There are literally hundreds of examples of poorly translated signs around China, but by far the most amusing is the confusion surrounding the translation of the word 干 (gan) which can mean "dry" or can also be a verb meaning "do", as in 你在干吗? meaning what are you doing? In the same way as it works in English, "do" can mean to fuck as in "I'd really like to do her" and this is where we start to see amusing results, examples of which are given below.
(Image reproduced by kind permission from Craig)
(Image reproduced by kind permission from Xia Ming who has an entire set devoted to amusing signs).
For those who are interested there is a further discussion on this here.
Ah yes, the horny shrimp.
When I lived in Hangzhou I stumbled upon a fantastic little restaurant with good food and menus that would leave you rolling on the floor with laughter.
Either they had a Chinese who thought they had good English skills or they contracted a native speak who decided to have a little fun translating their menus.
One of the translations was similar to the one you have snapped a photo of except it said "The Salty Shrimp Fucks The Smelt".
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only translation like that. The entire menu was full of hilarious translations and I always made it a point to bring other native speakers to that restaurant for gatherings without telling them about the menus first. It was always good for a few laughs.
Posted by: THM | December 31, 2006 at 06:37 AM