'I'll have the lion's head, burned'
By Xu Chi |
March 14, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
"CHICKEN without a sex life," "red burned lion head" and "tofu made by woman with freckles" - English names like these have long perplexed foreigners at Chinese restaurants before they gather up the courage to order such a dish.
But these weird and sometimes scary translations could soon become a thing of the past in Beijing after the capital's Foreign Affairs Office published a book giving the official English names of 2,158 Chinese dishes, aiming to correct the odd ones on restaurant menus.
Young and tender chicken will no longer be called "chicken without a sex life," but "spring chicken," with spring indicating young, the book says.
Foreigners who see "red burned lion head" on menus won't now be thinking about complaining to animal protection organizations as the dish will become "braised pork balls in brown sauce."
However, the freckled woman will still be making tofu - the book renames the dish as "mapo tofu." "Mapo" is pinyin for "woman with pocks."
"The book tries to translate Chinese dishes' names in many ways, such as telling their ingredients, the way they are cooked," an unnamed official with the city's Foreign Affairs Office told Beijing Daily. "Some names are translated into English by putting Chinese history, culture and the names of famous people relating to the dishes," the official said.
The new English names are expected to help foreigners order Chinese dishes, and restaurants will be encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it would not be compulsory, the official said.
The book soon sparked controversy online.
Many people, especially some restaurant owners long troubled by the translations, welcomed the book and the official names.
Some cheered, while others regretted, that they may no longer be able to laugh at "four glad meat balls" (braised pork balls in gravy) or other such mistranslations.
Others said that although the new names may be more understandable to foreigners, they'd rather they did not lose the Chinese dishes' original meaning.
"It depends. Personally I favor 'chicken without a sex life' as it's funny and helps me understand the dish, but 'spring chicken?' It still sounds confusing to me," said Alexander, a 24-year-old American man.
"It's understandable that many people just want Chinese dishes' names in pinyin,' said Gu Xiaoming, a history professor with the Cultural Heritage Protection Department of Fudan University.
"When locals say 'pizza' and 'hamburger' in Chinese, they don't call them 'oven-baked, flat, round bread' or 'a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat.' They simply call them pisa and hanbao, which sound just like the English words," Gu said.
He believed that good translations of dishes should keep "an exotic touch in a foreign land" and the translated words should bring people certain links to the food's taste and its culture.
"Choppy chicken" is a good example, describing both what the dish looks like and how it is served, Gu said.
An official surnamed Zhang with the Shanghai Language Work Committee told Shanghai Daily that, so far, the official translations for Chinese dishes would not be introduced in the city. "Chinese dishes' names are too complicated," he said.
But these weird and sometimes scary translations could soon become a thing of the past in Beijing after the capital's Foreign Affairs Office published a book giving the official English names of 2,158 Chinese dishes, aiming to correct the odd ones on restaurant menus.
Young and tender chicken will no longer be called "chicken without a sex life," but "spring chicken," with spring indicating young, the book says.
Foreigners who see "red burned lion head" on menus won't now be thinking about complaining to animal protection organizations as the dish will become "braised pork balls in brown sauce."
However, the freckled woman will still be making tofu - the book renames the dish as "mapo tofu." "Mapo" is pinyin for "woman with pocks."
"The book tries to translate Chinese dishes' names in many ways, such as telling their ingredients, the way they are cooked," an unnamed official with the city's Foreign Affairs Office told Beijing Daily. "Some names are translated into English by putting Chinese history, culture and the names of famous people relating to the dishes," the official said.
The new English names are expected to help foreigners order Chinese dishes, and restaurants will be encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it would not be compulsory, the official said.
The book soon sparked controversy online.
Many people, especially some restaurant owners long troubled by the translations, welcomed the book and the official names.
Some cheered, while others regretted, that they may no longer be able to laugh at "four glad meat balls" (braised pork balls in gravy) or other such mistranslations.
Others said that although the new names may be more understandable to foreigners, they'd rather they did not lose the Chinese dishes' original meaning.
"It depends. Personally I favor 'chicken without a sex life' as it's funny and helps me understand the dish, but 'spring chicken?' It still sounds confusing to me," said Alexander, a 24-year-old American man.
"It's understandable that many people just want Chinese dishes' names in pinyin,' said Gu Xiaoming, a history professor with the Cultural Heritage Protection Department of Fudan University.
"When locals say 'pizza' and 'hamburger' in Chinese, they don't call them 'oven-baked, flat, round bread' or 'a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat.' They simply call them pisa and hanbao, which sound just like the English words," Gu said.
He believed that good translations of dishes should keep "an exotic touch in a foreign land" and the translated words should bring people certain links to the food's taste and its culture.
"Choppy chicken" is a good example, describing both what the dish looks like and how it is served, Gu said.
An official surnamed Zhang with the Shanghai Language Work Committee told Shanghai Daily that, so far, the official translations for Chinese dishes would not be introduced in the city. "Chinese dishes' names are too complicated," he said.
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