Effort underway to Standardize English Translations of Dish Names at Chinese Restaurants
Feasting being a great tradition of China, the Chinese have in the past invented numerous fancy dish names, some of which, when rendered in English by careless hands, turn out to be perplexing, funny, or shocking. Have you ever tried “Four Glad Meatballs”? What about “Fried Lion Heads”? Or “Chicken without Sexual Life”?
In the past thirty years, as China became increasingly open to the outside world and more foreigners came to visit China, many Chinese restaurants eagerly and proudly offered their foreign guests menus in English. Unfortunately, rendering China’s culinary art in English proved to be no easy task, so in many cases awkward literal translations were the results.
As the date for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approached, the Chinese government did not want to leave any thing to chances, and this include flawed English menus. The Tourism Administration Bureau of Beijing Municipal Government recently issued a “Guide for Food Service Industry on Standard English Translations,” which suggests English names for over two thousand dishes, duly vetted by experts and specialists. The official translations are easier for Westerners to understand and are definitely less eccentric – for better or worse. “Chicken without Sexual Life”, for example, is now simply “Spring Chicken.” “Husband and Wife Lung Slices” is now “Pork Lung Slices in Hot Chili” (the new name notwithstanding, it is still hard to imagine American or European diners would care for pork lungs).
As for some dishes that have become widely known in the West, the Beijing authorities decide to go with the flow. Thus, Mapo Tofu is still Mapo Tofu and Gongpao Chicken remains the same. Truth be told, in these cases, more interesting and possibly more enticing would be literal translations “Tofu Cooked by Pork-Mark-Faced Grandma” and “Chicken Prepared for the Protector of the Imperial Palace.”
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