazine rack offering at least 80 different periodicals. Another wall held a short stack of shelves which held what looked like series type reading books, probably specifically designed for the teaching of reading. The stacks housing the library's main collection of books were in a separate room entirely.The children sat at the tables and talked together for quite a length of time, with children of each country seated at each table. The principal of the school addressed us and a teacher welcomed us. Then one of the students got up and spoke to us in perfect English. Our guide told us later that this child was probably the "prefect", the smartest child in the grade and thus was given this honor. They children presented a very nice program for us in which the girls (who, with the exception of the prefect, who was an inch shorter than the others,, all happened to be exactly the same height) lined up at the front of the classroom and sang a lovely and complicated song with beatiful melodies and harmonies. Several of the students then played various instruments for us, including violin, keyboards and a traditional chinese string instrument, the name of which I cannot recall. All did a fantastic job.Our kids then rose to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and You Are My Sunshine......which seemed like good bets in terms of everyone knowing the words. One of our students sang a rendition of Amazing Grace. At this point, the parents departed the building to tour the Senior Citizen children, leaving the children behind to work on some crafts with their new Chinese friends.