2008 Olympics | The Chinese authorities want to make sure that you are eating crab and not ‘crap’
2008 Olympics | The Chinese authorities want to make sure that you are eating crab and not ‘crap’
Beijing authorities are aiming to stamp out translation gaffes on restaurant menus they fear could make Beijing a laughing stock during the 2008 Olympics.
Determined to burnish its reputation as an international city, Beijing wants to erase lost-in-translation items such as “fried rice with crap”, instead of crab, from English-language menus. Menus often list dishes that raise a chuckle, including “worm pig stomach”, “corrugated iron beef” and “cow bowel in sauce”. Labels and road signs are among other linguistic offenders. Beijing’s Park of Ethnic Minorities is signposted “Racist Park”, while emergency exits at Beijing’s international airport read: “No entry on peacetime”.
“In recent years many Beijing restaurants have produced foreign language menus.
However, due to geographical and food culture differences, and lack of standardised translations, they often cause international ridicule,” said a city government-run website.
The move is part of a wider drive to improve Beijing’s image ahead of the Olympics, including training taxi drivers in basic English and improving the standard of bilingual road signs. The city has already launched a ‘smile’ campaign to encourage residents to be more friendly and outgoing while campaigning against spitting, queue jumping and general rudeness.
To improve restaurant menus, government-backed English promotion organisation, the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme, said it had standardised translations of more than 1,000 dishes and drinks so far. The goal is to provide official names for “all dishes and drinks served in the city’s restaurants” by the end of January 2007, the organisation said on its website.
The Beijing Municipal Tourism Bureau is also requiring the city’s 4,000 unrated hotels to translate their names, service hours, room rates, menus and notices for guests into English in order to offer accommodation to visitors for the Games, Xinhua news agency said.
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