The 2022 Olympics may seem a while away, but Beijing is already hard at work prepping everything for the thousands of foreign visitors who'll be flooding into the city for the event.
One of the things they're cracking down is the use of 'Chinglish' throughout the city - this is a term used to describe the unintentionally-hilarious English mistranslations you can see alongside Chinese and Cantonese characters on signs. This is all to clean up the city's image.
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And there's no doubt about it - some of the translations are pretty bad. One sign translates to: "Please vomiting here," whereas another says: "For weak only," on the door of an accessible toilet.
So, it is understandable that the government would want to change things ahead of an influx of tourists (not to mention their cash).
Back in 2017, a new English translation standard was put into effect. As Shine reported, the foreign affairs offices claims over two million Chinese characters on bilingual signs have been checked over to make sure they are properly translated into English.
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In April, this year, a website was launched to get locals involved with the clean-up effort as Chinglish signs could be reported to be vetted.
This is incredibly similar to the campaign that was launched in the run-up to the Beijing Summer Olympics back in 2008.
By bringing up the standard of the bilingual signs, China's Standardisation Administration and the General Administration of Quality Supervision say it will repair the country's image that may have been damaged by the mistranslated signs.
Chen Mingming, executive vice president of the Translators Association of China and advisor to the correction campaign, told Shine: "Translations of public signs not only help foreigners, but their quality also shapes the image of a city."
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However, it seems the signs may be missed by tourists as taking pictures of them has become a bit of a running theme in the city.
In response to the news, on person tweeted: "Hahaha, please don't!"
Other people have been posting on Twitter some of their favourite Chinglish phrases spotted around Beijing.
One said: "Fav Chinglish I've read today: 'Cause even thugs cry, but do the lord care?'"
Another said: "I saw my favourite bit of chinglish so far today and it was 'beafnoodie'."
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Whether it's loved or hated, the simple fact is Chinglish is on its way out and making space for correctly translated signs - considering Beijing sees millions of tourists each year as it is it's probably a wise decision on their part.
Enjoy the signs while you can.
Featured Image Credit: TwitterTopics: World News, olympics, Politics
