Time's tickin' ...
From the BBC website:
China dishes up menu translations
China is working hard to present a positive image during the Games
China is taking action on the English translations of its restaurant menus in its campaign to brush up the country's image for next year's Olympics.
The Beijing Tourism Bureau has released a list of 2,753 dishes and drinks it thinks could do with a wording rethink. to the article >>
CCTV.com offers a selection:
1 夫妻肺片 Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce
2 红烧狮子头 Stewed Pork Ball in Brown Sauce
3 回锅肉片 Sautéed Sliced Pork with Pepper and Chili
4 酱猪手 Braised Pig Feet in Brown Sauce
5 京酱肉丝 Sautéed Shredded Pork in Sweet Bean Sauce
6 木须肉 Sautéed Sliced Pork，Eggs and Black Fungus
7 糖醋排骨 Sweet and Sour SpareRibs
8 四喜丸子 Four-Joy Meatballs (Meat Balls Braised with Brown Sauce)
9 当红炸子鸡 Deep-Fried Chicken
10 宫保鸡丁 Kung Pao Chicken
Does anyone know where to get the full list?
Here's the download:
北京市菜单英文译法(讨论稿) Regulations for the English Translations of Menus in Beijing City - Draft version (Word file)
Source: http://beijing.gov.cn
To all my fellow Chinglish custodians out there: Please shoot as many menus as possible!
posted by olr — 纪韶融 @ 9/02/2007
13 Comments
13Comments:
About the name of dishes, it's a long story. In most eras of Chinese history, poets and writers form the dominant class of the society. Ancient Chinese people don't like to say anything straight forward, because of they don't want anybody think him/her is a slob. This kind of people enjoy of showing off their literary talent, and such behavior was fashionable around the country. That makes the expression of the language much more complex than it need to be. OK, let's back to our subject. As a restaurant is an important social occasion in Ancient China, people enjoys drinking and recite poems there. Every restaurant managers know that name of dishes must be poetic to suit their customers.
And in fact, those names you listed already have been much simpler now, but I think you can still find some names that are too poetic to express itself.(maybe looks like 八仙过海, 五谷丰登)
You can find the full list here:
http://www.beijing.gov.cn/sqmy/sqmysy/zjdc/P020061221342702633033.doc
src:http://www.beijing.gov.cn/sqmy/sqmysy/zjdc/t708169.htm
I found an updated version:
附件1：北京市菜单英文译法(讨论稿)
附件2：翻译的原则
src:beijing.gov.cn
Wish you can read Chinese.
Please go to this webpage,
http://www.bjta.gov.cn/zwgg/zwggtt/103835.htm
You can download 2 MS Word documents from the links at the bottom.
I found the complete list here. But this webpage is in Chinese.
http://www.bjta.gov.cn/zwgg/zwggtt/103835.htm
You can download 2 MS Word documents from links at the left bottom corner.
Thanks, everybody for the quick reply!
谢谢大家的支持!
祝好,
韶融.
Actually we can find out answers of most of dishes listing here in HK or Taiwan restaurants. They've done good jobs.
从杂志上看到介绍此博客的文章,感觉到作者对中国的文化和历史是比较感兴趣的.对于作者所提到的"chinglish"这一现象,个人觉得是一种语言和另外一种语言的交融的过程中,所产生的现象.中国在历史上是一个始终保持独立的国家(和政治无关),所以,汉语一直是官方语言,民众对外来语言的了解程度并不高,好象作者所理解的一样，这种现象反而可以帮助外国人理解中国人的思维方式.其实,还有一种现象不知道作者主要到没有,如果一个外国人去学习中文,总会把词序等按母语的习惯进行改变,直到有人纠正,这些都是正常.我认为随着英语的普及和奥运会的临近,这种现象将会得到明显改善,毕竟,中国现在是一个超级重视英语普及的国家.
最后,祝作者在中国有更多愉快的经历.
chinasky
chenbiaohan@126.com
呵呵，对与英文水平不高的我来说，终于了解的大概。真不是件易事啊~。
看完后，哥哥你对我的感触还蛮大的。学英语的时候，老师叫我们多看看街上的提示语或是食品袋上的英文来提高英语水平。呵呵，没想到也存在着中国式的翻译，真是好笑。
现在北京，上海的那些中文式翻译应该都换了吧。
1 夫妻肺片 Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce
天啊，这是哪个猪头翻译的！夫妻肺片用的是牛肉，跟猪肺一点关系都没有啊～晕！@_@
Hi,
I am a Chinese immigrant in North America and I found it amusing to see this site. I just want to explain this that Chinese are not so detail-orientated as Westners because they enjoy a casual lifestyle under the native "TAO" influence, which is the reason why people feel relaxed in China. They have their own culture and words so they don't care so much about English. Yet they can focus their energy and attention to the spots in need.
I wish the Searching for Chinglish Movement is just out of fun and not for other reasons. If you have been on the land of China and have enjoyed the kindness and services from her people, show some appreciation besides the Chinglish hunting. It is called civilization, isn't it?
Pork Lungs with love.
夫妻肺片是猪肺来的，谁说是牛肉阿？
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