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Tuesday July 4, 2017

WHAT is China: home to the Great Wall, the birth-place of tea, the site of a giant telescope searching

space for alien life, the list goes on.With all these on offer, it may seem

strange that tourists are taking pictures of Chinese signs.

“Please wait outside rice-fl our noodle.” “Watch your hand.” “Fire on everyone.” What on earth are these cryptic sentences suppose to mean?

A quick search on social media for Chinglish brings up a whole host of mistranslations, from restaurant menus to metro information signs. They have inspired memes and blogs, and more than a few articles. Hilar-ity aside, in mid June, the General Administration of Quality Supervi-sion, Inspection and Quarantine, and the Standardization Administration issued a standard for translation in the public service sector, in a bid to polish its prose and publicity.

The standard features more than 3,500 stock translations covering 13 areas, including transportation, culture and health care. It will take effect Dec. 1.

Fuller is a British artist who has been in Beijing since March. He has been exploring the city as research for his current project. When asked if he had come across any mistranslations, he responded, “So many.”

“They are funny. But, actually, it just shows a lazy attitude toward language, especially the offi cial signs,” he said.

One Xinhua reporter once saw two foreigners in fi ts of laughter, pointing at a sign on the metro before they took a selfi e in front of the sign while gazing at their hands. The sign read: “Watch your hand.” It was supposed to say, “Mind the closing doors.”

Restaurant translations in China are not often kind to the dishes. One estab-lishment had named its pork lungs in chili sauce after the couple who had fi rst cooked it, but the English name, husband and wife’s lung slice, sounds gruesome.

Jiang Qi is the owner of a small shop in East China’s Anhui Province. “Eng-lish translations can make a shop or restaurant stand out,” he said, adding that some people just used the pinyin, the system for writing Chinese with the Latin alphabet, or just used translation tools, like Baidu.

Guo Xiaofeng, a teacher at Yucai Middle School in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province in Northeast China, once volunteered to correct translations in Shenyang. Close to 100 students also took part.

“Armed with cameras, we checked signs in railways stations, subways, bus stops and malls, documenting ques-tionable translations and consulting with native speakers,” he said.

They published the errors in China Daily, the English-language news-paper.

“China is growing and more foreign-ers are coming here,” said Wu Yong, head of the Liaoning offi ce of China Daily. “With more foreign trade and a larger number of tourists, we defi nitely need to up the ante with our transla-tions.”

Therefore, he supports the new stan-dard. “It is a good thing,” he said. “The next step will be how to ensure the standard is applied and maintained.”

Wu suggested additional measures to improve translation. “When I see a sign that is wrongly translated, which department should I inform, how do

lost in translation?New standard aims to tackle translation issue

I contact them? We need a dedicated team to take care of the issue.”

Guo believes that local governments should encourage the public to fi nd and correct mistakes. “The public should work with media outlets and rewards should be offered to those who actively participate. This would, ultimately, improve the English level of the whole country,” he said.

Jiang, the shopkeeper in Anhui, said he had asked some English teach-ers to help him translate his signage.

“Foreigners live in my neighborhood. I don’t want to be the butt of jokes and lose face.”

“Over time, the new standard could improve English nationwide, which could be benefi cial for China,” said Fuller. “Like the language on the subway has been in English since the Olympics. This is really positive and inclusive.”

Social networks and messaging apps are full of memes, gifs and emojis featuring examples of mistranslations,

such as a cheerleader accompanied by the chant “come on” (“Jiayou” in Chinese), which when translated word-for-word means “add oil;” or a blushing school girl with the statement “hao lihai,” which means “awesome” but is translated into its homophone “holy high.”

“I like the translations on these emojis,” said Ahmed, a student from Pakistan, adding that he uses them often. “I like self-deprecating humor derived from mistakes.” (Xinhua)

A LATE 18th-century print edition of the classic Chinese novel “A Dream of Red Mansions” fetched 24.03 million yuan (US$3.53 million) at a Beijing auction June 21, a rather high price for the category of Chinese ancient and rare books.

Ancient prints have enjoyed a rising popularity among collectors in recent years, and this sale shows people’s appreciation is developing, according to Song Hao, a senior manager of rare book department of China Guardian Auctions, which auctioned the book during its major spring sales.

Written by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) author Cao Xueqin around the mid-18th century, the novel is considered as one

Old print of classic Chinese novel fetches $3.53m of China’s greatest classic novels. It narrates the fl ourishing and declining of two wealthy, aristocratic families by which Cao revealed the darkness of Chinese society of the time.

The sold version was illustrated and printed in woodblock in 1791, among the novel’s earliest editions. It is com-monly known as the Cheng-Gao ver-sion in the fi eld of Redology, as it was edited by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E.

China Guardian grossed some 2.9 billion in its fi ve-day spring auction. The most expensible item was “Yellow Mountain,” a classic ink-brush paint-ing by Huang Binhong (1865-1955) that sold for 345 million yuan.

(China Daily)

An 18th-century print edition of Chinese classic novel “A Dream of Red Mansions.”

File photo

A man puts a sign with English translations up on a wall in Beijing. File photos

Some examples of mistranslated public signs.