Many signs in urban areas are bilingual in Chinese and English. It cannot escape the notice of even the most casual bilingual observer that many such signs are woefully (and sometimes hilariously) mistranslated.
Mistakes can result from wrong segmentation, wrong word choice, wrong grammar, or inappropriate style, which is particularly important in Chinese. Mistakes can also result from missing crucial information or lack of understanding of English. There are also the ‘innovative analogies’, which give rise to non-existent English words. Also frequently observed are inconsistencies, wavering between the two strategies of pinyin transliteration and meaning translation.
The inclusion of mistranslated signs can be pedagogically useful in more than one way (Shang and Xie Reference Shang and Xie2020). Studying mistranslated signs is an exercise in contrastive analysis. Through detailed analysis of the causes of the mistakes, such signs can be used as negative examples in the teaching of both Chinese and English. They can also be useful to the study and practice of translation.
Wrong Segmentation
The Chinese writing convention is not to leave space between words. This presents a challenge to both readers and computers in segmentation, that is, grouping unbroken strings of characters into words or phrases. Mistakes in translation often result due to the wrong segmentation, especially when the translation is done by computers.
Figure 21.1 Early restaurant
早餐厅 zǎocān tīng | early meal hall (breakfast hall)
What is ‘early restaurant’? The mistake results from the wrong segmentation. The middle character 餐 can be grouped with the last character to mean ‘restaurant’ as well as with the first character to mean ‘breakfast’.
Figure 21.2 Carefully slide
小心地滑 xiǎoxīn dìhuá | small heart ground slippery (careful, ground is slippery)
This mistake results from grouping 地 with the adjective 小心 to mean ‘carefully’; 地 is used as an adverbial marker instead of ‘ground’.
Figure 21.3 Day and convenience store
天和便利店 tiānhé biànlì diàn | Tianhe convenience store
The English seems too outlandish to be believable, but this was actually seen in Lijiang Yunnan. The second character 和 is part of the name天和, but the translation software construed it as ‘and’, the most frequent meaning of 和. The owner of the store wasn’t entirely convinced when the error was pointed out to him, as he had paid good money for the translation.
Missing Spacing between English Words
The Chinese convention of not having a space between words has somehow been transferred to English. But the phenomenon is more common than expected.
Figure 21.4 Xinjianginternatioalbigbazaar
新疆国际大巴扎 xīnjiāng guójì dà bāzhā
Xinjiang international big bazaar
宴艺大剧院 yàn yì dà jùyuàn | banquet art big theater
The translation is not problematic, but no spaces were provided between the English words!
Incomplete Translation
Some mistranslations are incomplete.
Figure 21.5 Careful soup
小心汤烫 xiǎoxīn tāng tàng | small heart soup hot
(Careful. Soup is hot.)
The crucial part about the soup being hot is missing.
Figure 21.6 Shared bicycle access
共享单车禁止入内 gòngxiǎng dānchē jìnzhǐ rùnèi
shared bike forbid enter
Missing ‘forbid’, the sign has the opposite meaning.
Incomprehension
Some mistranslations seem to be due to insufficient command of English.
Figure 21.7 Glass care
小心玻璃 xiǎoxīn bōli | small heart glass (Careful! Glass is fragile)
‘glass care’ in English means ‘to take care of glass’, which is entirely different from the meaning in Chinese ‘being careful about the possible breaking of glass’.
Figure 21.8 Mainly preserved architecture
大连市重点保护建筑 dàlián shì zhòngdiǎn bǎohù jiànzhù
Dalian city key protect architecture
中国银行旧址 zhōngguó yínháng jiùzhǐ | China bank old site
大连市人民政府 dàlián shì rénmín zhèngfǔ
Dalian city people government
In addition to the wrong translation for 保护, 重点 is also mistranslated. That it was an official plaque put up by the city government is quite embarrassing.
Wrong Sense
Many characters or word forms in Chinese have more than one meaning. Choosing the wrong sense, most likely done by the computer, can lead to nonsensical or hilarious results.
Figure 21.9 Beware of to meet
当心碰头 dāngxīn pèngtóu | careful hit head
(Careful with bumping the head.)
In addition to bumping the head, 碰头 can also have the metaphorical meaning ‘to meet’.
Figure 21.10 Exports slide
滑道出口 huádào chūkǒu | slide path out opening (slide exit)
Unlike 入口, which can only mean ‘entrance’ and not ‘import’, 出口can mean both ‘exit’ and ‘export’.
Analogy Running Amok
There are mistranslations that don’t seem to be attributable to anything but sheer creative analogy.
Figure 21.11 Fresh your life
新鲜你的生活 xīnxiān nǐ de shēnghuó
This was seen in a store in Shanghai. Does it mean ‘freshen your life’? Note the Chinese, on which the translation is based, is also ungrammatical.
Figure 21.12 Heartness, loveness
用心yòngxīn | use heart (attentive)
关爱 guān’ài | concern love
愉悦 yúyuè | happy pleasure
Where do ‘heartness’ and ‘loveness’ come from?
Inconsistency in Road Signs
Shang (Reference Shang2020) observed that there is much ‘wrestling’ regarding language choice when signed are designed. Similarly, there are two competing strategies when rendering Chinese road signs into English: meaning translation and phonetic transliteration. To English speakers, meaning translation is easier for comprehension but not good for asking directions from Chinese people; the phonetic transliteration option is the opposite: opaque in meaning but easier for asking directions. Ideally, both phonetic transliterations and meaning translations should be given, as both are important for foreign visitors, for whom the English is intended after all. Unfortunately, only the phonetic transliteration option was adopted for Beijing’s subway signs ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
There seems to be little consistency in rendering street names into English, as can be seen in Figures 21.13–21.17. Inconsistency naturally leads to confusion.
Figure 21.13 Jinshan middle road
堇山中路 jīnshān zhōng lù | Jin mount mid road
Figure 21.14 Middle Yanggao road
杨高中路 yánggāo zhōng lù | Yanggao mid road
Figure 21.15 Jinshan zhonglu
堇山中路 jīnshān zhōng lù | Jin mount mid road
All three signs above contain中, with the meaning of ‘middle’. But they are different in how 中路 is rendered. The top one translates it into ‘middle’ and puts it before the word road; the second one puts it at the beginning. The top one follows the Chinese word order, but the second one is more idiomatic English. The last sign simply gives the pinyin ‘zhong’, which is quite opaque in meaning but perhaps more helpful to foreigners asking directions.
Figure 21.16 South Qilianshan Road
祁连山南路 qíliánshān nán lù | Qilianshan south road
Figure 21.17 Nanyangjin Road
南洋泾路 nán yángjīng lù | south yangjing road
Both signs above are found in Shanghai’s subway. They both contain 南 ‘south’. The first sign uses meaning translation (also the more idiomatic word order for English), but the second one uses phonetic transliteration instead. One more difference: the 南 is placed before road in the first one but at the beginning in the second.
Stylistic Infelicity
As the style of public signs is quite specific, any deviation from the conventionally accepted style will appear strange.
Figure 21.18 Please have no no spiked shoes
请勿穿钉鞋 qǐngwù chuān dīngxié
please don’t wear nailed shoes
This was seen on the grounds of Confucius’ Mansion in his hometown Qufu. The Chinese is stylistically appropriate with the standard 请勿. But the English translation sounds like baby talk.
Figure 21.19 Women
妇人 fùrén | woman person
The Chinese translation is stylistically quite inappropriate, being quite old fashioned.
Carelessness
Typos are a common occurrence in bilingual signs.
Figure 21.20 No pest allowed
禁带宠物入内 jìn dài chǒngwù rùnèi
forbid bring pets enter in
Was it wrong choice of word or was it the careless reversal of letters (pets>pest)? Pet owners will not be pleased!
Learning Outcomes
a. Gain greater sensitivity to mistakes in translation.
b. Be able to analyze the reasons for mistranslations.
Suggested Learning Activities
1. Search online for Chinese signs with bad English translations. The website https://english.com/ has mistranslated signs from many languages.
2. Analyze the mistakes and identify the type of mistranslations.
3. Correct the translations.
4. Select some road signs in Chinese and translate them into English. Discuss available choices between meaning translation and phonetic translation and the pros and cons of each.
5. Using Google Translate or other translation apps, translate Chinese signs (including the mistranslated ones in this chapter) into English and judge the quality of the translations.
