"Tastes Good, Makes You Happy"
As a non-alphabetical language, the Chinese writing system consists of characters each with its own meanings. Consequently, when it comes to translating English names and terms, there is greater room for the Chinese to be creative than, say, for the French or German. Below are a few notable examples, coming to us riding the roaring tide of the "open policy" through which China's contact with the West has been drastically expanded in the past two decades. The English words are followed by romanized Chinese characters and then the literal meanings of the characters.
Coco Cola: Ke kou ke le - "Tastes good, makes you happy."
Pepsi Coke: Bai shi ke le - "One hundred reasons to be happy."
McDonald's: Mai dang lao - "Grain to compensate your labor."
Pizza Hut: Bi sheng ke - "The guests will surely win."
Benz: Ben chi - "Going fast."
BMW: Bao ma - "Treasure horse"
Cool: Ku - "Cruel, heartless"
Do a show : Zuo xiu - "Make it flowery."
Cisco: Si ke - "Think science"
Hewlett-Packard: Hui pu - "Benefit universally."
Yahoo!: Ya hu - "Gentle tiger"
Microsoft: Wei ruan - "Tiny and soft"
Hacker:Hei ke - "Guest from darkness."
Asics: Ai shi ke si - "Love the world, overcome this."
Nike: Nai ke - "Cannot be easily overcome."
Miniskirt: Mi ni qun, - "A skirt that teases you till you can no longer think clearly."
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