China, the Interesting Signage Post

[przed]

There's lots of bilingual Mandarin/English signage in China, but there are times when the English versions of signs is...interesting. Not necessarily wrong, but definitely not what a native English speaker would have come up with.

And then there are signs that are just interesting, and not because of any translation or failure of idiom.

This one was in front of a rock garden display inside the Forbidden City. I don't think I would necessarily call a rock garden a "perilous hill", even if it was about 20 feet high.


But what if I really want to run and chase in the Great Wall tourism area?


I don't know that you can trample a stone carving.


Corn juice stalls and shops are ubiquitous around China (and no, I wasn't brave enough to try it, especially not after the icky corn snack incident) but this shop in Guilin had the best name ever.


This sign was on a room in a historical house in Guilin. Basically, it was the place any member of the household got sent if they were being naughty.


Not a sign, per se, this bamboo in a park in Guilin is where you can carve the names of you and your girlfriend/boyfriend.


I'm still not quite sure what the problem is with striding is, but they really don't want you to do it here.


The Posh Hotel is almost as good a name as the Galactic Peace International Hotel. Almost, but not quite. (I love that both are in Nanchang.)


This is the best sign ever. It's the banner at Rosalind's orphanage, welcoming her back home. (The fifth, sixth and seventh characters are her Chinese name.)


This sign was opposite the elevators on our floor of the hotel in Shanghai. It gave a running report on what the weather was like outside. This is what we were always hoping for.


This is what it was more often than not.


This sign was on a display of old photographs of the area in the oldest post office in China (found in an old canal city outside Shanghai). I love the poetry of it.


In the same post office was a wall where you could post your hopes and wishes.


This warning really cuts to the chase about why you shouldn't jump in that water. No, really, you shouldn't do it. Not unless you want to be impaled on those iron pillars.

Comments

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Oh, these are wonderful. Reminds me of when I did a Chow Yung Fat marathon one time and the subtitles made me laugh. I understood the general idea but I could tell that someone who knew "proper" English translated the dialogue.

[togsos.livejournal.com]

chow yung fat ... nom nom nom

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Definitely!

[przed.livejournal.com]

The subtitles in Hong Kong films in the late '80s and early '90s were definitely a scream. My favourite wacky one, that showed up again and again, was "I'll." as a sentence all on its own instead of "I will." You could just see the translator puffing up in pride that they'd used a contraction just like a native speaker. Except not. *g*

And it's Chow Yun Fat. Corrected with love, because I'm an anal cinephile and HK cinema buff.